If any person wished to avail of free subway ride they had to do 30 squats (push-ups) in front of the ticket vending machine. If successfully done, the vending machine would reward the person with a free ticket. To make sure that ‘unscrupulous’ elements did not game the system the camera in the vending machine was kept low. If a person did not do the squat coming really low, the cameras of the vending machine would not ‘notice’ it & hence not reward the ‘cheater’ with free ticket. And 30 squats was arrived at because the price of a subway ticket was Rouble 30.
This was not the only event organised by the committee to get its citizens to become more health conscious. There were other reward based events – stationary bikes which charged your mobile cells for free where placed at strategic location. The person desirous of charging her mobile phone had to to peddle the stationary bike!
Bottom Line: Customers will willingly to task on matter how odious, boring & loathsome provided it is in their self-interest. Therefore when you want customers to buy your brand, always craft your proposition so that it is in their self-interest to 'choose' your brand over others!
An then experience the benefits percolate down to your bottom line.
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In this series, Rajesh Srivastava, Business Strategist and Visiting Faculty at IIM Indore gives you a regular dose of strategy case studies to help you think and keep you one step ahead as a professional as compared to your peers. Rajesh is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore and IIT Kanpur and has over 2 decades of experience in the FMCG industry. All previous Strategy with RS posts can be found here
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