Next year could mark the return of customer loyalty as a dominant trend, according to US marketers' association Loyalty 360, which has laid out the key currents for 2011.

Marketers are expected to wake up to the fact that the concept of loyalty is not a concrete, objective programme, but a "journey" and a "strategic business goal". A strong emphasis on engagement and long-lasting relationships with customers will be established.

At the core of this loyalty will be a focus on consumer emotions rather than, for example, incentives. According to Loyalty 360, behavioural scientists say that decision making is 70 per cent emotion, 30 per cent rational.