Can you build loyalty beyond discounts? LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW proves you can

Loyalty can take so many different shapes. Some brands lean on discounts and tiers; others emphasize experiences, exclusives, or community. LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW is a great example of the latter – a product-and-community-led approach where craftsmanship, seasonal novelty, and feedback loops do the heavy lifting. There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy. LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW’s story simply shows that loyalty can grow from participation and belonging just as much as from offers and rewards.

Products first, always

“There’s nothing in the world that drives loyalty more than creating the best possible product you can,” says Michael Ewald Hansen, Chief Digital Officer at LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW. It’s a simple principle, but one that’s shaped the brand since day one.

For 18 years, LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW’s strongest loyalty driver has been its product. Their handmade chocolate-coated liquorice is a love-it-or-hate-it treat, and they fully embrace that divide. By focusing on exceptional quality and new taste experiences, the brand keeps customers coming back out of curiosity and not just habit.

Limited editions are central to this rhythm. Seasonal drops throughout the year (from Easter “ÆGG” to the iconic Christmas calendar) create excitement and freshness. Because each launch is tested with their community first, every new flavor feels like a shared discovery.

And while the brand occasionally rewards customers with small gestures, like a birthday week offer or in-store treat, it doesn’t rely on discounts. Instead, LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW offers something rarer: exclusivity and access. Each order includes a small, experimental flavor sample with a QR code for feedback, creating a direct link between factory and fan.

From “program” to identity

When the team rethought loyalty in 2018, they made a bold choice. No plastic cards. No points. No tiers. Instead, they built a global taste panel called Lakrids Lovers.

Becoming a Lakrids Lover isn’t about signing up for perks but about joining a conversation. Members test unreleased flavors, share opinions, and help decide what becomes a permanent product or a one-time experiment. It might be summed up as loyalty as identity rather than infrastructure.

And the results speak for themselves. Over 300,000 members around the world now call themselves Lakrids Lovers. The brand sees higher purchase frequency and larger basket sizes from this group – all driven by emotional connection and participation.

“When you start hearing people say, not ‘I’m a member,’ but ‘I’m a Lakrids Lover,’ that’s when you’ve hit something quite magical,” says Michael.

Turning haters into fans

Liquorice is famously polarizing, but LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW saw that as potential, not a problem. Their campaign “Share it with a Hater” invited fans to send free liquorice to friends who swore they didn’t like it.

The response? More than 125,000 sign-ups from 120 countries, alongside a huge boost in awareness across key markets like Germany. It’s a perfect example of how a brand can build loyalty not just by rewarding fans, but by reframing the category itself.

As Michael explains, “we’re not just building brand awareness; we’re also building category and product awareness.” In other words, every campaign is as much about changing perceptions as it is about selling sweets.

Sustainable luxury

Premium can mean more than packaging and taste. In 2024, LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW became the first premium confectionery brand in the Nordics to achieve B-Corp certification, joining a global movement of companies balancing profit and purpose.

Their factory runs on green energy, their packaging is 100% recycled and reusable, and they continually evaluate how to reduce impact across sourcing, production, and design. For them, sustainability is another form of craftsmanship, and proof that luxury and responsibility can go hand in hand.

The tech behind the taste: How Voyado supports their approach

Behind LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW’s community-led strategy is a unified data and engagement setup powered by Voyado. After several years experimenting with a complex, composable tech stack, the team decided to simplify. As Michael explained:

“Voyado sits at the heart of our loyalty concept. It’s a very nice way to get an overview of our customers. And it’s very easy to use the APIs to fetch information about the customer if we need to use it at a touchpoint.”

That clarity has made all the difference. By connecting touchpoints across retail and e-commerce, Voyado helps the brand understand behavior in real time and personalize communication without unnecessary complexity:

• Unified customer view. All data flows into one place, making it easier to identify customers and respond to their actions across channels.
• Automation that earns attention. Personalized journeys and timely messaging achieve 60–80% open rates on automations, offering proof that relevance can outperform repetition.
• Empowered store teams. Staff are incentivized to identify customers and invite them to join the Lakrids Lovers community, with some stores now recognizing over 95% of shoppers.

Voyado’s role isn’t to replace offers or promotions, but to make every touchpoint feel personal, relevant, and connected. For LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW, that means loyalty powered by insight, not just incentives.

Loyalty lessons from LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW

Every loyalty strategy starts with the same goal: connection. How you get there depends on your brand, your margins, and your audience. LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW simply shows another way, one where product, experience, and participation replace traditional incentives.

For others, that doesn’t mean turning off promotions; it means complementing them with creativity, identity, and moments of delight.

The sweet spot is where data meets emotion. And that’s exactly where Voyado helps brands like LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW turn insight into genuine connection.