It wasn’t so much an inspiration, but a solution to a problem that Renyi and the myBurgerLab team wanted to solve when they introduced their e-vouchers for sale on April 29.
“We noticed a lot of restaurants recently have been selling vouchers to raise funds. A lot of times, they are selling 50-100% increase in value to entice customers to purchase ASAP,” Renyi told Vulcan Post.
Kay’s Steak & Lobster was selling RM100 and RM300 vouchers that would bring customers 50% savings when they visit the store after MCO, and Wizards was offering a RM100 voucher at a 20% discount for RM80 that could also be used in-store after the MCO, for example.
However, Renyi foresaw a problem with that approach, especially if customers came in droves to spend their vouchers immediately after the MCO.
“While they fixed a current cash flow problem, they created another one in the future. So, we decided to find a way to encourage people to use our e-vouchers over a controlled time period,” he said.
From Basic Voucher To Investment
They put an innovative spin on their 1,000 e-vouchers by actually building an incremental value add over the months into it.
Basically, what myBurgerLab e-vouchers do is increase in value the longer you keep them unused, much like an investment.
If you decide to keep the voucher till February 2021 and do the maths, the percentage of increase for the e-vouchers is about 4.4% per month.
This incentive is meant to discourage customers from coming all at once, which is the problem he highlighted earlier.
“Our bet is that the majority (40%) will use it when it’s in its mid-value around RM60-RM65. 10% will use it once the MCO is lifted. Another 35% will use it at its maximum value (RM70). And an estimated 15% will forget to use it,” Renyi predicted.
“However, we will do the right thing and remind them every time the e-voucher increases in value.”
Here’s Why It Worked
At the time of writing, Renyi has shared that all 1,000 vouchers have sold out and that they’ve met their RM50,000 target in only 12 hours.
If we take a look at what they did from the initial announcement up till now, we’ll see a few possible reasons behind why they hit their target.
1. Branding & Customer Loyalty
There’s no doubt that myBurgerLab has strong branding and a loyal fanbase that’s always ready to support them.
Furthermore, myBurgerLab takes the time to interact with their fans and strengthen their relationship in various ways, most recently through the game Animal Crossing.
A testament to their fanbase’s loyalty is also the fact that the announcement of the e-vouchers was never made on myBurgerLab’s account.
Instead, Renyi posted it on his own account as a personal request to acquaintances, yet people were supportive enough to share it with their own acquaintances and in Facebook and WhatsApp groups, which sped up the selling out process.
2. There Was Transparency All The Way
When Renyi first made the announcement post on April 29, he clearly stated that myBurgerLab was losing about RM1,000 to RM2,000 a day, despite the many initiatives that they’ve been putting out.
He also shared the reasons behind why they weren’t able to hit their sales target, which were uncontrollable factors like the weather, the lack of delivery riders, and having to close orders early due to the MCO’s restrictions.
To help them through May 2020, he said they needed RM50,000 maximum and therefore would only sell 1,000 RM50 vouchers for that reason.
Once they hit that target, he immediately updated his original post to share the news and announced that further funds won’t be necessary. He also left the previous information intact for whoever was curious about the details of the initiative.
3. A Deal That Has Value For Customers
As mentioned earlier, the percentage of increase for the e-vouchers is about 4.4% per month.
This is because over the 9 months that the value increases (since the start of February marks the final increase), the e-voucher will be worth RM20 more than its original RM50 value.
Dividing RM20 by 9 months means you’d get a a value increment of RM2.22 every month, and dividing RM2.22 by RM50 and then multiplying it by 100% shows a 4.4% increase per month.
This is higher than most fixed deposit interest rates, which are usually around 3-4% or lower, per year.
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myBurgerLab has achieved their target thanks to the transparent and limited promo that they ran, and created a win-win situation for themselves and their fans.
Now, they’ll have to make sure that they can sustain themselves long enough until April 2021 so they can keep to their commitments and honour their fans who bought the e-vouchers.
However, their loyal fanbase and the support that they’re receiving should be able to see them through.
- You can read more about what we’ve written on myBurgerLab here.
Featured Image Credit: myBurgerLab
