After you finish your next soda, before you screw the cap back on and toss it into the trash, look at the cap. Many companies are participating in various reward programs for selecting their brand over another. Because of this I haven’t had to pay for my subscriptions to several popular magazines for years.
By now everyone is pretty much aware that cigarette makers used to offer rewards for choosing their cigarettes over others. Some of these rewards were pretty good. Things like camping gear and clothing were so popular that several health organizations were concerned that people smoked because of those rewards programs and if not then they might smoke more than they normally would otherwise. So these programs were banned in the United States several years ago. The popularity of these programs did have an interesting marketing side effect; it led soda companies to offer similar programs. It has worked well for them.
Given the choice between two cola’s for example, you are probably going to be more likely to choose the one that gives you something in return. As a result many companies are offering rewards. If you visit their official website you can choose the rewards you want the most, consume their product and get the item. The interesting part is that the entire cost of the various items, from clothing to magazines, is listed as points. There is no tax or shipping cost involved. No actual cash of any kind is used. It’s all points from the bottle caps. Seeing as you have already purchased the drink, anything else you get is entirely a bonus.
How it works for magazines if fairly simple. The code under the cap is input to the website under your account. All accounts are free. After you accumulate the required number of points for the particular subscription you want, you select the “cash out” button and the magazine will be sent to either the address on your account or you can select an alternative address. The subscription is good for a year. The magazines range from Glamour, Self and similar magazines to PC Computing, Wired and House Beautiful. It works the same way for any item you purchase. The primary difference is that if you purchase clothing, for example, that is shipped directly from the soda company’s warehouse. Magazine subscriptions are shipped from their individual publisher, just as though you sent in one of those little subscription cards. Check out your favourite soda website and see what offerings they have and get you next subscription for free.