Human behaviour dictates that consumer choices are often made for illogical reasons and we see examples of this occur on a regular basis in our own business.
The lure of getting a stamp, a card loyalty card swiped or points can be a powerful motivation for some.
We were amused to read a story of a pimp that was recently convicted of prostitution-related charges in a Massachusetts court.
The pimp advertised his hookers' services for $240 for an hour and $150 for a half-hour and exclusively used a certain chain of hotels because they offered a generous loyalty point scheme. The pimp booked the rooms and made sure that he collected the reward points up-front. Like any good pimp should, the proceeds of in-room activities were split with the women - but the women were made to pay for the hotel rooms they used.
The cruel irony is that most points earned with loyalty schemes tend to expire after a certain amount of time. Our hapless pimp will more than likely be unable to cash-in on his mountain of accumulated points as he has now checked-in to prison for the next two and a half years.
