Polyopoly Money
We have all sat down with family and gone through the wonderful fun (excruciating task) that is playing Monopoly.
Well we all felt nice and rich (some of us) while playing that game. In fact, that idea of separation of real vs. fake money is why casinos have us use chips and Dave and Buster’s has us loading up that card. These institutions know not only is there a separation of how much money you are holding onto (even though you can do simple math), but they already have that cash waiting to go into their pockets as you spend (or lose at a casino).
Even before Dave and Buster’s jumped at the opportunity to have a load up card, our world was introduced to Canadian Tire money.
Ok for those who feel that wiki is a little TL;DR, a summary of the situation is Canadian Tire (a giant store up there you American folk) decided to issue gift money similar to Disney Dollars which could be used at CT stores. It was really fancy, printed on the same paper that Canadian dollars were. It is so popular in the great white north, they even have had multiple schemes to counterfeit the ‘money.’
This move back in the late 1950’s by Canadian Tire was so beyond its time, no retailer really emulated it, until now.
Two years ago, we talked about loyalty program evolution. However, even two years ago we needed a revolution of the current evolution. We had mentioned the Plenti program (which was created by American Express btw) lumping together many brands, but you are locked into those brands to get rewards. Yes there are plenty of cash back, airline/travel and point reward credit cards, but again you hear the ads, you get many asterisks on using them.
So are we limited to the stores that give us “Canadian Tire money?” such as Starbucks that just use glorified gift cards?
Enter applications like Trim and Drop. It is the future…
Trim operates similar to a credit card kick back. So example the deals right now are dining, groceries and movie purchases get you $1 back for every $5, or in the case of movies $10 back for every $20. A little bit more than your average credit card.
Trim’s features aren’t just savings but it appears they want to be a financial dashboard similar to a Mint or Clarity, which I think they do perform a service, ultimately their niches will be too small to get enough users. Trim will get the user base if they can maintain cash back.
The true future is the invite only (at the moment) application called Drop. With Drop you link your cards, you pick a few stores for permanent rewards and voila! Drop also has some temporary rewards for brands. Active opting in however passive reward taking. You don’t don’t have to take out your phone or rewards card. You use your credit card and there are your rewards.
So what makes Drop so special? You have major brands on it like Amazon, Chipotle, McDonalds, Whole Foods, Target, Uber…need I keep going? So those will earn you points which in turn allows you to shop for gift cards to stores you would use on top of the ones mentioned. Points for loyalty to spend on gift cards which will then be used at stores that Drop is partners with. This is where Drop is attractive to brands, they can dictate the worth of how much Drop points will equal a dollar to use at their store. Example it takes 5,000 Drop points to equal $5 at Starbucks and Aerie. Your every day point offers are fairly cheap, example Chipotle is 15 pts per each $1. Now those limited offers like Amazon has 2,000 pts per $20, that’s where Drop benefits the consumer. This is where Drop did their homework, they know they have to be attractive to both business and consumer to make it worth their time.
Drop is just Canadian Tire money, in digital form. Is it also poignant to mention that Drop is a Canadian company? Those Canadians certainly know how to work a rewards program.
Monopolies on rewards are a thing of the past. Polyopolies on collecting rewards and in turn spending how we please, that is the future.
