WU Alumnus Mario Rauch, managing director of jö, came back to class to share interesting customer and business insights from the biggest loyalty club in Austria. The jö Bonus Club (implemented via physical card or jö äpp) allows more than 4 million members in Austria to collect “Ös” to gain a variety of benefits offered by the various partners across industries, ranging from Allianz, BAWAG P.S.K., BILLA, BIPA, Interio, LIBRO, mjam, OMV, PEARLE, PENNY, VERBUND and ZGONC.

Mario visited Professor Schreier’s and Dr. Palcu’s core course in the first year of the Master of Science in Marketing: Management by Experiments. The students learned surprising effects coming out of several interesting A/B tests conducted at jö. In addition, Mario talked about the increasingly important role of data and causal research skills needed to compete in today’s business world. Marketing is transforming from a field that has been long dominated by gut feelings to an evidence-based discipline that mimics key elements of an applied science centered around a strong culture of experimentation.