How TELUS Adds Loyalty Innovation To A Commodity Category

From Price Discounting To Total Value

Telecom is a market where competitors frequently battle on discounts, device promotions and bundle pricing. Pullia noted that both Canada and the U.S. have seen continued pressure around mobile and home internet pricing.

That creates a familiar strategic problem: if the only thing customers notice is the monthly rate, the brand becomes vulnerable to the next offer that is five dollars cheaper.

TELUS’ answer has been to reframe loyalty around total value. Pullia referenced American Express as one source of inspiration, particularly the way premium card products have been able to maintain or even increase price while expanding the perceived value customers receive through benefits, access and partnerships.

For TELUS, the question became: how can a telecom provider create a similar sense of value around services that many consumers now see as utilities?

The company’s answer starts with the core relationship: mobility and fiber internet. But it does not end there. TELUS wants the rewards program to sit on top of a broader ecosystem of household services, including smart home, security and automation, entertainment, virtual health services and even virtual pet consultations.

That ecosystem changes the role of loyalty. It becomes less of a promotional layer and more of an organizing layer for the customer relationship.

Rewarding The Long-Term Customer

One of the most common frustrations in telecom is the belief that new customers get the best deals while long-term customers are left behind. Pullia said TELUS heard that feedback directly from its customer base.

That insight pushed the company to look beyond acquisition economics and consider the emotional reality of tenure. Customers who have been with a provider for ten, twenty or thirty years do not just want a discount. They want recognition.

TELUS studied loyalty programs outside telecom, including Marriott Bonvoy, where lifetime status gives long-term customers a durable sense of acknowledgment. The lesson is not that a telecom company should copy a hotel program. It is that tenure can become a source of value if the program is designed to recognize it.

In a subscription business, that can be more powerful than a one-time offer. A customer who feels recognized is less likely to view the brand as interchangeable.

Partnerships As A Loyalty Multiplier

A major part of TELUS’ strategy is partnerships. Pullia said Canadian consumers participate in 15 or more loyalty programs, but only actively engage with a smaller handful. That creates a challenge for every brand: it is not enough to have a program. The program has to earn a place among the few that matter.

TELUS has approached that challenge through account linking, points transferability and what Pullia calls “Perks Exchange.”

Account linking allows TELUS Rewards to connect with partner programs, enabling data sharing and benefit provisioning for customers. Points transferability gives members more flexibility in how they use value, rather than trapping them inside a closed system.

Perks Exchange may be the more distinctive idea. TELUS and its partners can each contribute benefits that have high perceived retail value, but may have lower utilization. When exchanged across programs, those benefits can create fresh reasons for customers to engage without putting disproportionate pressure on the economics of either partner.

That is a smart loyalty design principle. The best partnerships are not just logo swaps. They find underused value in one ecosystem and make it more meaningful in another.

Why The Program Is Hard To Copy

Many companies talk about ecosystems. TELUS has a more credible claim than most telecom providers because its relationship with the household extends beyond connectivity.

Pullia pointed to the breadth of TELUS services as a source of differentiation. Mobility and internet are the foundation. Smart home services add security, automation and connected devices. Virtual health and pet care services create additional touchpoints that run on top of the network.

T he rewards program is a thread that can weave across many of those verticals, allowing TELUS to touch more aspects of customers’ lives.

That matters because the hardest loyalty programs to replicate are not built only on points. They are built on assets competitors do not have, or cannot easily assemble. TELUS’ advantage is not just that it has a rewards program. It is that the program can connect a wider set of household services under one relationship.

The Future Of Loyalty In Utility-Like Categories

The TELUS case highlights a broader shift in loyalty strategy. In categories where products feel commoditized, brands often default to price. But price-based loyalty is usually temporary. Someone else can always offer a richer discount.

The more durable path is to increase perceived value, reduce friction and create emotional reasons to stay.

For TELUS, that means using loyalty to change the customer’s mental model from “my phone and internet provider” to “a platform for services that support my household.” It also means acknowledging long-term customers, giving members flexibility in how they use rewards and building partnerships that expand relevance and value beyond the bill.

Loyalty innovation in a commodity category is not about making customers forget the price. It is about giving them more to consider than price.

That may be the central lesson for any brand in a mature market. When the core product becomes harder to differentiate, the relationship around the product becomes the real battleground.