Automobile Rewards Programs

Posted on January 30, 2012 by admin

The logic behind rewards programs is that if you are going to spend the money anyway. So, why not spend it at a store that rewards you for your patronage? Many stores and chains within the automobile repair, parts and maintenance industry participate in rewards programs. It couldn’t be easier to use: say you purchase a new battery or some BMW e32 parts from your favorite automobile superstore. Each dollar you spend is totaled and tracked, yielding a rainbow of rewards to program members.

Here are just a few of the types of benefits available from a participating automobile superstore:

  • Free repairs of flat tires
  • Free air pressure check
  • Free tire rotation
  • Free evaluation of check-engine light
  • Free or discounted towing
  • Free brake evaluation and discounted brake pads
  • Access to exclusive offers
  • Receipt of special birthday offers
  • Automatic recording-keeping of point totals.

The procedure for joining an automobile rewards programs couldn’t be easier:

  1. Fill out a membership application, either online or at the store. You will be asked general questions about your name, address, birthday, and perhaps some credit card information.
  2. You will be issued a free Rewards Card.
  3. If you receive your Rewards Card directly from the store, then go ahead and register it online. You will almost certainly receive bonus points for doing so.
  4. Understand the ratio of purchases to reward points. For instance, you may get a point for each dollar you spend. Rewards can start with rewards worth as little as $10 for, say, 200 points.
  5. Visit the store or chain’s website to track your rewards balance, print out reward certificates, adjust for when you forget to bring in your Rewards Card during a store purchase, and track reward expiration dates to ensure you redeem your rewards before they expire.

Cars can be expensive to maintain, so it makes sense to concentrate your need for repairs, parts and maintenance at the superstore of your choice, but only if it rewards you for doing so. After all, if you have a choice between several automobile superstores in your neighborhood, why not use the one that gives the most rewards? Nothing takes the sting out of purchasing BMW e36 parts than knowing that some of the money you spend now will come back to you later in the form of a reward. Once you try it, you’ll become a loyal customer – a win-win situation for you and the store.

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Win a Trip to the English Town of Kettering

Posted on January 23, 2012 by admin

Kettering is a handsome market town 130 km outside of London. In 2001, it had a population of over 51,000 people. Kettering is one of the fastest-growing towns in the UK, and its town centre is seeing some major redevelopment efforts. Kettering boasts an adult employment rate of over 80 percent, one of the highest in the UK. This is a business-friendly town, being the home for Weetabix, RCI Europe, Pegasus Software, Timsons Ltd and Morrisons Distribution. The UK’s oldest theme park, Wicksteed Park, attracts over a million visitors annually.

Tresham College has a new £20 million campus to support its 16,000 students and staff of 800. The Kettering General Hospital is situated in Kettering, and provides service for northern Northamptonshire. You can visit the magnificent Boughton House, only 4.8 km north-east of Kettering.

An estimated £10 million is being invested in town centre development. Work on the award-winning Market Place has been completed. Horsemarket has been extensively improved and is open for business, supported by new bus terminals and evening taxi service. Many different businesses serve the towns residents – you can find Kettering pizza shops, Kettering cleaners, Kettering dog kennels… you get the picture.

New improvements are being planned for Market Street, Sheep Street and Market Place. Streets are being spruced up and roads are becoming friendlier to pedestrians by limiting superfluous traffic. Streets will share the same high-quality building materials used in the Market Place development. Town planners anticipate an increase in the number of shoppers and retailers in the town centre due to these improvements.

Kettering’s attractions and services include the following:

  • Manor House Museum – a place that takes a “hands-on” approach to history that appeals to individuals of all ages. Includes regular activities and temporary exhibitions.
  • Alfred East Art Gallery – a showplace for local artists and for permanent exhibitions. You can see the works of Sir Alfred East, T. C. Gotch, and others.
  • Hotels – Kettering is served by The Royal Hotel, Kettering Park Hotel, The Red Lion Hotel, and Rushton Hall.
  • Restaurants – Mouthwatering and top-rated restaurants include Bella Sicilia, Beradi’s, Little Chef, Mazza Indian Restaurant, The Old Bakehouse, the Palmichael and Red Rose.
  • The Lighthouse Theatre – Kettering’s premier entertainment venue, featuring live stage plays, a science museum, and many other attractions.
  • Student Council – the Kettering Borough Council is aimed at involving Kettering teens in the running of their own community.
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Holiday Rewards Program

