Remember your first car? You felt proud of yourself, and so did your parents. It’s likely you drove to your friend’s places, bragged about it, and offered to drive when you first had the chance. These are milestone and trophy memories.
Merchandise rewards create the same effect on people.
These sorts of moments cannot be achieved with many other types of rewards. Merchandise can create these feelings and emotions in people who receive them. Whether it is furniture, sports gear, or technology gadgets, we all desire to own the things we like. Even before owning them, we get attached to things. Often redeemed rewards take pride and place in the home.
For this reason, merchandise rewards are a great choice for an incentive program. To really hit the spot, the merchandise selection needs to speak to the demographics of the participants. Understand what type of reward every participant would like and creates drivers that entice each of them to succeed.
Fortunately, a program with a rewards catalogue gives program participants the ability to virtually select anything that brings out all those desires and reactions. Participants can set their goals at the beginning or throughout the program and work towards achieving the reward they want.
Even better, the benefits of merchandise rewards are not only for program participants but for marketers and sales managers in charge of incentives.
There are many advantages associated with merchandise rewards, not least of which is that they apply easily to long-term incentives and rewards strategy and there is something for everyone.
From inclusion in points-based reward programs, with access to an online catalogue of rewards, to brand activations, sales staff promotions or sales sprints, merchandise rewards are powerful magnets for motivation and engagement.
Using merchandise rewards in any program also offer managers the ability to stretch their budget. Through their rewards vendor, they can access merchandise discounts, which means they have more money for rewards and can also offer customers and channel partners high perceived value in the form of highly desirable items.
