A Marketing lesson from Curves? What does that have to do with custom lapel pins? Well, pull up a chair and I will tell you a story.

My wife is an avid Cures fan. If you are unfamiliar with their business model you can go to their official Curves website. Imagine a womens only health club where the average middle aged woman can come and work out on their low impact machines for 30 minutes a day 3 times a week without being “hit on” by a male.

Curves rewards their patrons in lots of little ways to keep them coming back. weekly they have word puzzles that they want you to solve. The winner wins a little trinket, usually a “curves” pen or pad. But you should see the smiles of the winners. Grown women so proud of the “curves” pen that they won and will use veryday where ever they go.

But that is only the beginning.

Most gym memberships clubs get frustrated with the drop off in attendance after the holidays new years resolution, “I am gonna lose weight this year” wears off. Curves has come up with an interesting way to keep them coming back for more. How do they do this?

T-shirts.

T-shirts? Now pay close attention because this can be duplicated with using award pins very easily.

Everyone in the joint is wearing T-shirts that they have earned. Some have a “curves” shirt with a Big 200 on it celebrating 200 workouts. Others have a 400. One old lady proudly wears her 800 like it was a gucci original. You should see the stares & looks of amazement as she enters the facility. “Wow…she got an 800 shirt. I never saw one of them before”. Yep everyone wants one & they will keep coming back till they get one.

My wife recently had her 100th workout anniversary. Unfortunately you get your first T-shirt upon your 200th visit. But rest assured…she will GET IT!

If you are not using award pins or recognition pins yet in your business why not? Set up a frequent buyer club and reward your members with a pin. When they spend more then so many dollars with your business give them the next pin to celebrate that moment. They can stack their pins like officers stack their citation bars they have earned.

Related posts:

1. Employee Retention: Here Is A Quick Idea…
2. Kentucky Derby Festival: 4 Great Pin Marketing Lessons
3. Custom Pins Express: 2 Easy Ways To Get Them
4. Custom Pin And Design: Using The Mastermind Principle
5. How To Order Custom Made Pins

Tags: business-marketing, curves, curves-for-women, marketing, marketing+pins, marketing-pins, small-business

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 at 10:42 pm and is filed under Business Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.