Posted on November 6, 2010 by admin

Florists know that repeat business is essential for survival. This is especially true for Internet-based florists, since there is no storefront to attract walk-in customers. Thus, virtual floral shops need to invest in marketing programs to successfully compete. Since flowers are very popular on holidays, savvy florists use holiday rewards programs to spur sales for specific occasions. These programs work in two ways. The first is holiday specials: extra flowers when purchasing large orders just before a holiday. A good shopper will be able to locate florists offering substantially larger bouquets for orders over a threshold amount, say $100. The second way to use holiday rewards programs is to award points for non-holiday purchases that can be redeemed at specific holidays. In this way, generic demand is enhanced and holiday sales are locked down in advance.

To work well, a florist will want to gear special discounts to specific items for each of the big holidays:

  • Thanksgiving flowers — Chrysanthemums are a perennial favorite at Thanksgiving. They are attractive not only for the wide variety of colors available, but also the ample size range of specimens. A beautiful bouquet of mums will feature sizes from miniature to colossal in three or more complementary colors.
  • Christmas flowers – Red poinsettias are a beautiful tradition during the Christmas season. When backed by green foliage, a stunning basket will convey the treasured colors associated with the yuletide. Another big seller at year’s end is mistletoe. Office holiday parties are always more festive and exciting when mistletoe is hung above the desk of your dreamiest workmate.
  • Valentine flowers – It’s not just roses, its ROSES! A mere dozen won’t cut it anymore. An arrangement of three dozen red roses will certainly work magic on this magical holiday. And for long-time married couples, white or yellow roses are equally beautiful and can make a profound statement about the merits of long-term commitment. A nice twist is to order live rose bushes, so that the romance can go on and on.
  • Mothers Day flowers – A lifesaver for when you’ve forgotten about Mother’s Day until the last minute. Look, the last thing you want is to get on your Mom’s bad side, so make sure you get your order in for a large bouquet or planter of her favorite flowers. Gardenias and other strongly scented flowers will be a big hit and make your Mom’s house smell great.

Whatever the occasion, flowers are a great gift, and a holiday rewards program makes the gift of flowers a smart purchase as well.

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Cleaning Supply Rewards Program

Posted on November 6, 2010 by admin

Sometimes, the most mundane items are the most fun to buy. They are not glamorous products; rather they solve one or more commonplace problems around the home or office. What is fun is choosing the absolutely best product from among its competitors, based on performance and pricing. Savvy merchandisers know this, and often offer incentive programs to help build loyal clientele.

Let’s take for example the wonderful world of cleaning supplies. These range from soap pads to rust remover to laundry detergent. A rewards program allows a manufacturer/merchandiser to set its products apart from the competition. Often, the program is set up with a coupon system: collect a coupon with each purchase, and then turn them in for either free products or other incentives. This is especially useful for conglomerates that sell a full range of cleaning products. By building brand loyalty through a shared coupon incentive program, consumers learn to seek out particular brands just to collect the coupons, even if the product sought is not the price-leader.

Another favorite gambit is the instant discount for bulk purchases. In this program, consumers can enjoy a substantial savings by purchasing a minimum number of the product all at once. You might not have thought about buying six gallons of chlorine bleach at the same time, but it starts sounding good if you can get 40% off the bulk purchase. Let’s face it, you’ll go through the six gallons eventually, so why not take advantage of the low price now and stock up. Merchandisers know this works – it’s a win-win proposition.

Here’s yet another twist on the incentive game: packing free samples of related products when you buy a multi-pack of the prime product. For instance, if you buy a 12 soap bars at once, the manufacture may throw in a free same-brand bottle of liquid hand soap. You may never have thought about liquid hand soap before, but now you just might become a repeat buyer. The merchandiser has moved a dozen soap bars and has perhaps recruited a new consumer to a related product.

Janitorial businesses may benefit from bulk pricing of institutional-only cleaning products. These products are not for sale to the general public, but instead to professional users who want an “industrial strength” product at rock-bottom prices. By packing institutional products in extra-large containers and offering special discounts for bulk purchases, a cleaning product manufacturer can build brand loyalty and still offer attractive pricing through economies of scale. Incentive programs make sense, even is the prosaic world of cleaning products.

