Thirty-five years ago, Members’ Only jackets became the first mass marketing exclusive club. It was a masterstroke making membership meaningful enough to get the attention of a specific set of customers and broad enough to create a real business. Until that moment, creating clubs was all about exclusion. From then on it became about inclusion. If it were otherwise, Diners’ Club, the first credit card launched in 1950, would be Visa, which was launched nearly 10 years later.
The concept was given new life by airlines in the ’70s (prompted by the need to compete in a deregulated environment) and then American Express in the ’80s (recall its “Membership has its privileges” campaign) but that was not straying very far from the proven landscape of credit cards and financial services. It was not until the ’90s that companies and agencies were willing to take the first step broadly into retail. By the middle of that decade, supermarkets were testing if not fully operating frequent shopper programs and now every retailer has a fully built-out and functioning program. Sign up at True Value here.
Perhaps it was because the ad execs of the time and (mostly) since were either from the Greatest Generation or the Baby Boom they begat. To them, the value of membership was undercut by the generational influence of Groucho Marx (“Hooray for Captain Spaulding”) who famously said, “I would never belong to a club that would have me as a member.” With new leadership, perhaps, come new meaning for old concepts.
As Groucho recedes from popular memory, marketers are looking more closely and more often at membership as a way to attract customers and make loyalty more intense beyond retail. Two new campaigns show just how far beyond discounts the concept has and can grow.
The folks at Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Healthcare West) has moved outside the four walls of their hospitals to embrace population health with its “Hello, Human Kindness” campaign. It it not just an offer to “get,” but a chance to “give.” A notion totally in-line with better health. I wish them well!
More ubiquitous is a campaign underway by Nationwide Insurance under cover (no pun intended) of “Join the Nation.” There is value in being a part of something bigger than yourself, it seems. In each case, the notion of membership is expansive. We are all eligible — if we want to be. It is up to us. The power to choose is in the hands of consumers.
Sixty years ago, companies wanted to do the choosing. By giving consumers control, membership is not only be good thing for them, but the companies they choose. Groucho might still demur, but as the world gets more complicated it is good to know someone has my back.
