Bribery?

In the world of advanced marketing, we all know about the benefits of one-to-one marketing, creating a relationship with your customer, and speaking directly to them. And in the most effective use of the technology, in Internet marketing, successful sites have seen the greatest advancement in customer loyalty due to the concept of personalization meshed with great service, (the usual example is Amazon). But what about out and out bribery?

Yes, according to Richard L. Brandt, smart online companies now use customer rewards on their sites. Traditional retailers have known and proved that out and out bribery can have an outstanding effect on consumer behavior and customer loyalty. We all use "Rewards Cards" for grocery shopping and who doesn't have "Frequent Flyer Miles"? In fact, haven't you at some point, thrown away some services like on-time flights or leg room for the accumulation of those miles for future use? Well, welcome to web incentives! Companies like San Francisco based Netcentives, Inc. have more than one million customers who rack up frequent flyer miles when they buy through their site, www.clickrewards.com, and its affiliates. Airlines can make more money selling miles to merchants than they do by selling airline tickets to paying passengers, according to Brandt.

Another way to bribe you to buy using web technology has been successfully developed by Prio, Inc. When you register through www.savesmart.com/home.html you are connected to thousands of merchants who belong to this program. As a Prio member, you register your credit card, shop at Prio's merchant partner's stores or web sites. When you make a purchase using your credit card you are automatically credited a discount on your account. The consumer saves money and the merchant gets a new customer.

There are many other sites that offer buying incentives in various forms from the simple to the complex. At CoolSavings (www.coolsavings.com) you can print coupons to use at affiliate online and offline retailers. At the site CyberGold (www.cybergold.com) you 'earn' 'cash' when you use their portal to enter partner sites to do various things like, try, buy, or sign up. This 'cash' can then be 'spent' at affiliate vendor sites. This web site keeps a 'bank' of your 'cash' for you.

Other Membership-type sites, like Freeride (www.freeride.com), have complex levels of sponsorships, affiliates, partners and offer consumer members who surf through or buy from partners all kinds of free stuff, points, miles, coupons, free Internet time, etc.

Bribery, as some contend, or good marketing?

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