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Domain Rewards Program

Posted on November 6, 2010 by admin

It’s a fact of marketing life today that if something is for sale, someone has figured out a way to build a rewards program around it. Let’s take for example a domain rewards program. OK, most of you are asking “what the heck is that?” Allow me to explain.

Domains are website addresses, those things that start with http://. You have to register a domain before you can build a public website on top of it. There is a central registry for all domain names, called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN is where your domain is catalogued, but you buy and register domains from any one of the dozens of domain name services on the Internet. You can register new ones – you make up the domain name – or purchase existing domains that have expired. There is even an auction market to sell expired domains that are considered valuable. A valuable domain is one that has had a lot of visitor traffic in the past and ranked highly on search engine results. You see, advertisers are willing to pay more for ads on highly ranked websites. That means more money in the pocket of the website owner.

Competition for registering domain names is pretty cutthroat. After all, each competitor offers basically the same service. How do they differentiate themselves? One way is through bulk discount incentive programs. For instance, one popular domain vendor offers a 31% when you purchase six or more domains at the same time. Another offers free private registration (it keeps your personal information private, protecting you from spam and scams) when you buy five domains. It’s nice to comparison shop among the different domain sales sites – there is always a good incentive plan lurking about.

Now that you have your domains, you probably want to extract some value out of them, but you don’t necessarily want to go through the hassle of creating a website, lining up advertisers, billing them and collecting your royalties, etc. There is an easier way to achieve domain monetization – you use parking companies. Basically, you point your domain name to a parking company, and it sets you up with an ad-filled website. You and the parking company share any ad revenue. The trick is to pick a domain name that will attract visitor traffic. But if you are ingenious enough when creating domain names, and you take advantage of bulk pricing when you register your domains, you just might be able to make a nice profit by letting a parking company do all the work for you.

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Music Rewards Program

Posted on November 6, 2010 by admin

Music Rewards Program – The Savings of Customer Loyalty

For marketers of consumer products and services like ipod repair companies, well-designed customer loyalty programs are like money in the bank. Music rewards programs are very popular, especially with young and trendy consumers. The basic idea behind a music rewards program is to award points to customers based on purchase volume. Providers of music rewards programs contract with providers of consumer services or merchandise to offer consumers rewards in return for points earned. For instance, a consumer can be awarded, say, 500 points when he/she spends $100 at a participating merchant. The points can be redeemed for specific music-related premiums or services that are underwritten by the participating merchants. By controlling the ratio of sales to points awarded, merchants have flexibility to specify exactly how much money they are willing to allocate to music rewards programs.

Merchants can choose from several different kinds of music rewards programs:

  1. Music downloads: Consumers who purchase products or services can redeem music reward points online from an online rewards provider. The provider maintains a catalog of songs that can be redeemed for a specific number of points. The songs can be distributed via email or download to a website. Since the downloads are electronic, no costly physical distribution is required. Alternatively, a branded debit card can be issued to be used for purchases at participating music stores. In addition, marketers can employ album cards that use the newest technology to transfer music material from special plastic cards directly to music libraries residing on personal devices or computers.
  2. Services for music-playing devices: Participating merchants may offer points that can be redeemed by consumers at Internet music-device repair service companies such as Rhousemedia. For a sufficient number of points, consumers can receive services such as macbook repair from Rhousemedia for a substantial discount or even for free.
  3. Music-related premiums: These programs are designed for higher-spending individuals who require substantial incentives to sway their patronage. For instance, a motorcycle manufacturer can offer a free pear pod or similar device when a customer purchases a new bike. A car dealership might offer a free upgraded car stereo system with the purchase of more expensive models. Purchasers of business jets may receive free in-flight string quartet recitals. In all cases, the level of reward is scaled to the purchase amount.

Music reward programs make sense for merchants, advertisers and consumers. Why not consider one for your own business?

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Cell Phone Rewards Program

Posted on November 5, 2010 by admin

Cell Phone Rewards Program – The Savings of Customer Loyalty

Cell phones are so popular that many families have dropped land-line service. The level of competition between network providers is correspondingly cutthroat. Providers offer a variety of incentives to loyal customers to deter consumers from switching networks when contracts expire. Because family members typically all use the same network provider, family-friendly incentives are especially important to maintain the customer base. Premiums that subsidize the most popular features favored by young consumers, such as texting and high-minute plans, help sway families to renew with the same carrier.

