Postcards from Perkistan

The perk world is far from boring. This week I’ve been doing the update for some of the larger programs out there, and every now and then I come across a perk that is, well, I question it’s existence. For one reason or another I’ve found these few perks throughout the week. Let me know the most interesting perks you’ve come across below.

Trek to the South Pole with BankWest… Sounds cool, and it will be, but it’ll also set you back 19,359,900 rewards points, or a measly $9,679,950 spend with the platinum More Rewards Card.

Get a Rebate on your Holden with Westpac. Very few programs embrace car manufacturers, and perhaps there’s a reason for it, but when this increases your redemption value to 2% opposed to 0.58% (for a Myer Gift Card) it could be a neat addition…

Goggles for your… Dog? Need I say anymore?

Keen to hear what interesting and cool things you’ve come across.

Cheers,
Graham

A few months ago we covered cinema loyalty programs with the release of Hoyts Rewards, the last cinema to create a loyalty program. However, with this addition it meant that all major cinemas had a loyalty program that had some kind of frequency-based benefit… except Village Cinemas. Re-launched this morning the Village Movie Club has now added more loyalty-focussed offers. This is how the programs compare:

Australian Cinema Loyalty Programs

Taking a quick look at the table we can see that all the programs are very similar. This means we aren’t being forced to make another decision about where to take our money. This brings about a few observations and questions. If the programs aren’t competing with each other then the sole purpose can be to give something back to their regular customers, what a loyalty program should be from a consumer perspective. Given that all the programs are similar though, they aren’t gaining sales through the program, creating a low return on their investment, what a loyalty program shouldn’t be from a business perspective.

Are movie theatres wasting their time and money on their loyalty programs? Let us know below.

Cheers,
Graham.

While we quietly work away on our iPhone app here in Perkler HQ (yes it’s coming and yes it will be relevant to making your loyalty shopping easier), we thought we would take a look at a couple of loyalty apps that are on the market already and take them for a spin.

To be frank, the tie in between retailers and loyalty on the phone is pretty lean. While there are plenty of loyalty services companies developing technology, Australian retailers still seem reluctant to link perks to purchasing in the mobile space.

Let’s hope loyalty gets its act together and starts getting out there with the Lasoo and Get Prices of the world!

And if you’ve come across a loyalty app let us know all about it, we’ll happily take a look.

For the moment, here are a couple we’ve been impressed with.

Flybuys - iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

In all honesty we’ve been really impressed with the work the Flybuys team have been doing over recent months. The launch of Everyday Rewards has really kicked the market along and the result is a revitalisation of competing programs.

The app itself has everything you would expect from a coalition points program. The basic menu covers stores, rewards and points balances.

Set up can take a little while as you need to establish a password to keep authentication secure - but that seems a small price to pay for an updated points balance. And that’s one of the great pieces of information - not just current points but importantly when they expire - critical if you want to make sure you use them effectively.

The wishlist section is clear and allows you to set up goals so that you know what you are ‘earning’ towards, and the store locator is a neat feature with so many brands available under the one program.

All in all a nice little package.

Choice Hotels - iPhone and PDA / “standard” mobile phone platforms

Hotel Chains are perfectly placed to take advantage of the app market. With multiple brands, multiple locations and last minute booking all the ingredients are there for a great app. Choice Australia utilises its international connections to bring you a comprehensive app across multiple platforms.

You can search hotels from 10 brands - that’s an enormous range to choose from - and then make reservations. Importantly from a loyalty point of view you can access your account (it throws you to a secure but clunky webpage) so that you can see point balance and redeem straight from that balance.

With the range of hotels these guys have this is GPS heaven - and the loyalty account tie in ticks all the right boxes for us. A bit more design work on the web pages and it would be the total package!

So that’s two…

I guess the development required for an app and tying in loyalty is a reasonable investment, but surely linking earn and particularly burn  to the point of purchase is a critical part of the modern retailer’s armoury.

I can only assume Everyday Rewards, Qantas and lots of others are working on their mobile malls now…Would be interesting to know what their thoughts on this channel and how it links to loyalty are.

As far as we go, we are putting the final touches to our app - which in true Perkler style will seek to bring your whole wallet to life, more on ‘Perky Shopper’ soon.

