Enrichment or Entrapment?

Shouldn’t customer loyalty programs be about enrichment and not entrapment?

From my perspective, the Washington Redskins decision to require season ticket holders who purchase seats by credit card to use a Washington Redskins Extra Points™ MasterCard® is more about entrapment than enrichment. However, the team is positioning this program as a way to increase fan loyalty and ease ticket distribution.

I’m aghast less than 10 fans have so far complained about this. I would've thought this marketing maneuver would have created more customer vigilantes.

Snippets from the Washington Post article (reg. req’d) include:

The Washington Redskins are for the first time requiring season ticket holders who buy their seats with a credit card to use a Redskins Extra Points MasterCard, a move the club said will ease ticket distribution and increase fan loyalty, but others said could enhance the team's profits over the long term.

The team will continue to accept cash or checks for seats next season, team officials said.

Redskins spokesman Michael Sitrick said … "The purpose of the Redskins reward program is to build brand loyalty and have field passes and have other things that increases your fan base and obviously hope to sell other Redskins-related products."

The cards, issued by league sponsor MBNA Bank, also will enable the Redskins to track their customers' spending habits, allowing more targeted marketing.

"Where the Redskins benefit is by creating another branded product and offering the fans an inducement to use it," said Chicago-based sports marketer Marc S. Ganis. "If many more people sign up for MBNA credit cards, they likely will use them for non-team related purchases such as groceries, department stores or whatever it is. That can have a modest financial benefit to the team through the sponsorship fee paid by MBNA."

The credit cards are part of the NFL's new Extra Points program, which began in the 2004 season. The NFL earns revenue from league sponsor MBNA Bank for the cards and distributes that money to the 32 teams. Also, each team can earn income based on the number of fans who sign up for the cards and the frequency of their use, according to the league.

It could not be immediately determined whether any other NFL teams are requiring fans to use a team-branded credit card when they buy their tickets. The New England Patriots do not, but they accept only Visa cards, spokesman Stacey James said. Baltimore Ravens spokesman Kevin Byrne said the Ravens have no restrictions of any kind on such purchases.

The Redskins said they had received fewer than 10 complaints about the new requirement, though several fans contacted late last week said they were unhappy with the system.

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Tony Kornheiser, Washington Post sports columnist and television personality, wrote the following in his Monday column …

Season Ticket: $2,350 . . . Redskins MasterCard: Priceless

Maybe if the Redskins were like the Patriots, and contending for the Super Bowl every year, this credit card thing wouldn't seem so smarmy. Or maybe if the Redskins were like the Packers, and making the playoffs every year, this credit card thing wouldn't seem quite so snarky. Heck, maybe if the Redskins were simply finishing above .500 once in a while this credit card thing wouldn't seem so totally cheesy.

But the Redskins aren't winning.

Year after year, they aren't winning.

And while I'm not for a second questioning the owner's desire to win or his commitment to win, it just seems like this is not the time to tell your loyal fans that they'd better use a certain kind of credit card to pay for their season tickets.

With a winning team you could say, "Ahhh, that's just business."

With a losing team you say, "That's crapola."

[Click here to read the rest of Tony’s comments (reg. req’d)]

Comments

[Basil Valentine]

I think the blow-back is still coming. This just arrived in the mailboxes on Saturday, apparently, and Kornheiser wrote it up for Monday.

Locally-based, nationally-syndicated radio jocks "Don and Mike" ranted about it for some time on the air Monday afternoon. I think the Redskins had already made them brand vigilantes to some extent, but this was another manifestation of the organization's arrogance.

[Katherine Stone]

Things like this make me afraid for the marketing industry as a whole. Wait a minute ... I was already afraid. This just makes it worse. Can you imagine?!! That's like the grocery store telling me they will only take nickels, no dimes. It's ridiculous!

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Any time marketers find ways to make it inconvenient for customers to buy things they are doing a disservice to customers. I too find this marketing behavior reprehensible.