Retention | CRM Stragtegy
Feat. Catherine Tan, Senior Marketing Manager of Hextar Retail
Malaysia’s F&B market looks exciting from the outside. New brands launch, queues form, social media buzzes. But behind every opening weekend crowd is something far less glamorous: months of operational planning, positioning debates, and deliberate decisions about pricing, loyalty, and customer behavior. In a recent conversation, Catherine Tan, Senior Marketing Manager at Hextar Retail, shared what it actually takes to bring brands like TamJai Mixian and GOPIZZA into Malaysia and make them scale. Her biggest insight was simple:
Before TamJai Mixian opened its doors, the team spent four to five months studying the brand deeply. TamJai had already built strong equity in Hong Kong and expanded into markets like Singapore, Japan, and Australia. For Malaysia, Singapore was the closest benchmark. The team needed to understand what worked there, what could transfer, and what needed adjusting without losing the brand’s core identity. At the same time, they faced a strategic question many F&B operators struggle with: should loyalty be launched immediately, or only after the brand stabilizes? Some brands prefer to build traffic first and think about retention later. Catherine’s team decided to launch loyalty together with the brand, even though it felt risky at the time.
From the start, the team understood one truth about the Malaysian market: it is highly value conscious. During TamJai’s opening week, pre-opening vouchers helped drive initial sign ups, but what truly surprised them was the response to the 20 percent birthday voucher. Customers joined because they saw immediate benefit. For many, a birthday discount felt like a personal treat rather than just a promotion. As Catherine put it:
At the Sunway Pyramid launch, the team ran a three-day activation where members could join a mini game and stand a chance to win one year’s worth of meals. They collected around 800 sign ups in just three days, with queues long enough for mall management to request traffic diversion. The early momentum reinforced a key principle: when value is clear and friction is low, Malaysians convert quickly.
GOPIZZA entered the market with a different strategy. Originally from Korea, the brand focuses on smaller personal sized pizzas, quick service, and technology driven consistency. Instead of a grand launch, the team leaned into a sharp acquisition hook: a first pizza at RM5.99 for members. The offer was straightforward and easy to understand. Within three and a half months, GOPIZZA had nearly 10,000 members, surpassing TamJai’s early growth. Seeing this success, the team introduced a similar mechanic for TamJai with a first bowl at RM5.90. Membership growth doubled, and in just over a month, they gained around 3,000 new members. The takeaway was simple: in Malaysia, a strong first visit incentive dramatically lowers resistance.
Beyond acquisition, both brands experimented with gamification to drive deeper engagement. For TamJai, customers who spent RM60 received an in-app token to spin and win merchandise. The process was automatic, with no manual forms or paper stamps. Rewards were digitally issued and inventory tracked in real time. What mattered was not just participation but behavior. Members consistently spent more than non-members. Catherine shared that one mother and son had visited TamJai more than 30 times within the first six months, often ordering the same items. Even at an early stage, repeat patterns were forming. That is when loyalty stops being a campaign and starts becoming infrastructure.
As both brands move beyond pure acquisition, the focus has shifted to retention. The team is now segmenting customers by visit frequency and behavior. Those who visit three times require a different approach from those who come once and never return. Regular customers are increasingly seen as the most valuable group. Catherine was direct about this:
For 2026, they are exploring member-only pricing during festive periods, Members’ Day activations, and targeted rewards based on frequency. During Chinese New Year, TamJai is testing membership pricing alongside standard pricing and introducing a digital angpao giveaway where members log in during specific windows to receive surprise vouchers. The objective is not just engagement but creating reasons for the next visit.
Budget discussions around loyalty are never easy. Every marketer faces questions about whether to cut discounts or reduce reward spend. Catherine reframes the conversation by focusing on long-term value. Even if rewards are reduced one day, what remains is the data. With 10,000 members, the brand owns a communication channel. It understands frequency, average spend, and reward responsiveness. That dataset becomes a strategic asset that informs product decisions, expansion planning, and campaign design. In her words:
She believes traditional stamp cards alone will not win in 2026. Consumers are already conditioned by digital platforms to expect coins, vouchers, and gamified rewards embedded into everyday behavior. Loyalty is no longer optional. It is expected. F&B brands that treat loyalty as a side promotion will struggle. Those that treat it as a system will scale.
When asked to complete the sentence, “The F&B brands that win in 2026 will be the ones who…”, Catherine answered without hesitation:
Scaling in Malaysia is not about one viral opening. It is about continuous testing, learning from data, and deliberately building repeat behavior. Attention may get customers through the door, but retention is what builds revenue over time.
See how Eber helps your business build loyalty, reduce churn, and grow repeat revenue. Get in touch and our team will reach out to you.
