CITGO has been experimenting with delivery, artificial intelligence (AI), mobile payment and more, Joseph Low, manager of loyalty and marketing programs at Houston-based CITGO Petroleum, told CSP.
Low was a finalist for technology and loyalty large chain in CSP’s 2025 Category Manager of the Year (CMOY) awards. Here is a Q&A from his conversation with CSP on managing the tech and loyalty category.
This year's CMOY awards featured 14 winners across seven categories. Winners from both small (99 or fewer stores) and large chains (100 stores or more) were selected for the first time in each category.
What’s a technology or loyalty feature that you haven’t implemented yet but are curious about, and why?
Our mission as a branded fuel supplier is to help our independent operators be more successful when they choose CITGO to be their fuel supplier. While our Club CITGO loyalty program is built on fuel discounts, we know that helping retailers grow their inside sales will also benefit their gallon performance. We are currently working toward integrating delivery app technologies like DoorDash and Uber Eats into the Club CITGO app. Post COVID, a lot of our branded locations introduced quality food service programs, and this will help them compete with their larger peers in the industry. It is hard for the smaller companies to make the necessary investments in technology to stay competitive. When CITGO makes the technology more efficient (whether ease of use or reduced costs) and ties those purchases with loyalty, then everybody wins.
Have you experimented or adopted AI anywhere in the category? Do you plan to in the future?
We have been experimenting with AI tools internally and are quickly learning how much easier it makes our jobs. AI will play a very interesting role in the loyalty space. With the abundance of data elements that exist in a c-store and the ability to super-segment your member base, it is hard for the traditional tracking tools to act in a meaningful way in evaluating real-time purchase behavior and make thoughtful, personalized offers to the loyalty members. While we build upon our current tech stack, we are looking at AI very closely within our CRM options.
What are your goals for 2025?
Our Club CITGO program saw tremendous growth in 2024, and we believe there is an opportunity to double our member stats and loyalty volumes across the entire network again in 2025. Adding to our tech stack creates more value for our retailers so their willingness to feature the program is growing exponentially. Our road map for adding to the tech stack is aggressive but we think the consumer will appreciate the program features available to them in the next 24 months.
Are there any recent changes/upgrades you’ve made?
We have been piloting several different enhancements to the program. In February we launch our consolidated Club CITGO app that effectively retires CITGO Pay and includes those mobile payment features in a single, streamlined user experience. We recently reintroduced our Gas for a Year sweepstakes to drive more app engagement. This was one of our most popular features of the former coupon-based loyalty program. Our Premier Status Rewards feature was introduced in several states last year with results that exceeded our expectations. That program will be introduced market wide in April. And our life cycle marketing campaigns continue to evolve and provide users the ability to gamify their experience as they increase their level of spend in our program.
What do you love about your category?
Loyalty goes beyond the traditional 3Ps 101 [people, personalization and privacy] that are ingrained in marketing. With the technology components, it is the equivalent of playing 3D chess versus the traditional game of checkers. The technology that is being added on a regular basis makes loyalty more challenging than traditional c-store categories and energizes you to solve the next hurdle that is hindering you from introducing new innovations.
What are the biggest challenges?
The legal side of dealing with personally identifiable information (PII data) is probably the biggest challenge. Without consistent laws across the states, it is more burdensome to keep up with changes that have been implemented and anticipate what the future holds. It is almost a full-time job for the legal team to keep up with the regulations when the goal is just to give the consumer the best possible experience.
What is another loyalty program that you look up to, whether it’s in the c-store channel or not? Why do you think it’s a good model?
There are lots of organizations that have success with loyalty from travel companies to credit card issuers to the retail environment. I personally think Starbucks has taken the best approach to loyalty. They were trendsetters from the beginning when they personalized your order by writing your name on the cup and allowing consumers to “hang out” while enjoying their beverage. Capitalizing on the user experience was high on their agenda when they were establishing the local Starbucks as the place to be. When they launched their app, it was a way to provide even better service to their customers by removing the friction of waiting in line or the hassle of needing a purse/wallet to pay for their purchases.
For Starbucks, loyalty is more than just upselling or garnering wallet share; they look at loyalty as the whole experience that a consumer has with their brand, and I think they are very effective in conveying a feeling of trust for their consumers. That’s what we would really like for our members to think of when they join Club CITGO. Our ultimate goal is for members to trust they are getting quality fuel and also understand our desire for them to have a good experience by saving money and/or time when they shop with us.
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