Scratch cards are popular. They are appealing: just by scratching open the right box, you scratch yourself into a millionaire. By choosing what you scratch you can believe you are influencing your own luck.
There are different scratch systems. In spring the Dutch Railways had a scratch
card campaign. When you bought a cup of coffee you were given a scratch card
with three squares. You had to scratch open two. If you had two flags with an
S on them then you won a free return trip with Stena-Line from Hook of Holland
to Harwich. If you scratched two cups, then you got a free cup of coffee. If
all three had been scratched open the card was void.
With other scratch systems you can win more money with each square that you
open, until you scratch a square with a cross. Then you lose it all. This of
course plays on the greed of the person with the card.
This assignment is about this last system.
The DIY store DHZ will shortly have its 25th birthday. To celebrate
this jubilee and to pull in extra customers, the owner decided on the Scratch
it yourself! scratch card campaign.
For every f 100 spent the customer was given a scratch card with 10 squares
that could be scratched open. By spending f190 you would thus get one
card. If you spent f 205 you would get two.
Every card contained five squares with the DHZ logo. These were distributed
randomly over the 10 squares.
The following rules of play were printed on the card:
Rules
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The owner felt that this campaign was going to cost him dear.
One week before starting he did a trial among his staff. He had his employees
scratch open 200 cards just as if they were customers. He did not actually pay
out the prize money of course.
He got the following results:
52 of the 200 cards had won f 7.50. Fourteen people had opened two logos
and won f 15. Four cards had won f 30, one had f 60 and
one had f 120. He was shocked by the total prize money for these 200
cards.
Exercise
Analyse this campaign. Take the following points into consideration:
The owner wanted a different campaign. It had to be less expensive. Nevertheless, the customer had to be able to win back what he spent. The campaign had to be of interest and draw in customers. In addition it should not generate any hassle. He wanted to distribute 10 000 cards. The entire campaign was not to cost him more than 2% of the turnover involved.
Exercise
Devise a different (better, nicer, more sensational) scratch card campaign for
the owner. The campaign must satisfy the conditions of the owner:
The owner was open to alternatives. You can thus set up a completely different
system.
Show that your design satisfies the requirements of the owner. Also specify
why you think your system is better.