Cell phone networks can choose from several different kinds of rewards programs:

  1. Cell phone repair services: Participating merchants may offer points that can be redeemed by consumers for repair service of Internet-capable cell phones. State-of-the-art devices such as the Windows Phone that package cell phone service with computer applications and/or music playing are too valuable to simply discard when broken. A cell phone rewards program can issue points for services such as an Iphone repair, Ipod repair, or an Itouch repair to defray or eliminate the cost of fixing broken personal devices. Customers would use the points with companies such as Apple to avoid repair costs and/or the cost of replacement parts.
  2. Music downloads: A cell phone rewards program can incentivize customer loyalty by providing custom music-download functions, such as special Windows Phone hubs, for point redemption. Networks would issue points to loyal consumers. A consumer would then redeem his/her rewards points exclusively on the network’s custom hub to receive song downloads.
  3. Free and discounted service/merchandise: A cell-phone network provider may offer a free or heavily discounted replacement upgrade cell phone, such as a pear phone or pear pad when customers renew their leases. They may also offer free minutes, enhanced rollover programs, free texting, and a host of the service incentives.
  4. VIP Club: Loyal long-time customers can be offered membership in a VIP Club run by the network provider. Benefits of the VIP Club would include special discounts on merchandize, expedited resolution of cell phone complaints, and awards of free minutes for talk or text. Networks would treat VIP Club members as a privileged class, and offer members a sense of exclusivity and status. For instance, any rewards points accumulated by a VIP Club member might be redeemable at participating merchants of non-related luxury items, such as jewelry or liquor.

Consumers should shop and compare the rewards programs offered by different cell-phone network providers before committing to a particular one. This will put pressure on industry members to continually enhance their programs in order to maintain and grow their customer bases.

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Wedding Bridal Rewards

Posted on November 5, 2010 by admin

Wedding Bridal Rewards Program – The Savings of Customer Loyalty

OK, he has just popped the question, you’ve said yes, and now it hits you that there are 1001 things to do to prepare for the wedding you’ve always wanted. Now is the perfect time to join a wedding bridal rewards program! Through this kind of program, you can coordinate all of your preparations to maximize the benefit of using selected wedding-related vendors. You see, savvy wedding and bridal professionals often network together to form a rewards program for shared customers. In this way, each network member stakes out a particular specialty within the network, thus forming a self-reinforcing web of recommended service providers while deterring patronage of vendors outside the network.

Members of the rewards network include jewelers, florists, dressmakers, gift merchandiser, travel agents, cake decorators, limousine services, engravers, liquor wholesalers, reception halls, caterers, attorneys, …. you get the picture. By banding together to offer you and the prospective groom reward points in exchange for limiting your shopping to only network members, both you and the network benefit greatly. You can cash in your rewards points for any numbers of goodies, from first-class tickets to Paris to discounts on furs or Botox.

Here are a few examples of how an engaged couple benefits from joining a bridal rewards program:

  1. Engagement and wedding rings: Nothing says “forever” like diamond rings. You can buy them anywhere; why not receive a reward by using a rewards network jeweler? The diamond district is full of good jewelers – pick one that is in your rewards program and you are well on your way to accumulating substantial reward points.
  2. Flowers: Your father will insist on you walking down a rose-petal-covered aisle. Your mother will want to see flowers representing her favorite colors. They are going to spend a fortune when they order flowers, so go ahead and recoup some of the expense by receiving rewards points from your bridal rewards program.
  3. Prenuptial agreements: Yes, Daddy has been very fortunate, and when he dies, probably before even his funeral flowers wilt, his fortune will be yours. Make sure it stays yours if your angelic husband-to-be turns out to be a rat! Use a lawyer to draw up divorce insurance from your bridal rewards program to craft an iron-clad prenup, and you can’t lose.
  4. Background checks: The groom swears he has never broken the law, but how do you really know? Sharp young brides agree with Ronald Reagan: “trust, but verify”. The private investigator in the rewards network will be happy to dig up any dirt on your betrothed before you say “I do”. That way, when you do say it, you’ll mean it! And, you will be collecting valuable reward points to boot.

These are but a few reasons why it makes sense to join a wedding bridal rewards program as soon as you become engaged. Don’t hesitate — after all, aren’t you worth it?

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