Like some of you or maybe many of you, I have a whole bunch of beauty brand membership cards in my purse which makes it even more bulky (wish cash was what made it bulky) thanks to the numerous department and supermarket loyalty cards.
There are some brands which have done away with cards and made it simple in that when you purchase something, all you have to do is inform them your hand phone number or Mykad number and points will be added accordingly. In any case, the whole point of being a member of these brands is so that you can receive benefits such as updates on new products via sms, email or newsletters, workshops (complimentary or otherwise), gifts when your purchases reach a minimum limit and invitations to store events and so on and so forth.
To be completely frank, I haven’t managed to redeem any gifts for years. I used to redeem Shiseido products when I was their loyal customer for years but I’ve since returned the membership card (the only time I have ever returned a membership card but that’s another story for another time) and I guess being in the position where I receive products every week for review is a great a deterrent to buying new beauty products.
Now I would like to read your thoughts on beauty brand memberships. I’ve got a nice jar of Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cream Intense Hydration (very lightweight and suitable for all skin types especially dry) to give away here so if you would like to participate, please comment on the following:-
1. Does being a member of a beauty brand make you want to spend more on their products just so you can redeem gifts with the points accumulated?
2. What kind of benefits would you like to have from being a member of a beauty brand, e.g. complimentary workshops, invitations to previews, etc?
Terms & Conditions:-
1. Giveaway exclusively for those who have ‘liked’ Juniper’s Journal’s Facebook page & with Malaysian addresses only.
2. Giveaway ends at 10pm Tuesday 20th January 2015.
3. Winner will be contacted via email for delivery address once Giveaway ends. Please respond within twenty four (24) hours otherwise another winner will be selected.
Updated 21st January 2015
Winner of this GIveaway:-
Selenaa Li
1. Does being a member of a beauty brand make you want to spend more on their products just so you can redeem gifts with the points accumulated? I used to be so, but I’ve come to my senses that I don’t really that many products and one time and the products do have expiry date. I was attracted to those gift vouchers with purchases during Bonuslink day or similar. E.g. RM 400 to get free gifts and RM80 vouchers bla bla bla…never ending numbers, which in fact I only need that one bottle of skincare. So, as expected, some of the stuffs still hiding somewhere in my cupboard. No more, I tell myself.
2. Being a member, I want to get invitations to previews and special offers, like Crabtree & Evelyn did a good job in this even though I never benefited from their point reward program (I can’t seem to spend few Ks on their products xD). Complimentary workshops are a good way to advertise a brand’s new products, so I think it should be part of the benefits of being a member. Brands should really ensure exclusivity for their members, in order for us customers to remain loyal to that particular brand.
1. I used to be crazy for all these brand membership cards but I have since stop this practice. At the beginning, you can just go crazy over the free gifts with a certain amount spent on the brand. After some time you will realise that you cannot use all those products at one time. In the end, it was just a waste of money buying so many but not using them. I have since curbed this habit.
2. For those I still have the membership cards with me, i would prefer points accumulation to purchase further the same skincare that suits me. Complimentary workshops on tips and guides would be much appreciated. I also welcome latest news on the brands I am interested in. Exclusivity like member’s day should also be continued.
1. No, I won’t make additional purchase just to receive the complimentary gifts although many brands love to do promotion like this, especially during festive seasons eg Christmas. I know what I need and I will just buy those I’m eyeing for. It’s seldom for me to make impulse buy just to accumulate points or to redeem gifts. However, discounts and offers exclusively for members will encourage me to make purchase.
2. Special discount is the best! Maybe the brands can provide special discounts on items that the member frequently re-purchased, I think this is a very direct way to help us as the members to save and at the same time, stay loyal to the brand. To me, this is very thoughtful and if there’s any brand doing this, I will become its loyal customer. There’re so many beauty brands out there that offer membership but they never really work on how they can benefit their members. Of course, I love complimentary workshops too! Membership that allows me to learn skin care and make up techniques from the professionals? Count me in!
By the way, I would like to know more about the story of “returning membership card” incident hehe~~
Thanks for the giveaway Juniper! Sorry to hear about your membership story.
Actually, it is easy to be blinded by the ‘redeem gifts’ with the points accumulated if one is new to the brands or new to skincare products. I find that some salesgirl will always ‘lure’ the member to buy more and not informing the buyers of what they can actually redeem. Most of the time, the ‘free gift’ that they can get is not really worth the amount of money spend. Some of the ‘free gift’ are sure useless, doesn’t suit the skin or just some small tiny size of products. Why do I need to spend ridiculous amount of money for those kinds of gifts when I just subscribe to beauty boxes or buy trial size which is way cheaper than spending so much of money on the brands just to get that?
