Guide 22 · Strategy
Who should own the loyalty program?
One person should own the program's economics: the earn rates, the reward budget and the points liability, with the authority to stop a promotion that costs more than it earns. That owner can sit in marketing, finance or a commercial team, as long as they answer for both the revenue and the future cost. Other teams run their parts, but one person makes the trade-off.
Most loyalty programs have many stakeholders and no clear owner. Marketing runs the campaigns, finance books the liability, IT runs the platform, stores deliver the benefits, and customer service answers the questions. Each team makes sensible decisions inside its own area. The trouble starts when a decision affects several of them at once, which in loyalty is most decisions. This guide covers what single-team ownership tends to miss, which decisions one person has to control, and how to bring the other functions in.
Why it is hard
Why is loyalty ownership a hard question?
Because a loyalty program is two things at once. It is a marketing channel that drives visits and spending, and it is a financial commitment that the business will pay for later. For some companies it carries a large share of revenue: Starbucks said Rewards members drove nearly 60% of its US company-operated revenue in fiscal 2025. At the same time, every point issued is a promise. Starbucks defers revenue for the Stars members earn and records a liability for them, and many businesses do something similar.
The owner therefore has to weigh present revenue against future cost in the same decision. That trade-off is the job. Ownership should sit with whoever can make it, which is a question of decision rights more than of department names.
Single-team ownership
What happens when one team owns it alone?
Each function brings real strengths and a predictable blind spot.
| Owner | What it optimizes for | What it tends to miss |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing | Enrollment, engagement, campaign results | The future cost of points issued in campaigns |
| Finance | Liability, reward cost, predictable margins | Member experience and the value of engagement |
| Product or digital | App features, usability, purchase frequency | Program economics and in-store delivery |
| Operations or stores | Smooth service at the till and on the floor | Data, personalization and long-term design |
| Customer service | Fewer complaints, quick resolutions | Cost of goodwill credits and fraud exposure |
The common failure is quiet. In a hypothetical program where members spend $100,000 a month and earn 1 point per dollar, with each point costing the business 0.8 cents to fund, the monthly promise is $800. If a campaign team doubles the earn rate for a month without a cost check, the promise doubles to $1,600. One such change is small. Repeated across many campaigns, the points liability grows until finance tightens the rules, members see their points devalued, and trust falls.
The owner's decisions
What decisions does the owner need to control?
The owner needs authority over the decisions that move both revenue and cost:
- Earn rates and bonus campaigns, including the budget for promotional points.
- Reward pricing and the catalog, which set what a point is worth.
- Tier thresholds and benefits, which carry ongoing costs.
- Expiry and terms changes, which affect the liability and member trust.
- The program budget, with reward costs inside it rather than in someone else’s line.
The most important right is the right to say no. The owner should be able to stop a promotion that would add more future cost than the extra margin it brings. They should also hold a single program P&L that shows revenue effects, reward costs and operating costs side by side, so the trade-off is visible.
Find the gap
How do you check whether your program has an owner?
Take the next change on your roadmap, such as a double points weekend or a new tier benefit, and ask who can approve both its revenue goal and its reward cost in the same meeting. If the answer needs two sign-offs from leaders with different targets, the program has a committee rather than an owner.
Then ask a second question: who can block a promotion that would cost more in future redemptions than it earns? If nobody below the chief executive can, ownership is missing. A third sign is how often finance learns about a campaign after it has launched. If it happens regularly, the decision right sits in the wrong place.
Fixing it does not require a reorganization. Write down the decisions listed above, name one person who makes each of them, and agree on the cost limits within which campaign teams can act without asking. Share the list with every team that touches the program, and review it after the first few campaigns run under the new rules.
Involve other teams
How should the other functions be involved?
Clear ownership does not mean one team does everything. Operational teams keep running their parts; the owner decides the trade-offs. A simple responsibility chart helps: for each recurring decision, name who decides, who must be consulted and who is informed. Finance should always be consulted on anything that changes earn, burn or expiry, and customer service on anything members will ask about.
Before launch, you do not need every function fully aligned. Sort them with one test: can this function run safely for three months on a documented manual process? Finance, IT, customer service and legal usually fail that test, because a single error in point values, expiry or member data can create a liability or a legal problem that is hard to undo. Align those before launch. Reporting, partner dashboards and some analytics usually pass; they can follow afterward. Waiting for every team to be ready delays the program and its member data without removing much risk.
Exceptions
When does a different ownership model make sense?
A few situations change the answer. If partners fund every reward and the business carries no obligation to members, the program behaves more like a media property, and marketing ownership is a natural fit. If the program is very small, with a liability that never amounts to much, a dedicated owner may cost more than the problems it prevents; a part-time owner with a clear budget is enough.
Some organizations split ownership by design, with marketing running member engagement and a finance-led group setting the economics. That can work when the rules are written down: who approves which changes, within which budget. For most programs that fund their own rewards, though, the simplest arrangement is one accountable owner with the authority to make the trade-off, supported by the teams that run the program day to day. The loyalty program budget is usually the clearest place to make that authority real.
More answers
Frequently asked questions
Should marketing own the loyalty program?
Marketing often runs it, and that can work, provided the owner is also accountable for the reward cost and the points liability, not only for enrollment and engagement. Problems start when marketing can raise earn rates or launch bonus campaigns without anyone weighing the future cost.
Why does finance need to be involved in loyalty?
Because unredeemed points are often recorded as a liability, and redemptions change margin in the period they happen. Finance sets how the points are accounted for, estimates breakage and reports the liability. The program owner needs those numbers to make decisions.
What is a loyalty steering committee for?
It keeps the functions that touch the program informed and resolves conflicts between them, such as a store operations concern about a new redemption flow. It works best as an advisory group around a single owner. A committee in which every member holds a veto tends to slow decisions without improving them.
Who should approve a change to the earn rate?
The program owner, using a cost estimate agreed with finance. A change to the earn rate changes the future liability, so it needs the same scrutiny as a price change. Temporary bonus campaigns should follow a standard approval with a budget cap.
Does every function need to be aligned before launch?
No. Align the functions that control points, money and member data before launch: finance, IT, customer service and legal. Functions that can run safely on a documented manual process for a few months, such as some reporting, can follow after launch.
How senior should the loyalty owner be?
Senior enough to say no to a promotion another executive wants and to hold a budget that includes reward costs. In large programs this is often a director or vice president reporting into a commercial or marketing leader. What matters is the authority, not the title.