Krewe of Bywater

Mario and I know a good idea when we steal it.

I'd been thinking about a typical loyalty program where you buy a certain number of (insert items here), and you get one free or suchlike.  Generates goodwill, doesn't cost much.  Unfortunately, besides good will there isn't much of a payback.

So as an alternative, let's look at the "Stein Club" rewards program at Prost.  One punch per drink, fifty punches per card.  First card reward is a Prost Stein Club t-shirt.  It's a nice t-shirt!  And wouldn't you know it, I was stopped by a man at Costco who asked me what you have to do to get a t-shirt.  So even though it costs considerably more than a sandwich, it is inexpensive marketing as well as generating goodwill.

Another great thing about Prost's Club is that when you get your card, they put your name on it. Meaning, every time someone gets a punch, you can thank them by name.

Here's their rewards ladder:

Card 1: Stein Club Shirt
Card 2: Stein Club patch
Card 3: Stein Club Hat
Card 4: Your very own personalized stein
Card 5: A custom plaque on the Bier Wall of Fame
Card 10: Stein Club Hoodie
Card 20: A personalized bar stool or bench plaque
Card 30: Stein Club Jacket
Card 50: Stein Club Watch

Card x:  Lederhosen

Prost Portland has been open just under five years.  Almost all of the stools have plaques. That's something like 40 people who have drunk a thousand beers at Prost*.  That's at least $5000 each, m'kay?   And I'd guess that something like 1/3 of the customers at any given time are drinking from a personalized stein.   I'm not going to suggest that BWG can generate a similar level of loyalty (though it would be awesome), but if I can get a few dozen folks wearing BWG t-shirts around town, I'd call that a win.   

*you only get  punches for beers you drink yourself.

For those of y'all who don't know much about Krewes in NOLA, here's the article on Wikipedia. So the current plan is to call my program the Krewe of Bywater.   Since a sandwich costs more than a beer, we're thinking 25 punches per card.  I'm going to reward anyone who "joins" with a bumper sticker.  Cheap, and if a few people put it on their bulletin board at work, job done.  

Still working on the details, the reward I'm most excited about is following the NOLA tradition of creating beautiful posters in honor of events, years, etc.   I have a very talented extended family of artists, and hope I can persuade some or all of them to contribute BW posters.

Here's our first draft of the rewards.

First punch:  Bumper sticker
First completed card :  T-shirt
Second:  Baseball hat
Third:  TBD
Fourth:  Krewe of Bywater limited edition poster
Fifth: Custom Plaque
Tenth: Hoodie
Fifteenth:  Matted and framed poster
Twentieth:  Bike Jersey
Thirtieth:  Jacket
Fiftieth:  Personalized shrimping boots
















Well, I'm off to see a man about a cart....!