By Susan O’Brien
Loyalty programmes are an important part of the toolkit for many retailers. Yet few of them have the legacy and reputation of Canadian Tire Money®, Canada’s first loyalty programme.
Canadian Tire Money or CTM is a Canadian icon. With more than 12 million members nationwide and over $1 billion of the currency issued since its debut in 1958, Canadian Tire Money has long been considered Canada’s second currency. It is so deeply rooted in Canadian heritage that it is even included in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Canadian Tire Money has been evolving since its introduction. This includes the integration of CTM into the Canadian Tire Options Mastercard in 2000 and the 2014 launch of the My Canadian Tire “Money” programme, which introduced electronic CTM to cash, debit and third-party credit customers at Canadian Tire Retail (“CTR”).
Canadian Tire Money to Triangle
In April 2018, Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC) announced the most significant evolution yet with the launch of Triangle Rewards™ the foundation for CTC’s future growth. The main objective was simple: to create the easiest and most rewarding loyalty and credit card programme in the country. But evolving Canada’s oldest loyalty programme was no small feat and it required insights from our retail banners, dealers and of course, our customers.
Canadian Tire Financial Services and our retail banners spent almost a year building Triangle Rewards™. The result was a no fee loyalty and credit card programme that makes life easier for our customers by providing features and benefits designed for life in Canada.
Triangle Rewards allows customers to collect Canadian Tire Money faster, redeem their earnings at more places and receive personalized offers. With the ability to earn and spend CTM across banners, Triangle Rewards also has the added benefit of uniting them as one company in the eyes of our customers.
Today, customers can collect and redeem electronic CTM at Canadian Tire, SportChek, Mark’s and Atmosphere locations, and on fuel purchases at Canadian Tire Gas+ and participating Husky stations. In all, it enables members to collect CTM online and in-store at more than 1,300 locations and to redeem it at more than 1,000 outlets.
As part of the Triangle Rewards programme, Canadian Tire Bank offers a premium, no-annual-fee Triangle World Elite Mastercard, which gives holders the benefit of collecting CTM on purchases and redeem special offers. This new, younger and more inspired Triangle Mastercard programme is designed to attract a new customer to Canadian Tire Financial Services and to engage and reward Canadians in an innovative way.
Enabling personalization
To make Triangle Rewards the best loyalty programme in Canada it was crucial for us to give more control back to customers, offering more choices on how they can collect and redeem their money and to create personalized offers. Following the launch of Triangle Rewards, we introduced Triangle.com and the Triangle™ App which delivers personalized weekly offers and relevant content to members on an ongoing basis. Using the Triangle App, members can view their offers in one place, manage their loyalty accounts and credit cards from anywhere, track credit card and loyalty transactions simultaneously and activate new offers. Additional perks include exclusive shopping events for Triangle Rewards members and credit cardholders.
Whether its through the Triangle App or e-mail, we regularly notify members of upcoming sales and events so they can redeem their rewards often and collect even more Canadian Tire Money. To make participation easier, there are also more than 23,000 associates across participating retailers in-store and online ready to help Triangle members get the most out of their everyday shopping.
With millions of members from coast to coast, the Triangle Rewards programme provides us with unique insights into Canadian consumers and it is adaptable to their shopping habits to stay relevant over time. Using the programme’s customer data, we are able to identify ways to improve the programme’s offerings and opportunities to add even more value. In October 2018, we partnered with Husky Energy and expanded the programme to give consumers the ability to earn more Canadian Tire Money on 
fuel purchases. We are also currently exploring ways to expand the programme to other businesses.
Customer response
Triangle Rewards signalled that we are committed to creating a Triangle Marketplace to deliver the best of what CTC has to offer throughout our customers’ lifetimes and that message is resonating with Canadians. Since its launch, Triangle Rewards has had an overwhelming response and awareness of the credit card and loyalty programme has grown. We’ve seen a substantial increase in loyalty issuance and redemption and double-digit increase in active members and spend per customer.
From humble beginnings as Canada’s first loyalty programme, Triangle Rewards is the underpinning of our organization’s future and a key driver to our continued success. CTC is on a journey to become the number one retail brand in Canada by 2022. As a unique touchpoint with Canadians, Triangle Rewards will play an important role in getting us there, serving as an incredible growth engine that enables us to seamlessly engage customers, deliver great offers and create new experiences for years to come.
Susan O’Brien is senior vice president, marketing, for Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited (CTC), and is responsible for all marketing and branding strategies for Canadian Tire Retail, Mark’s, SportChek and Canadian Tire Financial Services. Known for her 360-degree view of campaigns, Susan is an expert in brand reinvention and positioning. Since joining CTC in 2008, Susan has held a number of progressively senior roles. Most recently she served as senior vice president, marketing and corporate affairs. Prior to that she was vice president of marketing. In this role, Susan was responsible for the development and execution of marketing and branding strategies for Canadian Tire Retail.
Susan O’Brien is senior vice president, marketing, for Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited (CTC).
Canadian Tire Money or CTM is arguably recognized as distinctly Canadian as Canada’s paper and coin currency. Since its inception in 1958, CTM has been evolving to include loyalty cards and mobile to provide a greater customer experience.
The success of loyalty programmes lies in delivering a clearly understood value proposition combined with ease of redemption. Canadian Tire Corporation has been providing just that for over 60 years, and now across multiple channels.
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