Membership system is an important intangible asset of a product or service oriented company. Wisely manage the membership system could not only generate company’s profit but also contribute to the enterprise reputation. Company can consolidate the loyalty of customers through membership system; on the other hand, they become a platform of database with relatively higher quality. They then created huge referral power to other potential customers.
The above image shows a membership system that is divided into two models, each with different approach towards the generation of members. You can see how marketing wisdom were applied in it.
We try to explain the theory by analogy to a traffic system.
Model 1 shows a very board highway with direct channel access to the end. There is no branch for the highway and members can see clearly what the company would offer for them. With perfect visibility towards a membership system, customers would be losing their interest and more importantly, no privilege feeling of joining such membership. They can join any time with the same premium and as a result, there will only be a slight increase or even no increase in company’s membership.
But for Model 2, we try to create a scenery of limited supply in a designated time. Start from the beginning, we establish different channel of recognition for the public. The methods include acknowledgement by products, by direct mail, by referral of existing member, by advertisement and by Internet. In this case, we use a so-called “Bottleneck Strategy” to create traffic jam in approaching the membership system. What we provide for the members is a very fancy zone with many promotional activities as well as unique benefits within their sphere of visibility. Sales boom with members more willing to purchase products or consume services to achieve their privilege membership premium. We then successfully generate a steady-increase membership model.
What member in such system can see is special premium with limited supply, which they have to put afford in order to maintain the membership. But the most important fact is we actually have unlimited supply backing up the whole fancy zone, which hidden from the members. This is how we help companies to achieve advantageous position through well-developed membership system.
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