Heya!
Graham here. It’s tough to find a great sale in the 6 weeks leading up to Christmas, but we’ve found some great loyalty deals that will help you save on some great gift ideas. We’re going to be updating the blog when new cool deals come out.

My mum always loves a good read, if yours does too keep your eye on the Borders Shortlist and Angus & Robertson A&R Rewards. A&R Rewards you need to make a purchase before you can become a member. If you aren’t already then you’re probably better off signing up for the Borders Shortlist. Free, online registration and they send an email once a month (usually in the third/fourth week). Discounts are consistently 20-30% off. This week’s offer is 25% off one non-fiction book.

Candles are also a great idea, and we’ve got another free email signup for you. This one’s with Dusk, pretty much the only decent candle store if you ask me. Go to their website and signup for the dusk candle club. Immediately after joining you’ll receive a 10% off voucher for your first ONLINE order. So get your shopping done early and snag a great bargain: Sign up now

It’s tough to find dad a present that isn’t socks or jocks, or just the same old thing that you get him every year. Give him some excitement this year by getting him a RedBalloon adventure. They’re normally pretty costly, so you’ll have no problems saving on this one. Use your Presidential Card to make the purchase and you’ll receive a $30 discount on any purchase of $129 or more. Nice! Don’t forget to enter your voucher code at the checkout. All the details. The same discount is applied for MBF’s In2Life program.

For all your christmas shopping you can save 5% with your Presidential Card or QRI Lifestyle card by pre-purchasing gift cards. What’s also kinda cool (I asked FlyBuys but they didn’t get back to me) is that you can still earn QANTAS Frequent Flyer points when you make your purchase with a WISH gift card at Woolworths. Sweet, huh?

If you’re in to the hamper market, let’s face it… we all are, you can usually save 10% by ordering through your motor club or by using your credit card. At the bare minimum you’re gonna get some bonus points for it. Confirmed discounts are available through RACQ (usually the other big motor clubs are reciprocal so be sure to check out RACV, NRMA, RACT, RAC, and AANT), ANZ Frequent Flyer Credit Card, Westpac Instant Offers, ANZ Rewards Credit Card, St. George Instant Benefits, Bank of Queensland Q-Rewards.

You can also save up to 20% on Hampers with a National Pharmacies Membership. Simply view the Christmas Catalogue.

Shopping for kid’s toys is always a bit of a hard one to find discounts on. Save 20% by buying online with your Presidential Card at GR8 Toys. Save 10% at Entropy using your QRI Lifestyle card. Sign up to the Australian Geographic Newsletter and receive an in-store coupon. We’ll try to nut this one out and bring you some more great bargains from the free programs out there

Decorations: Keep an eye out for great offers from Myer and David Jones in their monthly instant offers. Failing that you’ve got National Pharmacies with some great low-cost and discounted decoration options that are up to 20% off.

Christmas Entertainment: Reading Reel Club, Hoyts Movie Club, Cine Buzz weekly emails include an exclusive member offer for a discounted movie.
Christmas Entertainment: AMF Bowling AMF Roller club - 10% off everything. They usually include discounted school holiday offers, it’s free to join. Thursday night is cheap bowling night, too

We’ll be sure to add the latest benefits here as they come… Also, you can do your own search from our home page: Search Now!
-Me

One of the most exciting parts of our launch was being asked by A Current Affair to go on a spending spree to show just how much you can save with Loyalty Cards.

At first even we were a little dubious - our take on loyalty is that it is consistent spending over a period of time that gives maximum benefit, but with full faith in the programs out there we headed into central Sydney to the QVB and went shopping.

The results were pretty extraordinary. With no TV magic (really)!) we saved $187.00 in less than an hour. The brands were Oxford, Esprit, Kathamandu, Krispy Kreme and Wagamama.

Each of these stores had great specials on and all of the goods were things we actually needed (well, I didn’t need that Oxford knit but is was nice).

So overall we were very happy with our little adventure. You can see it here. ACA Shopping Spree

The story on ACA was the most popular of the night, so we were asked back to rank our favourite cards the following week. This is an interesting ask because programs are so different and people find value in different ways, but in the end we applied some key criteria to come up with a list. The criteria (loosely) were:

* Instant Benefits rule over accrual

* Local and multiple redemption locations are good

* No or low fee entry is a bonus

The winning card was Show Your Card and Save which is not only the largest in the world but offers significant discounts at thousands of locations.

