Time Really Can Be Money

By KIM BELLARD If you are not an IKEA fan, or haven’t been spending any time in Dubai, you may have missed the chain’s marketing campaign to help promote its second store in the area.  Titled “Buy With Your Time,” customers got store credits for how long they spent getting to the store.  Gosh, that’s something that should make any self-respecting critic of the U.S. healthcare system perk up.  Count me as intrigued. The campaign involved checking the customer’s Google Maps’ Trip tab to determine how long it took them to get to the store.  IKEA benchmarked the average hourly wage in Dubai, and converted the travel time into how much credit they’d generated.  It works out to about $29/hour, or $0.48 per minute.  Spend long enough getting there and you could get a free coffee table or even a bookcase.  Prices in the store include the equivalent time currency. An IKEA spokesperson explained: “Before the birth of this campaign, we realized two things: time is precious today, and many loyal IKEA customers spend a significant chunk of it visiting our locations, which are sometimes away from the city center.  We think it’s only right to reward our customers’ efforts by repaying them for the time spent reaching us. It’s our way of helping the Dubai community make the most of every minute.” It is believed to be the first time a reta...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Medical Practice Patients Buy With Your Time Ikea Kim Bellard Source Type: blogs