I hate rebates

I meant to post this note in response to this Colloquy article on the debate on rebates back in May. However, 6 months later (now in November), I feel just as strongly as I did then.

I HATE REBATES. 

Not as a consumer, of course, but as a marketer and loyalty practitioner. Rebates encourage cherry-pickers. Rebates are for the 'penny-wise'. Rebates cannot encourage long-term brand affinity, patronage, or higher-margin product cross-sell/up-sell. Rebates kill your product CVP, your profits, your image, and eventually your business.

It's true.

Yes, I agree that rebates may work for certain category-goods, it certainly does not work in the long-term for payment cards. Then again, most banks fail to see the 'longer-term big picture'. So, we are back to square one.

And I categorically agree with everything the article says and advocates. Read it, please.

Virtual Currency may no longer be "virtual" anymore

Just a moment ago, Finextra tweeted an piece of Amex-related news: American Express has filed a patent for a system and method for using loyalty rewards as a currency.Any loyalty practitioner will find this statement odd. Loyalty rewards mostly operate on the concept of a 'rewards currency'. So, what is so different about this? Further reading reveals that 'currency' in question, is one that is 'virtual' in nature. By 'virtual', it refers to currency that exists in the 'virtual' or a.k.a. internet/online world.

For hardcore online gamers or even Facebook amateur players, the 'virtual currency' is 'virtual money' used in the purchase of all things, well, virtual; like a potion here and there, or a zombie to grow your garden. As with money in the real-world, you have to 'work' to 'earn it'.

Amex put in $30 million in September for a 4-year-old company Sometrics that helps gaming companies set up the infrastructure to enable virtual-currency. With this, they may have made the most far-sighed investment in new business yet.

As the social-cultural sphere is increasing entrenched within the 'virtual', so is the economy. The world painted in the movie series Matrix may be a teeny bit far-fetched, but who is to say that the clothes, food supplies, armour and magic potions you buy in the cyber world are less important or valuable that the tangible real ones in the world?

Food for thought.