Managing Loyalty on Mobile Phone

Since the day I formally started my own company, one of the idea that I was toying around was running loyalty program on mobile phones. I am not a shopping freak, but still do manage to carry atleast 4 different cards in my wallet. Even though I hardly use them, the fear of actually being in one of these shop without the card dithers me from dropping it. On the other hand a mobile phone is something I always carry and use it constantly. So why can't my loyalty card turn into my mobile phone?

A lot of company like mCheck and others are actually trying to solve the bigger problem. That is to get rid of your credit/debit card or your wallet itself completely. Indian government does allow service providers to deduct money over mobile phone so we don't have any regulatory issue here. And the technology used by all the providers is quite secure so that is not the problem either. Moreover with 500 million subscribers in this country, you can't even deny that the market is not there. So why do you think companies like mCheck have not been able to make an impact in this market?

I believe mobile payment in India is a classic case study where an idea is beaten down not by market need, but the cultural underling of the market. We've had the dot com revolution for a decade now, But still the number of people who transact online is abysmally low. The number is increasing no doubt, but still it's a fraction of overall market. Mobile payment may be downright easy and the most convenient way to do it, but you just can't change the way people transact.

This market does not want convenience. If you offer that as a service, it will not take it. People don't mind carrying their wallet. So don't try to replace it. Basically don't expect the market to learn a new way of payment. And by that I don't mean don't provide mobile payment at all.

Well, coming back to loyalty on mobile phone, we recently launched mLoyalty for Games n Gadgets. GnG is a premier shop focussed exclusively on Games and accessories. You can become a member of GnG either by filling up a simple signup page on http://gng.ezeecoupons.com or by just sending a simple sms ADDME GNG to 9243000111. That's right, the amazing thing about this program is that you access it over your mobile phone. You can register, find out about your points, sms your complaints/queries over SMS.

You don't get a physical card as part of this membership, but instead you just use your mobile phone which you anyway carry. You shop and at the checkout, mentions your mobile number, and the points are automatically added to your account. You can send sms MYPOINTS GNG to 9243000111 and get to know the number of points you have. The shop is going to launch attractive contests which you can participate on your mobile phone itself. If you win the prize, you will the gift on your mobile phone as a SMS, which you bring to the shop, show the SMS and walk away with your prize.

For a change it is actually going to be fun to be a part of such a loyalty program. So go ahead, register yourself and enjoy the gen X ride.

EzeeCoupon Advertisement

This is how the EzeeCoupon's mobile coupon corner looks like in the Jayanagar CityPlus Edition.

Good Morning Jayanagar

Yes the title is inspired from the blog post of Twitter announcing it's collaboration with Bharti Airtel. But that is as far as the similarity goes.

Tomorrow early sunday morning, as Jayanagar (locality in Bangalore) wakes up and picks up their weekly edition of Cityplus newspaper freely delivered to them, they will become part of an advertising innovation which delivers promotional offers and discount that they are interested in on their mobile phone. Yes, What an Idea Sirji? Indeed. Our company EzeeCoupon, has tied up with 14 establishment in Jayanagar to deliver their discount offer to people who request for it. Cityplus readers just have to look up the mobile coupon code from a "Mobile Coupon Corner", SMS that code prefixed by EZEE (For example "EZEE BAP1") to 9243000111. Immediately they will receive an exclusive discount for the requested store.

Sounds simple? Yes it is. It is meant to be. You don't register anywhere. You don't fill out a form. You don't start your computer and connect it to Internet. You don't even have to have a fancy phone. And guess what? You don't have to pay 3 or 6 rupees as a VAS SMS as well. If you have a free sms plan from your phone service provider, you can download as many coupons for free. In essence that is the core of the services we envision to provide.

The idea as such is not ground breaking, but most definitely quite new. It involves the whole ecosystem of advertisers, to the advertising media and the consumers. We have really been lucky so far to get the advertisers and the media (Cityplus) to work with us (a story I'll save for later). But now is the real challenge when we present it to consumer and see how they react to it. Consumers usually detest changes. But there are a handful of innovation that has passed this crucial test. Hopefully we will pass as well.

Finally I do need help from everyone reading this blog to help us spread word about ezeecoupons and provide us feedback on it. So grab your copies of Cityplus Jayanagar edition, or call your sister, in-laws, friends or cousins staying in Jayanagar and ask them to check out this corner. And if you don't fall in any of that category, go to www.ezeecoupons.com and lookup the mobile coupon online. But most importantly, Avail the discount and let the advertisers know, that this is indeed a nice way to advertise. Talk/Tweet/Blog about it to your friends and help us spread virally.

Into the New World.