Well there are two concepts in play here, one is like the old S&H Greenstamps, which is to take an activity that is normally a process to achieve a goal (say shopping for groceries so you can eat) into something that is itself a goal (do enough shopping and you can get a new toaster). The airlines created 'milers' who are folks who spend time figuring out ways to keep their executive memberships current by having enough miles.
The second is the notion of awards and 'achievements' which provide ego reinforcement for folks who might otherwise be appalled at how much time they are spending on an activity. This provides a convienient rationalization path so that folks don't say "I just wasted three hours on the TMZ site, instead they got three 'oscars' for finding all the Paula Abdul stories in under three hours."[1] Its a rationalization that they 'achieved' something by investing that time.
Affinity programs, (such as airline miles, green stamps, etc) are pretty straight forward since they give information that the customer has done a certain volume of business with you, you can afford to give them a discount (post facto) by discounting stuff with affinity 'points.' Achievement / Titles type programs are a way to tap into the human rationalization engine and generally only make the consumer feel better (or less bad) about the poor value they have received.
[1] Its an entirely fictitious example, only the web site, TMZ, is real and it really is a complete waste of anyone's time :-)
The second is the notion of awards and 'achievements' which provide ego reinforcement for folks who might otherwise be appalled at how much time they are spending on an activity. This provides a convienient rationalization path so that folks don't say "I just wasted three hours on the TMZ site, instead they got three 'oscars' for finding all the Paula Abdul stories in under three hours."[1] Its a rationalization that they 'achieved' something by investing that time.
Affinity programs, (such as airline miles, green stamps, etc) are pretty straight forward since they give information that the customer has done a certain volume of business with you, you can afford to give them a discount (post facto) by discounting stuff with affinity 'points.' Achievement / Titles type programs are a way to tap into the human rationalization engine and generally only make the consumer feel better (or less bad) about the poor value they have received.
[1] Its an entirely fictitious example, only the web site, TMZ, is real and it really is a complete waste of anyone's time :-)