Other cards to make it to our final list were FlyBuys, Qantas FF, Woolworths Everyday Rewards, David Jones Amex, ANZ EDine, Krispy Kreme, Myer One, Virgin Velocity and Accor Advantage Plus. You can see our reasoning here.

You can also see the full video here. ACA Best Cards

Though naturally it was exciting to get national TV coverage for Perkler as part of our launch week what was the most exciting was the response. The fact that we were the most popular segment, and that hundreds of thousands of hits to the site resulted proved for us that there are plenty of people out there trying to use loyalty better!

From the previous blog post I mentioned that the NAB Gold Rewards program has turned into two different cards (linked to the one account), the NAB Qantas Gold Visa (or MasterCard), and the NAB Qantas Gold American Express.

David Jones has just released (2/3/2009) a David Jones American Express card where you can redeem points earned for ANY travel (anything that a travel agent can book can be purchased with their voucher. Booked through AmEx), including Qantas flights.

Here we’ll compare the earning and burning options of the NAB Qantas Gold American Express ($145.50 annual fee) and the David Jones American Express ($99 annual fee) cards.

Shopping In-Store:

DJs: 2 points per dollar, don’t expire, no cap
NAB (in-store means Qantas): 3 points per 2 dollars for the first $3,000 per month; 2 points per 2 dollars for $3,001 to $10,000; Nothing over $10,000.

We’ll assume that you always earn 3 points per 2 dollars for the NAB card as that is it’s highest points-earning capability.

DJs $100 Gift Card: 13,300 points. At 2 points per dollar that is $6,500 to get $100 back.
NAB $100 Myer Card: 13,500 points. At 3 points per 2 dollars that is $9,000 to get $100 back.

DJs $100 Travel Voucher (includes Qantas): 15,000 points. At 2 points per dollar that is $7,500 to get $100 of travel.
For NAB they don’t have a specific dollar amount to redeem on travel, so let’s take a domestic flight from Sydney to Coffs Harbour. 1 “zone”, 275 miles, from $104 economy class.
Sydney - Coffs ($104): 8,000 points + 3,000 points for taxes = 11,000 points. At 3 points per 2 dollars that is $7,334 to get $104 of travel.

In-Store Conclusion: DJs has a HUGE advantage if you plan on redeeming your points for a shopping voucher. NAB Qantas Gold has a slight (2.26%) advantage if you plan on redeeming your points for travel with Qantas.

Shopping Everywhere Else

DJs: 1.5 points per dollar, don’t expire, no cap
NAB: 2 points per 2 dollars for the first $3,000 each month; 1 point per 2 dollars for $3,001 to $10,000; Nothing over $10,000.

We’ll assume you always earn 2 points per 2 dollars with the NAB card as that is it’s highest points-earning capability.

DJs $100 Gift Card: 13,300 points. At 1.5 points per dollar that is $8,867 to get $100 back.
NAB $100 Myer Card: 13,500 points. At 2 points per 2 dollars that is $13,500 to get $100 back.

DJs $100 Travel Voucher (Includes Qantas): 15,000 points. At 1.5 points per dollar that is $10,000 to get $100 of travel.
Using the same Qantas flight from Sydney to Coffs:
Sydney - Coffs ($104): 11,000 points. At 2 points per 2 dollars that is $11,000 to get $104 of travel.

Everywhere else conclusion: DJs extends it’s advantage over the NAB card when redeeming your points for a shopping voucher. NAB Qantas Gold loses it’s slight advantage and DJs gains the slight advantage (10% now though! 12.26% change…) when redeeming your points for travel with Qantas.

Of course you may need to consider your shopping habits and your financial needs when choosing a credit card that is right for you and this is a mere glimpse of what both programs have to offer.

Here at Perkler we’ve just embarked on an eye opening campaign. Until now we have focussed our efforts on letting people manage their entire wallet in one virtual place.

In this new campaign we are responding to the current economic climate, and the need for people to get value from their loyalty programs immediately, by isolating the best possible loyalty perks on a product by product or brand by brand basis.

Our first port of call has been cosmetics. We figure make-up is the kind of thing people can still think about making small purchases on and get a ‘luxury’ item despite not being so flush right now. Having said that, Graham our database and community guy has been seen to weep as he has entered the RRP for some of these products!!!

