A Loyalty Program Is Not Enough. Here’s What the Frank Body Is Doing

Have you ever exchanged your lunch box with that of a friend at school because it seemed fancier?

My friends and I have done it so many times as kids. Reason? We were bored of having our own, similar-looking lunch every day and wanted to try different kinds of food.

But let’s think of it this way — Would we have done the same if one day we opened our lunch boxes only to see a creative lunch box with Disney characters?

Not really. We’d have rather shown it off to others and that’s exactly what Kouki Kascak, would do every time he opened his lunch box at school.

In February 2020, Sera Winston, shared a picture on Twitter of bento boxes she’d made for her 4-year son, Kouki Kascak and guess how many likes the tweet got?

67,000 likes! Wondering what it was that she did differently.

Since her son like most kids wasn’t a huge fan of green vegetables, she’d make the lunch box interesting by turning the food into kid-friendly characters and shapes.

And Sera Winston is just one among the many mothers who try to come up with creative ideas to ensure that their kids eat their greens.

For instance, the other day, my colleague Aadhi was telling us that as a kid, even she used to be a picky eater and to solve this, her mother did something similar to what Sera did.

Her mother would again make food creative by making beetroot bread to give it a purple colour, hiding healthy veggies inside nuggets or blending veggies in pizza sauce.

Now can you guess what’s that one thing that’s common between both these smart mothers?

It’s gamification!

Often misunderstood, gamification isn’t all about just points, badges and leaderboards. It’s more about taking something that’s not a game and applying game mechanics to it.

In the above cases, here’s what both mothers did. They made lunch boxes fun by adding a,

Core mechanic: Kids have to eat their lunch

Core loop: Kids get to brag about their lunch to their friends every day

Meta narrative: If they eat their lunch, they’d get a new character or creative food the next day

You see, by motivating their kids to want to eat lunch and even look forward to it, these mothers tapped into intrinsic motivation and that’s the base of any kind of engagement.

I say this because I often hear companies say that I launched this product but it didn’t get enough traction. I launched a campaign but nobody engaged.

The solution to these is one and only one — making users want to engage with you rather than you pushing them to engage and that can be only done via gamification.

Let’s see how Frank Body, a coffee-based natural skincare products brand, did it by gamifying a loyalty program instead of launching a simple points-based loyalty program.

But before we go ahead and discuss it, I must share with you how Frank Body co-founders, Jess Hatzis and Bree Johnson built a community via word of mouth.

They built a community-driven brand so popular that they didn’t have to even compete with Ariana Grande’s Ulta Beauty coffee scrub.

The Spread of #FrankEffect

Launched in 2013, Jess and Johnson decided to use influencer marketing by sending free coffee scrubs to people, asking them to share results on social media under #frankeffect.

Even Ariana Grande, a popular American singer-songwriter-actor came across Frank Body’s product in 2016 and expressed her love for it.

But little did the co-founders know that 6 months later she’d launch her coffee scrubs under Ulta Beauty.

As a result of this, Jess and Johnson were prepared to see their brand lose recognition but to their surprise, their users were early adopters who stayed loyal to the brand.

Frank Body today has 6 million customers whose consistency and repeat behaviour is exactly the reason why their loyalty rewards program exists.

Frank Body Loyalty Program: Hotel Park

When it comes to a loyalty program, there are plenty out there. Everyone is offering rewards points and not doing certain tasks.

This leads to monotony and options for customers to switch. So how does one ensure that people engage with their loyalty program? By making them want to participate from within.

Frank Body did this by turning its loyalty rewards program into a hotel called ‘Hotel Pink’.

Now as I teardown their loyalty program, we will together see if they have mapped it to the 5 aspects of a good loyalty program strategy.

1. Identity: Hotel Pink

Rather than calling it just the Frank Body rewards program, they have named it Hotel Pink where users can enter as though they were entering a hotel.

The name Hotel Pink itself piques customer curiosity and even goes with their pink brand colour.

My favourite part about Frank Body is that since both their co-founders are writers too, they know the importance of brand language, making content stand out.

That’s how under their menu, it says ‘Check in to Hotel Pink’ which further takes them to the Hotel Pink Lobby and introduces loyalty program customers to ‘Pink Points’.

2. Loyalty Rewards: Pink Points

Rewards are the fundamental part of any loyalty program and in the case of Frank Body, it’s called ‘Pink Points’ which customers earn for doing certain tasks. These loyalty points become accessible as soon as a customer checks into the lobby but there’s a catch!

Customers only get to redeem these points once they collect 100 Pink Points and reach level 2 of the loyalty program.

This keeps customers waiting in the lobby hooked and continues to perform tasks and collect points. Take a look.

3. Loyalty Program Type: Tiered

Similar to how guests check-in and wait in the hotel lobby while also engaging in activities, Frank Body applies the same concept.

In the Hotel Lobby, users can start collecting Pink Points until they become eligible to begin cashing them for coupons.

At this point, the brand leverages the Goal Gradient Effect to create a tiered loyalty program comprising 4 levels or milestones.

Level 1: The Lobby

Users or I should rather say Babes need 0 to 99 Pink Points to check into the lobby and get early access to new goodies and be able to join the Frank Body referral program.

Level 2: The Pool Deck

100 Pink Points unlocks level 2 at which customers can start cashing in the earned points at checkout for a $10 coupon, a free product sample and a 10% referral code.

Level 3: The Junior Suite

Customers get to enjoy the best shopping sprees upon reaching 300 Pink Points with Pool Deck benefits, including rewards like a $20 coupon, giveaways, a 15% referral bonus etc.

Level 4: The Penthouse

Frank Body calls this level the top floor of Hotel Pink which unlocks after customers have collected 500 or more Pink Points.

Herein, customers get Junior Suit benefits along with birthday gifts, annual sales, a $30 coupon, a 20% referral bonus etc.

It is crystal clear that Frank Body improves perk value as customers progress through their loyalty rewards program levels which is a classic gamification strategy.

4. Loyalty Program Theme: Colour Me Pink!

Coming to the 4th aspect of a good loyalty program strategy, adding a feel to it that resonates with brand personality is crucial.

Frank Body has painted its rewards program pink. From the name of their loyalty program and points to the colour, they follow a pink theme.

Additionally, they’ve storified the entire program into a hotel check-in concept which again is enticing.

5. Hotel Pink Is Now Open: Communication

Once a loyalty program’s identity, rewards, type and theme are in place, the final destination is to ensure it’s visible and communicated well.

Since Frank Body’s loyalty program is one of the best-gamified loyalty programs I’ve come across so far, they have to ensure that it’s out there.

In addition to having it added in the header, footer and menu, they also communicate it well on social media and in the post-sign-up welcome email.

Time to Level Up Your Loyalty Game

Loyalty programs are meant to retain loyal customers but there’s no guarantee that it will still be used.

Many large loyalty programs like that of Uber or Dillard (a US-based upscale department store), haven’t succeeded well due to poor loyalty rewards strategy.

In such cases, it becomes highly important that you consider the above 5 aspects along with making your loyalty program creative via gamification.

A loyalty program software or tool can come in handy wherein a simple dashboard can help you launch a gamified loyalty program with customisable rewards, content, theme etc.

Want to give a loyalty solution a try and level your loyalty game up?

Say hi to Flyy — a plug-and-play gamified loyalty management solution, trusted by brands like Kotak, CASHe etc, to help you run a loyalty program with challenges such as daily check-in, stamp collection, leaderboard and more game-like elements.

Click here to get in touch with us and learn more.