In the Incentive and Reward Recognition industry, there are many articles, whitepapers, etc. written about this idea of Trophy Value as it relates to the rewards offering. Trophy Value meaning the continued reminder tangible rewards, as opposed to non-tangible rewards (e.g., cash and gift cards), provide of the task completed and the work performed in completing it. Although true, and as evidenced by a meeting I had recently with a potential client, I would suggest the reminder continues well beyond the useful life of the reward itself, becoming instilled for a lifetime in the memory of the reward recipient. And in this particular meeting, a memory, when triggered, that helped to open the door to a future opportunity.
The meeting to which I refer was with a large media communications company. The V.P. of Safety mentioned that he didn’t have any experience with recognition and incentive programs utilizing tangible rewards and was struggling to see the motivational value over monetary rewards (i.e., cash), until such time as we gave him a little background on QIC and shared the fact that we were first founded as a trading stamp company. He immediately flashed back to his youth and redeeming his family’s stamp books for his very first tool set. He suddenly realized he had not only participated in the benefits of an incentive program (i.e., a customer loyalty program offered by his local grocery retailer), but also experienced the Trophy Value provided by tangible rewards. And even though the useful life of that tool set had long since expired, he never forgot it, and never will. And the recognition is still accruing to his local grocery retailer, the sponsoring company of the customer loyalty program that “rewarded” him with his first tool set, another very important benefit of a tangible rewards offering.
The importance of Trophy Value as it relates to the rewards offering in an incentive and rewards recognition program cannot be overemphasized, as it not only provides that continued reminder of the task completed, work involved to complete it, and recognition back to the sponsoring company, but also provides a social and emotional aspect that motivates and drives performance. The social value being the encouragement offered by tangible rewards to other program participants when they hear and see their peer group showing/sharing/bragging about the rewards redeemed. And the emotional value is demonstrated in a higher perceived value in tangible rewards compared to monetary rewards, for which studies have found a 3-to-1 return on investment when comparing a tangible rewards offering to monetary rewards.
Considering a recognition and/or incentive program? Remember the importance of Trophy Value in choosing the rewards offering for your program, and contact us for assistance with any of your program needs.
