A Picture is worth a Thousand Words but a Thousand Points?
Over the years, we have uncovered a multitude of insights on the subject of loyalty and rewards including what brands and items benefit from incentive compared to brands that do not (you might be surprised). We have found out where they benefit versus where they do not (you might be even more surprised). What incentive is the right incentive and how to avoid giving a way too much is vital but every once in a while, we stumble upon outliers that really drive the return on investment. This post is probably not about driving ROI.
The image above is real. We only doctored up the gas pump in order to protect the guilty. The reaction however was overwhelmingly predictable. A reward that says “buy 5 coffees then use your points to get a ‘free’ coffee” is not a reward at all. Even if the value of the points required was lower, those that we talked to say that it’s still not a reward and the retailer would have been better served in offering a value that could be redeemed against a something – even an actual FREE coffee.
We know that the station owner might not have benefited from the sale of each of the five cups of coffee and probably does not want to be the one stuck with giving away free product. It is likely that they need the points to claim the reward from head office (or do they?) but this post is not about any of that.
How loyalty is born can be a mystery but how loyalty can be harvested is a little more solvable. Sometimes it comes down to being in the right place at the right time and sometimes it’s much more scientific. Today’s available technology can predict when you will be in the precise place at the precise time – does “21 minutes to work” ring a bell? Having the right reward at the right time is as smart as the smartphone.
Whether this offer worked or not, and probably not, they at least tried something. Let’s hope they circled back to get a definitive answer and build on it from there.
CMI Insights Inc., a specialist in making big sense of big data, is celebrating its 13th year at the forefront of analytic innovation and data science. #Rewards in Aisle 5