The Benefits of Rewarding Your Customers

I recently encountered a marketing technique that isn't new, but I never really noticed how clever it was until now. Like many others in the area, I am a member at planet fitness and make frequent visits to the gym. When you sign up for your membership, you are given the option to sign up for a rewards program. With every visit to the gym, you earn points that can be exchanged for goods such as protein drinks, snacks, and most interestingly to me, t-shirts or a free month of membership fees. The reason that I find these two particular rewards so interesting is because one month of membership fees is only $10 while a t-shirt carries a $20 value, however, the t-shirt requires far fewer points to earn. It costs more for the company to give away a free t-shirt, yet they will do so for very few points. The reason for this is because people will be able to earn the t-shirt quicker than the free membership, and it is something than can be used for a much longer period of time, therefore, most individuals will choose to cash in points for the t-shirt rather than waiting to earn the membership. While this may be slightly more expensive for the gym, it allows for them to boost their advertisement. More people will want the t-shirt, and the t-shirt has the gym's logo on it, therefore, the gym will get free advertisement from their members wearing the t-shirt. It would take far longer for a gym member to earn enough points to cash in for a free month's worth of membership fees even though that is cheaper for the gym itself, but the individual cannot go around sporting the company's logo with an intangible object. I find this to be extremely clever, and while I had noticed it before, I had never really considered the value between the two rewards and the benefits for the business.

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