Everyone likes freebies, and now there’s an app that rewards you just for walking into places. Bounty is a free app for Android (an iPhone version is coming soon) that allows you to check into places and collect reward points which can be redeemed for a host of online or offline gift cards without any conditions attached. It even works without your GPS being turned on, and without a data connection. Each bounty point is essentially worth one rupee in cash, in terms of the various gift cards available in the app’s list. It’s basically a digital platform for offline businesses to acquire, engage, and manage their consumer base in real-time with context. The idea behind this initiative and source of inspiration is – how knowing and understanding a simple everyday activity like eating or a weekly activity of visiting a mall or taking a cab can be so much more powerful in driving consumer experience that also results in businesses targeting with a context instead of spamming the consumer with offers/discounts. From a consumer analytics point of view, the problem of mapping offline consumer behavior, driving value to consumers and businesses without friction on either side and executing it seamlessly is quite an exciting prospect.
Bounty was founded by Satish Medapati, who has nearly 11 years of experience in the world of business and analytics. He previously did things such as coated steel sales, credit risk modeling, analytics-consulting, banking & service delivery before becoming an entrepreneur. He’s passionate about solving problems that are integral to consumers through the use of mobile and data sciences. Anita heads the technology team and has 18 years experience in building and managing large scale IT projects. Sandeep manages their partnerships and alliances, while Amitesh looks after operations and customer service. Bounty has a team of 8 full time employees, 3 part-time employees and a few interns.
Bounty initially began its presence in Bangalore, and has since expanded to Hyderabad and Chennai. For now, the app will be limited to those places, until it sees further market penetration. If you live life in terms of going out and eating in a restaurant, having a coffee in a café, or preferring to go to a retail store or a weekly mall visit , then you are among bounty’s target consumers. Currently their users are predominantly in the age group of 19-28 with decent disposable incomes and going out multiple times in a week. The next segment is the 29-40 age group, but although they have a higher spending parity, their frequency is lower on the app. Bounty’s key differentiators are customer convenience and technology that makes it easier for a user. They just really listen to our consumers and do what they like and need, not really bothering too much about competition since they are still in the early stages. There is space for everyone, and as long as they keep our consumers delighted and do all the right things based on our model, then things are working out for them. And even with a flush of money, their competition is still behind them in terms of traction and growth.
So basically, bounty is a spam-free personalized digital platform for consumers to get rewards without hassles and businesses to acquire, retain and manage their customers. All over the world, reward programs have seen mixed responses based on how they have been executed. Businesses always have been willing to part with some rewards to their consumers as it gives them a power to retain and engage their consumers. However, most consumers (56%) opt-out of reward programs within the first few months due to the lack of flexibility and relevance of rewards. Consumers want a seamless experience not carrying plastic cards, telling phone numbers for getting points and need some significant value for the program. Overall, they feel it’s a big hassle and the effort far outweighs the returns and here is where bounty comes in. Imagine that you walk into a place, do nothing, and rewards get credited to your app – you see them, you redeem them all – requiring just one tap from you. There’s hardly anything more seamless or convenient to use.