Contributing businesses

Problem:
In my application businesses put forward their products as rewards for when the users earn enough points to buy them.  The problem with this is I'd have to think about why these businesses would want to put forward their products, as they wouldn't do it unless they get something out of it. The closest system to what I want to have is Flybuys so I researched how they and programs like GrabOne and Entertainment Books benefit the contributing businesses.

Research:

Flybuys: Is a system that allows businesses to put forward their products for members to earn.  They earn them by spending money at contributing businesses, where they receive a certain amount of points depending on how much they spent, which eventually add up to allow you to buy these products.  The reason the contributing businesses benefit from putting their products forward is mainly because of the advertising.  Customers have to spend money at these places in order to earn the points and their products are advertised so much that they create regular full paying customers and incourage others to become customers too.

GrabOne: GrabOne works by allowing you to create a one day feature.  You can then generate hundreds if not thousands of new customers who will be coming to experience your business, it's a great opportunity to show them everything you have to offer and encourage up sell.  It helps you to retain your new found customers and drive more business.  Users share your offer with everyone they know via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. This buzz will continue to attract new customers for months following your feature.  It also gives you exclusive exposure in front of hundreds of thousands of potential customers and allows you to chose your own costs and discounts.

Entertainment Book: This works by giving users two for one or 25% off offers.  Customers who are impressed by their experience at your restaurant will generate positive word-of-mouth advertising and will be likely to return again as regular full-paying customers.  Independent research shows that over 95% of visits by Entertainment members to businesses are first-time visits.  This research also shows that over 90% of customers have returned, or plan to return, to businesses found through the Book.  Participation in the Entertainment program has resulted in an increase in business of up to 30% and an average return on investment in excess of 10 to 1.

Reflection on research: I was really surprised that the main reason contributing businesses in all these loyalty programs purely gained from the advertising aspect of the programs.  The discounted offers exposed the businesses to potentail customers and the discount attracted members who were usually new customers.  When they used the offers and liked what they saw they spread the word, creating more full paying customers, and it was highly likely that they would also come back as full paying customers too.

Problem: The only difference with these programs and the one I'm designing is that members still have to pay something, they just recieve discounts or they had to spend money at the actual businesses to earn the points to recieve the rewards.  Whereas with my application members don't have to spend anything at the contributing businesses, they get points for saving their own energy.  The only benefit the contributing businesses get is the exposure from the advertising.  I don't think this will be enough of a gain for those businesses to want to contribute their products.

Solution: I tried to think about ways I could give contibuting businesses more benefit. One idea is to not have the points pay for the whole product but to instead give a discount on the product.  This would allow businesses to chose their own discounts and costs.  But instead this idea could lose the interest of users of my application.  They might not think a small discount is enough of a reward to go to the effort of uploading their data and saving energy.

Another idea is to get rid of businesses contributing products altogether and not have the reward as real products.  Instead have a virtual pet that you have to keep alive.  When you save lots of energy and lower your average consumption your pet is healthy and happy, but when you start to use too much energy your pet will get sick and be unhappy.  When you beat your neighbours averages you can upgrade your pet to make it happier and get more pets.  Other users will be able to see your pet and if it's unhappy users would be embarrassed that they aren't taking care of their pet.  I like this idea but I think it will change the user group of my application.  The majority of people that play virtual games like this, are teenagers or children.  A lot of adults might become uninterested in being involved in a virtual game.  Adults are the main payers of energy bills therefore this wouldn't be a sensible user group to lose.

After looking back at my origional design I thought about how I wanted my application to have a business category, where they can also compete against other businesses to get the lowest energy consumption.  This would mean that they too can earn points to buy goods for their businesses as well as contributing their products for other peoples rewards.  Therefore they are gaining from getting free products for their business, exposing themselves, inviting new customers and saving costs with energy saving.  I think this would be enough of a gain to convince businesses to contribute their products.