Expand your customer base to form lifelong brand loyalists, increasing average selling price and frequency by decreasing price sensitivity while garnering evangelists to promote your brand through word of mouth. That’s the goal of marketing.
Gamification
I started playing My Coke Rewards in December 2007. I usually enter codes for 2 liter bottles of pop (worth 3 points) or 12 pack cans (9 points). After almost five years, I have about 1,050 points. I don’t cheat or buy codes online. (Yes, there is a black market for Coke Rewards codes. Much like property swapping during the McDonald’s Monopoly game.)
I’ve amassed my points organically. I keep playing because I’m a consumer who has been gamed, because I expect a great prize when I reach a high point level, and because Coke accomplished their goal: I am more engaged in the brand and spend more time on their site.
Sadly, the most point-expensive prizes aren’t off the charts. What’s funny is the variance in prizes for a point level. 1,000 point rewards:
1000 Points
|
1000 Points
|
1000 Points
|
1000 Points
|
1000 Points
|
1000 Points
|
1000 Points
|
- Garden tools
- $100 restaurant.com gift card
- $25 Nike.com gift card
- a yoga mat
1500 Points
|

Consumer psychology
…critics say the risk of gamification is that it omits the deepest elements of games — like skill, mastery and risk-taking — even as it promotes the most superficial trappings, like points, in an effort to manipulate people.
–NYT, You’ve Won a Badge (and Now We Know All About You)
What did you decide to go with? I was thinking about the bowls (1900 points now), but didn’t want to waste the points if it wasn’t worth it.
I haven’t cashed in my points yet — holding out for the bowls. Hope they’ll still be around when I get to 1900. It’s hard to imagine parting with the points, right?
You get those bowls yet? If so how are they?
And yes, it is hard to imagine actually using all those points. I started collecting them seven years ago, and once I cash them in I don’t think I’ll keep collecting them. I feel like a huge chapter of my life is ending, haha.
No, I still haven’t cashed in. I am afraid of buyer’s regret. I think I prefer having all the points marinate in the bank because it means keeping the possibility of attaining goods I don’t really need from a brand I don’t much like these days.