Why use Foursquare to check in to places? What if there was a tangible reward for doing so? (And not just if you’re the “mayor” of a place)
If Foursquare was connected to all of my retailer loyalty rewards programs, hell yeah I would use that app all the time! It’s a serious pain carrying all of those cards and keychain cards, especially when travelling. But I’ll always have my phone on me no matter where I am. It’s a convenience for the consumer and in return retailers get people participating in their programs. Foursquare users are already addicted to getting those meaningless badges, why not reward that behavior with something? Sure, I’ll take that free SoBe Lifewater for going to the gym!
Foursquare has also designed a unique vehicle for check-in rewards that is far less linear and ephemeral than traditional location-based reward programs. Rather than, say, earning a free coffee for becoming “mayor” of Starbucks (or just giving away 10,000 pairs of free jeans like Facebook and Gap’s one-off promo), Foursquare and PepsiCo have tailored rewards to user behavior, irrespective of in-store check-ins. Now, when participating customers earn Foursquare’s “Gym Rat” badge, they might be offered a SoBe Lifewater; or, if you often check in bright and early, Foursquare will recognize you’re a morning person, and may offer Tropicana orange juice or Quaker Oats–all specials on PepsiCo products, redeemable at Safeway stores.
I imagine the current percentage of people taking advantage of check-in promotions is very slim. Every time I’ve tried to take advantage of a promotion I’d heard of online, it’s been a struggle trying to explain to the poor employee who invariably has no idea what I’m talking about. Remove that pain point and you’ve got more people participating and feeling happy enough to spread the word to their friends.
The issue with past check-in promotions–like Facebook’s deal with Gap or perhaps Gowalla’s partnership with Disney–was that the platforms were not seamlessly integrated–and therefore not scalable. “How can we find ways to take the employees completely out of the equation?” asks Walker. The solution: by connecting Foursquare accounts to stores’ existing loyalty cards and programs. “We are intimately aware that training employees is difficult. Today, when you see a special, you check in to unlock it and show your phone to redeem it. That’s very hard to scale, particularly when you deal with chains that have thousands of stores, tens of thousands of employees, and high-turnover rates,” he says.
