``The launch of the loyalty programme has followed an intensive benchmarking exercise with international customer loyalty programmes like Hilton Honours offered by the Hilton and Marriot Rewards offered by the Marriot,'' says The Taj Group of Hotels vice-president marketing Pankaj M Baliga.

For starters the hotel chain has a very focussed target consumer in mind. ``We are targeting the serious business traveller only, to make sure that our investment reaps the maximum result,'' says Taj Group of Hotels general manager relationship marketing, Salim Khubchandani. One of the ways to ensure this to keep the programme free of cost. This follows from the experience of the existing programmes which are fee based, the same being as low as Rs 500 in one instance.

To become a member of the Taj Inner Circle on the other hand, a consumer has to qualify his or her credentials as a frequent and serious customer of the group.

Starting early next week, the hotel chain will embark on a direct mail campaign to contact 50,000 consumers identified as the target audience from a 2,00,000-strong consumer database.

To qualify for the Taj Inner Circle, a consumer will have to earn a total of 250 points within a 60 day period at any of the Taj Group hotels which are part of the scheme currently.

A total of Rs 100 spent on any of the hotel facilities like room, laundry and F&B among others fetches the consumer one point, so that a total of Rs 25,000 spent during a 60 day period at a Taj Group hotel will entitle the consumer to become part of the Taj Inner Circle. Once a consumer qualifies for the programme he receives a Welcome Pack from the company. This contains a Taj Inner circle card, baggage tags for easy identification and a rewards booklets that lists a 75 to 80 gift items. The group has put together a selection of rewards like luxury holidays in exotic destinations, leather luggage, golf equipment, jewelry and crystal. Every time the member stays at a Taj hotel or dines at any of the Taj restaurants, he or she earns points that can be redeemed for a chosen gift.

In addition to rewards members will get to enjoy a host of privileges like faster check-in and departure, special discounts on rooms at the leisure hotels and on facilities like laundry, telecom and business center, priority wait list, and free use of health club. ``We have consulted the consumers before designing every aspect of the programme this includes the choice of gifts as well,'' informs Baliga. Early this year, the company conducted a consumer preference survey across all its hotels before deciding the list of rewards.

Moreover in a bid to understand consumer needs and requirements better the company had launched a full-fledged consumer promotion offer launched under the ``two for six'' name on all Taj leisure hotels an year ago. The Inner Circle programme has been created in conjunction with Mumbai-based direct marketing companies Direm and Enterprise Nexus Direct.

Although no figures are disclosed, the per member spend is high given the investment incurred by the Group. Besides the rewards and benefits the company has invested in an elaborate back-end infrastructure to support the programme. This consists of a consumer call center in Mumbai with a customised software to take care of the data warehousing. The call center has been geared up to meet all consumer enquiries and communication as per internationally standardised service norms.

Besides this the company has spent the last six months in organising roadshows across all its hotels to educate and train its employees to meet the new challenges and demands that the scheme will throw up.