I mean it is better that the brands allow the customer to redeem the points for some useful things and not specified it to certain unpopular products that the brands want to get rid of.
I might spend that of money when I was ignorant and young. Now, I think I am more educated and will only buy what I need and find suitable to my skin. Why spend more money to destroy my skin or make myself unhappy later especially when I see the amount of unused products?
2. Of course being members must be made to feel that the exclusivity belongs to them. Once they feel others can just get those special deals easily, the members will just leave. I think complimentary workshop for the brands products and how to use them is important as it will make the members feels they can utilizes the products to maximum effect. Giving complimentary deluxe samples or more samples for new members instead of those tiny 1ml samples to the public will make the members feels more appreciated. Since many brands are coming up with their online shops, I think it is more attractive if members are also given the same treatment and they can use the memberships points in the online shop. It is more convenient than ‘forcing’ some members to come down to cities like KL or JB just to redeem one small bottle of shampoo or something. Having member sales day is sure interesting. I also like that the members are given preview of the upcoming products, details about the products and special discounts.
1. Does being a member of a beauty brand make you want to spend more on their products just so you can redeem gifts with the points accumulated?
Yes, by being a member we will tends to spend more in order to get its member exclusive privileges. Yet to some extend, the rational us must stood out and tell ourselves to differentiate between what is a must spend product against what we wished to have. So I sort of do not have any beauty brand membership but a drugstore membership which I myself purchase most of my toiletries, bodycare product, hair care product, skincare product, makeup and etc. Instead of gifts redemption, this membership offer points which can be comvertes to become cash.
2. What kind of benefits would you like to have from being a member of a beauty brand, e.g. complimentary workshops, invitations to previews, etc?
Practically, everybody loves to be treated special! So all the above mentioned will be an added advantage of becoming a member. But some of the members might just have no right time to enjoy the benefits offered to them. The best benefits of all is to get accumulated points to redeem it when we purchase next product and the points accumulated have no expiry date!
Not participating in the giveaway.
1) I used to be very kiasu with my membership points. It will be such a waste if I don’t accumulate enough points to redeem. But as age catches on, I’ve learnt which brands are sincere in the redemption part and give us new products and which isn’t. And if I don’t have enough points to redeem, so be it. Why cry over an 15ml eye cream when in the end I have to spend over 1k more to redeem it. Buying the eye cream alone costs much less than 1k. Moreover the eye cream from redemption is already at least 2years old!
2) Special discount as Princess Neverland mentioned above is good. A relaxing gathering with food and drinks and a goodies bag just to appreciate us members and not the usual so call tea event that want us to spend spend spend, would be very nice.
This contest couldn’t have come at a better time,I’ve been searching online for days for a good moisturizer since I have really dry skin.
Anyway,to answer your question,personally I would be a member of a beauty brand if I really love and believe in that brand.So,yes I would definitely purchase a lot of their products.Some beauty brands have membership privileges as a thank you to their loyal customers and to attract new customers by listing the perks of the membership.Its a good marketing idea as well as a good gesture showing appreciation to their returning customers.If buying products from a brand I love also gets me other gifts and more discounts,I say yeayy to that.Yes,I will spend more and try to accumulate points but only if its in my price range or if I really really want the product.But I also prefer if the points accumulated does not expire at the and of the year or sooner than that.
The benefits I would want being a member are more discounts,free samples/products with every purchase(Kiehl’s stores gives samples even without purchase which is awesome),able to return/refund for products purchased,and like you stated complimentary workshop and invitation to previews and anything else really that would please us customers 😀
Lastly,thank you for the giveaway.You are too kind.You’re like the ellen degeneres of the blogging world 😉
1. Yes, I’m agreed for that being a member you can redeem gifts with the points accumulated. But it’s not worth because have to spend more than you get.
After close to a year being a Clarins’ member, I have accumulated some points that enable me to redeem some cash voucher. Despite spending quite some sum especially on skin spa, I only managed to get RM25 voucher. I really have no idea how many points that I actually gotten to achieve this RM25 voucher. As mentioned before, the Clarins’ membership total accumulation points is not too transparent. The most that we can see is the accumulation point from the current purchase.
According to their description on gift redemption points, I was probably in Tier 1 where 7,500 points will enable RM 100 redemption voucher. Given that my redemption voucher is only RM25, the points that were redeemed were probably 1,875. This would mean that I spent at least RM188 on products or RM375 on treatment. As far as I am concerned, I have definitely spend more than that. So, it remains ambiguous to me.
2. I would like the get invitation cards for product launch events and members day with high discount (Up to 50% ^^). This like a way to appreciate those loyal customers who join with the media to be priority get the info and purchase it with special price. So, we can share with our family/ friend, how nice with the product. Just like YOU 🙂