Well, I once worked at BCG (Boston Consulting group) in their marketing dept and did some recruitment ads for Wharton, so um maybe that puts me close to being in the club, hehehe, but I did like this article so TYVM!

I also liked the part that says,

"After World War II, dozens of companies began trying to outdo each other, offering double, triple and ultimately quadruple stamps. The escalation ultimately led to the stamps' demise. By the mid-'60s, supermarkets started offering straight discounts instead to cut out the middleman."

Sounds SOOO familiar to the current airline award devaluation we are all living with today!


Then I scanned some of the articles they refer to, which are found at these links:

http://www.xdreze.org/Publications/bundled.html

http://www.xdreze.org/Publications/pseudo.html

http://www.xdreze.org/Publications/IJRM.html



Plus, I think I'm smahhht cuz I wrote pretty much this very same thing in another post in FT a while ago! I'll like find it if you need proof! hehehe
AND, maybe some of you recognize my attempt to be like the Wall Street Journal by using " * * * " to separate my notes here.

"If you go back 10 or 15 years, a gold card was really special," Drèze says. "Today, if you don't have a platinum card, which confers greater status than gold, you're nobody. The interesting thing is that what has evolved over time is that more and more customers need status. Marketers need to find ways to separate one class of customer from another."

MM
(ok I didnt spell check me post)