Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved. 25 02 I’m a believer Of course, there are degrees to which the community approach to loyalty can be applied, depending on the nature of a brand and its products or services. Some brands (like fashion or homewares, perhaps) might enjoy more widespread success with loyalty as a relationship than others (like cleaning products or car parts). That said, there are now estimated to be 8 billion people on the planet, and every single one of them will find a community to which they belong— no matter how niche it may seem—so most brands should be able to find a way to engage on this level. It’ll be important to remember that the technology isn’t the most interesting thing about this for the customer—it’s simply a tool to drive engagement and facilitate ownership. While brands need to know their way around Web3 and tokens, many people will only be interested in what’s in it for them. The brands that do best will be those who shape their offering around the benefits and utility for customers, and let the technology sit quietly in the background. It’s early days, but Starbucks is experimenting by launching a tokenized loyalty program called Odyssey, which is gently introducing Web3 to a mass-market customer by focusing on communicating rewards and brand engagement rather than on the technology. 37 Starbucks CMO Brady Brewer commented, “It happens to be built on blockchain and Web3 technologies, but the customer—to be honest—may very well not even know that what they’re doing is interacting with blockchain technology.” 38 When other brands follow suit, many customers will reap the benefits of the technology without being bogged down by it. + photorealistic, algorithm version 4, aspect ratio 2:3, change 100