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Lou Malnati's Reignites Loyalty with a Full-Funnel Relanuch

The Background
Founded in 1971, Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria is a Chicago icon famous for its authentic Deep Dish and Thin Crust pizza. 55 years
later, the brand has grown to over 70 locations across Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Arizona, and ships its pizzas nationwide
through its e-commerce business, Tastes of Chicago.
Lou Malnati’s success has always been rooted in something deeper than scale: an intensely loyal customer base. Guests
don’t just enjoy Lou Malnati’s; they grew up with it, celebrated with it, and ship Lou’s pizzas across the country.
That loyalty existed long before any formal rewards program, which created both an opportunity and a challenge.

The Challenge
Lou Malnati’s recognized that its existing loyalty program wasn’t delivering enough value or making its most frequent guests
feel as valued as they truly were. At the same time, the brand knew it couldn’t risk disrupting the connection it had already
built. For Lou Malnati’s, the goal was never simply a technology upgrade. It was to reimagine and relaunch the relationship
with its most loyal guests, without losing what made that relationship special in the first place.
Paytronix's Solutions
Lou Malnati’s partnered with Paytronix to execute a bold, all-at-once transformation: a complete loyalty relaunch spanning
platform, program, and experience, delivered simultaneously.
While most brands would phase a project of this size, Lou Malnati’s took a different approach. With an active base of loyal
members and a time-sensitive opportunity to elevate the experience, the team chose to move forward with several
launches executed as one unified strategy.
Platform Migration: No Member Left Behind
First, it was paramount that every
existing loyalty member moves to
Paytronix seamlessly, preserving
continuity for guests and trust
between the two teams. Paytronix’s
strategists and onboarding team
worked alongside Lou Malnati’s
from day one, providing hands-on
support throughout the transition.
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Program Redesign: Built for Value and Flexibility
The loyalty program was rebuilt from the ground up around one
guiding question: how do we make members feel more valued?
Working with Paytronix, the two teams agreed on a series of
enhancements, a shift to bankable points that members
accumulate and spend on their own timeline, more reward
choices, and year-round personalized offers and experiences.
New members can receive a welcome offer:
A free personal Deep Dish or small Thin Crust pizza with a $10
minimum spend, redeemable within 14 days.
Existing members, meanwhile, were rewarded for the loyalty they
had already shown. They were gifted bonus points at relaunch,
enough to redeem a reward immediately, as a genuine thank you.
The Solution: A Unified Experience Platform
In 2024, Coen Markets deployed the Paytronix Customer Experience Platform. The goal was to make earning and
redeeming rewards seamless while giving the marketing team the keys to their own data.
The Strategy Included:
- ✔ Instant Gratification: $0.03 off per gallon (no limits) and $0.99 any-size fountain drinks, coffee, or slushies.
- ✔ Self-Service Data: Real-time access to store-level penetration and guest behavior dashboards.
- ✔ Frictionless Communication: Using push notifications and monthly emails to alert members of "fuel days," celebrity NIL events, and exclusive deals.
- ✔ Proactive Retention: Implementing "win-back" campaigns to identify at-risk customers and re-engage them before they churned.
Results
+6%
In loyalty enrollments
+8%
In loyalty visits
+9%
In loyalty spending
These results tell a consistent story: more guests are joining the program, visiting more frequently, and spending more
when they do. This wasn’t a single-metric spike; it was a fully aligned performance lift across acquisition, engagement,
and revenue, achieved on top of an already highly engaged base. In other words, Lou’s Rewards program evolved from
an underutilized feature into a valuable loyalty engine and fully integrated ecosystem.
Conclusion
Lou Malnati’s transformation demonstrates that modern loyalty is about more than technology; it’s about rethinking how you
deliver value to your best customers.
A few years ago, the brand’s loyalty program fell short of expectations and didn’t fully reflect the depth of customer devotion.
Today, it is a powerful driver of growth and guest engagement.
With Paytronix, Lou Malnati’s didn’t just adopt a new platform; the brand used it as a catalyst to relaunch its relationship with the
guests who have been there all along.

