New Marketing Program May Increase ROI for Retailers
I learned today of a new marketing program targeted to retailers called CREDITZ (using “Z” in your name seems to be the “new black” these days). They claim their program increases marketing ROI because it is a trackable method to “increase sales, enhance brand loyalty, acquire new customers and strengthen customer relationships.” In a nutshell, they are trying to entice consumers to change their shopping habits so that they use a CREDITZ card, instead of a debit/credit card, with registered online and brick-and-morter merchants who have signed up for the rewards program. The consumer gets points for the amount of money spent on their purchases, which translates into CREDITZ-back that can be then spent on those same merchants.
The upside for consumers:
- Earn 100 CREDITZ points for signing up, 100 points for taking their survey, and an unknown amount for referring friends and family.
- Manufacturers may provide digital coupons for their products.
- CREDITZ contributes 15% of their transactional revenue to widows and orphans because of aids, and micro-loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries.
- Purchase gift cards from retailers.
- Send CREDITZ to friends and family, even if they don’t have an account.
- Combine household member purchases into one account for a one-time $10 fee, as long as you have more than 10,000 points combined.
- At brick-and-morter retailers, look for the “GET PAID HERE” CREDITZ sticker on site.
- “CREDITZ Digital Currency may be inherited through a valid legal will.”
The downside for consumers:
- If you don’t read the below carefully, you may think that you earn 10 CREDITZ for every 10 cents that you spend, but that is not the case.
How long before I can start spending my CREDITZ?
Your initial redemption of CREDITZ is a minimum of 500 or more. Thereafter, you can spend any amount of your CREDITZ on goods or services at participating merchants and online sites.
10 CREDITZ = 10 Cents ––100 CREDITZ = $1.00 – – 1,000 CREDITZ = $10.00 ––10,000 CREDITZ= $100.00
- The Ts&Cs state, “Merchants will typically pay you one (1) unit of CREDITZ Digital Currency for every one or two dollars that you spend with them, after discounts and before taxes.” Not only that but, “Each unit of CREDITZ® Digital Currency has a digital currency value of 0.01 of a US Dollar when you spend them.”
So what does this mean? If you spend $100 before taxes, you may earn 50-100 CREDITZ according to the Ts&Cs. Taking the conservative figure, 50 CREDITZ, if you try to spend them right away you can’t. You have to have earned a minimum of 500 points (for your first spend only) to start using CREDITZ points to shop…meaning that you have to spend $1,000 before taxes to use your first $5 in CREDITZ. That’s conservatively a 0.5% return for your money and effort.
- When registering, they ask for all kinds of personal information: the kind of phone you own, who your carrier is, who your Internet provider is, what kind of pets you have, do you give your pets Christmas gifts (?!), what kind of music you listen to, what types of movies you like, where you buy books, what is your favorite color (seriously!), and it goes on and on.
- There are spelling errors all over the site, which irks me.
More from the Ts&Cs…
- “Merchants will determine the conditions under which they will permit you to obtain CREDITZ Digital Currency and may change those conditions at any time and without notice.”
- CREDITZ is “not responsible if a Merchant delays or fails to make [a CREDITZ payment].”
- “No CREDITZ Digital Currency will be issued for the following: tobacco, lottery tickets, specific concessions and/or other items specified as exclusions.”
- “You may spend your CREDITZ Digital Currency either in-store or through other distribution channels made available by the Merchant, such as over the telephone, online, through wireless devices, etc. [but] participating Merchants have [no] responsibility for failure to accept CREDITZ Digital Currency at the particular point-of-sale that you choose to make your purchase.”
- “[CREDITZ] may immediately cancel your Account, forfeit all CREDITZ Digital Currency you have accumulated and permanently restrict you from participating in the System if…it is determined that…,in the case that you move, you fail to provide CEO with your new address within six months of your personal information changing; or your Account remains inactive for more than two years.”
Their current registered retailers are a bit thin as well:
Apple iTunes
Beauty.com
Blinds.com
Camping World
Cars Direct
CCS
Championcatalog.com
Computers 4 Sure
Davids Cookies
Enterprise Rent A Car
eToys
Fashion Bug
Fingerhut Direct Marketing, Inc.
Florsheim
Flower.com
FlowerStore.com
FragranceNet.com
Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation
Fuller Brush Company
Gaiam.com, Inc.
GiftBaskets.com, Inc.
GigaGolf, Inc.
Guthy Renker Corporation
HearthSong
Hotwire
ICE.com
InternetFlorist.com
JewleryWeb.com Inc.
Just Because Baskets
KB Toys
Lane Bryant
Lillian Vernon Online
Limoges Jewlery
McAfee, Inc.
Monterey Bay Clothing Company
Mrs Fields Gifts, Inc.
Netflix, Inc.
Office Depot, Inc.
Officefurniture.com
Onehanesplace.com
Overstock.com
Paul Fredrick MenStyle
PetSmart
Pitney Bowes, Inc.
ROOTS Direct
Sierra Club
SkyMall, Inc.
SpeedGear.com
SwissOutpost and Swiss Knife Depot
Tactics.com
Tech Depot
Textbookx.com
Thrifty
TigerDirect
Time Life.com
Toshiba
Veterans Advantage, Inc
Vision Direct
WalMart.com USA,LLC
Waterford
Wirefly
Wireless from ATT
Zales
What do you think? From a consumer perspective, would this rewards program increase your brand loyalty to participating stores, or make you want to purchase at these retailers if you never have before?
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