Walser Rewards morphs into re:member group

MINNEAPOLIS (January 1, 2010) – Paul Walser, Dealer Principal at Walser Automotive Group, and ABRA Auto Body founder Randy McPherson have a history of successful collaborations. They first worked together to come up with Walser Collision and Glass, the successful in-house auto body repair shops. They also developed the loyalty marketing program that gave birth to Walser Rewards, and re:member group.

“Paul Walser wanted to have a loyalty marketing program for his group of dealerships, so in 2001 we came up with a card-carrying program with discounts for Members,” explains McPherson. “Paul Long, who was integral in the development and implementation of Northwest Airlines’ WorldPerks program, was hired to come run the Walser Rewards program as a Walser employee.”

That only lasted about two weeks before Walser realized he really didn’t want to be in the loyalty marketing business, though he wanted a loyalty marketing program. So McPherson and Long secured some office space and formed an LLC and the company was born.

“Obviously Walser was our first client,” said Long. “But we soon began a national marketing outreach and began adding automotive clients all across the country. Now we have non-automotive clients as well, and do business all across the country, in Canada and the United Kingdom.”

Long and McPherson say the mission was – and is – simple. To create value for clients and partners by developing customer loyalty programs and initiatives that fit into their business objectives to increase overall company profitability.

“Companies across every business and industry are awakening to the fact that not all customers are created equal, and that keeping customers who are highly valued can greatly improve profit,” Long concluded. “Thus, frequent buyer and loyalty programs have become critical retention tools.”