You can see what we’ve found for cosmetics here - an interesting list that shows the big programs as well as the small have a lot to offer if you know where to find it. We’ve had LOTS of people looking for Napoleon Perdis and The Body Shop - very different brands in lots of ways.

Next cab off the ranks is likely to be cameras - always a really interesting product segment. But it could just as easily be a brand like Apple or an activity like travel.

So what would you choose - what product or brand or activity do you think rewards would make you purchase in the current climate? Be interesting to see the responses.

Justin

@JustinBarrie  on twitter

One of the things we want to do at Perkler (and Adam is working hard to implement) is to not only allow you to search across your loyalty portfolio in one place, but receive special offers or discounts, on top of the current loyalty offering, to get you in the store.

As we build relationships with retailers we’ll be pushing this as an opportunity for them and consumers and will offer coupons for use on the phone and web to facilitate this.

It’s a good space to be in as belts tighten and interestingly the idea is gaining traction in markets that you wouldn’t expect.

The US is traditionally big into coupons - thanks to green stamps and the Great Depression there is a strong culture of coupon use. The UK on the other hand has has a good tradition of coupons, but don’t tend to attack them with the same veracity. Until now!

New Media Age out of the UK reports today  (you’ll need to register with NMA to see the whole article) that searching online for coupons is up 133% in the past year (my guess is that demand and searching will double again in the current climate in just a few months). At the same time Google is talking about the move to mobile advertising.

Perkler - mobile based search results linked to an additional discount coupon AS WELL as your current entitlements is looking pretty good in this space.

Justin

Got a nice post from Tim Winship today about services that let people know when award seats come up in frequent flyer programs. Tim is spot on when he asks the question “why don’t the programs do this directly?”.

He probably knows the answer as he has worked in and around travel and loyalty for 20 years, but if he’s asking then seems like they probably should!

At Perkler we ask a different question. Why sit around waiting for a reward seat when the programs offer so many other options?

Yes - I understand that there are a LOT of people out there who can use the flights and want to invest the time to try and get the award, good luck to them. But for the vast majority of consumers out there, instead of waiting for the award, get a retail reward.

Experiences, home appliances, discounts at retailers and gift vouchers are all available from these programs. With Christmas coming up you can use Perkler to help you find out about potential presents for people you love (and even yourself).

Redeeming these rewards isn’t always the most efficient use of points (Dan’s post yesterday highlighted how different programs offer different value) but if you aren’t using them anyway - the current economic climate is exactly the rainy day you’ve been looking for.

So next time you hear someone moaning about their frequent flyer program and how they can’t get a seat. Send them to Perkler and tell them to look for the reward and forget the award (that’s nice, we should trade mark it!).

Justin

Fired up the home computer this morning and noticed an email from Everyday Rewards - the Woolworths fuels rewards scheme. My wife joined up to ensure we got the best out of our shopping and boy does it make a big difference not having all of those paper vouchers hanging around.

Fill 'er Up!

Anyway, the email this morning had the title - ‘Exclusive 10c Fuel Saving for You’. For her, for Ele? Was this a Tesco moment where perks were actually starting to get personalised from one of Australia’s big players?

I scrolled down and got even more excited. The offer was an additional 10 cents discount on fuel if we bought some frozen chicken products. Sounds dull, but with a four year old who has gone from eat anything to eating only white and yellow things, Baiada Chicken Nuggets have become an essential freezer item.

So they offered us an extra fuel discount if we bought more of a product that we like and regularly buy at their outlets - perk heaven!

Not quite.

I ran up the hall and delivered Ele’s coffee to her in bed (as any loving husband would - right) and asked her about the email. “Just a coincidence” was the response. “Last week they sent one and the offer was based on buying margarine”. 

Now I don’t think I’ve bought or had margarine in my house since I lived with Mum and Dad almost 20 years ago.

So, it wasn’t a message based on Ele’s preferences, just a random product selection that suited us. We’ll get the offer but hope they learn more about us, and I’m sure if we had their credit card they would. But with a magnetic strip rewards card that isn’t really going to happen at the moment.

Unless of course they connect with Perkler members and then they can learn from them without even having to upgrade their card technology or chase people onto credit programs at ‘crunch time’

Regardless of the (slightly) missed opportunity we are really enjoying and using the Everyday Rewards - a big improvement on the paper vouchers. 

Justin