Organised Disloyalty

Wayne Lazarides - Friday, December 16, 2011

A "new" Singaporean loyalty card concept has picked up on an original concept from Gwilym Davies, the 2009 World Barista Champion. (pictured below). 

Gwilym originally designed the concept to promote East London's emerging coffee shop scene. " If you go and drink coffee at 8 interesting, quality focused cafes, then Gwilym Davies himself will make you a free cup of coffee."  

While not a new concept, it is new to the asian market and promises to add weight to this great David Vs Goliath marketing battle.

The Disloyalty Card is a coffee community effort to create awareness of the specialty coffee scene in Singapore. It is akin to a David vs Goliath fight, whereby the small cafes team up together in a collective effort to create a friendly business environment for themselves in a world dominated by chains such as Starbucks, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, etc. Consider this a Hit List for the best indie cafes in Singapore. 

“Competing with large chain brands can be difficult for small businesses, but teaming up with similar smaller companies can create stronger competition,” commented Springwise.com. “There’s inspiration here for independent businesses in any industry!”

The Disloyalty Card concept is anomalous to marketing conventions whereby consumers are encouraged to keep their spending with one establishment eg. chain stores with loyalty cards. Instead customers are rewarded for patronising a number of independent establishments. 

In a marketplace increasingly dominated by chain stores, owners of independent coffee houses who are passionate about their craft, have jumped on board of Gwilym Davies' brainchild as a way of creating a friendly business environment for themselves and compete better with the chain stores 

The movement was started in England by 2009 World Barista Champion, Gwilym Davies. It has since been implemented in Seattle and Toronto.