Replace blanket discounts with members-only early access to launches and drops. Fans buy first and you keep the margin.
Nike relaunched its NikePlus membership in November 2017 (Nike, 21 December 2017). Its benefits included early access to new products (Marketing Dive, 6 February 2018). In February 2018 it sold a new colourway of the Epic React Flyknit at $150 to NikePlus members in the US first, with everyone else able to buy from 22 February. At its October 2017 investor day Nike set a goal of tripling membership in five years from 100 million (Marketing Dive, 6 February 2018).
On Nike's December 2017 earnings call, chief executive Mark Parker said the NikePlus app's "Reserve for You" service was converting sales at a rate 40 times greater than traditional outreach, and chief financial officer Andy Campion said Nike.com's growth was catalysed by the membership relaunch (Nike, 21 December 2017). In November 2018 Heidi O'Neill, Nike's president of direct to consumer, said members spent three times more overall than non-members (Digiday, 15 November 2018). People who join were already Nike's keenest buyers, so that multiple does not prove membership caused the spending.
E-commerce and consumer brands with repeat buyers and regular launches; memberships, courses and communities.
Discounts teach customers to wait. In eight and a quarter years of panel data for a packaged good, the results suggested consumers became more price and promotion sensitive over time as advertising fell and promotions rose (Mela, Gupta and Lehmann, Journal of Marketing Research, May 1997). Every discount also comes straight off the margin: on the average economics of 2,463 companies, McKinsey's Michael Marn and Robert Rosiello calculated that a 1% improvement in price with no loss of volume would raise operating profit by 11.1% (Harvard Business Review, September 1992).
Access is a reward that costs no margin. The keenest customers get the product first at full price, and everyone else pays the same a little later.
Verified. Mela, Gupta and Lehmann (Journal of Marketing Research, 1997). Reported. Marketing Dive on NikePlus (February 2018). Self-reported. Nike's earnings call (December 2017) and its president of direct to consumer, quoted by Digiday (November 2018). Vendor. Marn and Rosiello, McKinsey pricing consultants, in Harvard Business Review (1992).
Cost to test. A members list, an email or app message, and one launch held back for members for 48 hours.
Kill it if after three members-first launches members buy no faster than the public, or the full-price launches make less gross margin than your last discount campaign.
It needs products people actually want early; a restock of basics is not a drop. Do not invent scarcity: in the UK, falsely stating that a product will only be available for a limited time to rush a decision is banned in all circumstances (Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Schedule 20). Members spend more partly because the keenest buyers join, so test against a discount control rather than trusting the multiple. Keep some price promotion for winning new customers.
The Customer Community, The Waitlist Launch, The Micro-Influencer Swarm
A 30-minute call first. If it fits, two calls in one week and a written growth plan you keep.