Download Designing Effective Consumer Programs

Three Critical
Human Desires In
Consumer
Incentive Program
Design
Other motivational concepts, such as the need for power, affiliation
and achievement, all have an impact on marketing to external
consumers, as well as to internal employees. Schiffman and Kanuk
cite the following three critical human desires that have a critical role
on the design of consumer incentive programs.
Power. Understanding the desire of people to feel control of their
surroundings can affect what types of incentives are selected in a
program or how they are marketed. Loyalty and customer recognition
strategies particularly address consumer desire for power.
Affiliation. The human desire for affiliation is addressed by marketers
each time they hold a consumer event or offer logoed merchandise.
Understanding the targeted audience will in great part dictate how well
your organization achieves the desired level of affiliation.
Achievement. The desire for achievement is tapped by marketers each
time they run some type of contest requiring great writing or other
skills, or when they use athletic marketing themes to support a
promotion.
While hoping to tap psychological and emotional desires to make their
promotions more successful, most users of consumer incentives focus
specifically on getting people to act; i.e., respond to an ad, pick up the
phone, go to a store or Web site or, best of all, buy. This narrow
definition favors tactics that address the most fundamental elements of
motivation by creating a “state of uncomfortable tension, which exists
as the result of an unsatisfied need,” according to Schiffman and
Kanuk. You want to get consumers to act? According to basic
motivational principles, create a need, a want, or a desire and an easy
means for people to satisfy it.
Evaluating
Consumer Program
Effectiveness
THE INCENTIVE MARKETING ASSOCIATION
Many elements of motivation remain difficult to measure, but
consumer incentives provide a relatively reliable means of evaluation.
Companies that regularly use consumer incentives, including airlines,
hotels, cereal makers, fast food companies, etc., know these programs
work by seeing what happens when they withhold the incentive.
Consumer Incentive Program Series
Page
8.3