Event Interactions Should Feed Back into the Product
In event planning, when interactions are designed only to create a buzz in the moment, the event often ends without anything changing in the product.
Article Experience & Interaction Finance
Membership is a set of relationship rules, not a layer of discounts
If a membership redesign defines membership through bigger discounts, people remember the savings, not their relationship with the brand. A stronger approach is to define how members and the brand relate through their actions, then make those choices explicit in a set of relationship rules.
Key points
- In a membership redesign, membership should not continue to be defined by bigger discounts.
- Left unchecked, people remember the savings, not their relationship with the brand.
- Start instead by defining how members and the brand relate through their actions.
- Set out that choice in the relationship rules, owned by the membership lead.
- From now on, use one test: without the discount, is there still a clear rule that defines membership?
01What to Decide First About Membership
When tackling membership, do not start by polishing a discount-led definition. In a redesign, the order of decisions matters more than the wording if you want people to remember the relationship, not just the savings.
If the team starts by rewriting the copy, it may believe membership has changed. People will still remember the savings, not the relationship.
Define how members and the brand relate through their actions first. Without that, membership is still defined by bigger discounts.
02Which Membership Decisions Must Come Later
Some decisions must come later. Discussing channels, visuals or messaging before defining the rules of the relationship merely repackages a discount-led definition of membership.
Those later decisions matter, but they must follow the earlier choice. Otherwise, the team will keep treating the symptom: people remember the savings, not the relationship.
03The Sequence Is Part of the Design
The sequence has three steps: define how members and the brand relate through their actions; establish the relationship rules; only then change the external messaging.
Reverse that order and the membership redesign may look busy, but it will still be driven by bigger discounts.
04Use Tools to Preserve the Sequence
The relationship rules should make the sequence clear. Anyone reading them should know what has been decided and what is not yet open to change.
Redesign review: use the relationship rules to check whether campaigns have disrupted the order.
05When to Review Membership
Membership lead. Once an exception breaks through the order, go back and amend the relationship rules themselves, rather than patching a line about membership in a group chat.
The review asks only one thing: strip away the discounts. Does membership still have a rule you can state clearly? Only when that question has an answer has the order actually been put to use.
Framework
The four layers of membership
From what is non-negotiable to the tools used on the ground, each layer answers just one question, so membership doesn’t slide back into being defined by more discounts.
L1Rules
This layer states what in membership is non-negotiable.
L2Where discounts sit
This layer turns membership into conditions that can be checked.
L3What discounts can’t replace
This layer sets out how membership may flex across different contexts.
L4Acceptance Criteria
This layer hands membership to the people who use it, and documents the exceptions.
Note: This diagram is a conceptual framework. It explains a way of thinking and is not statistical data. Source: Qingmei Future Insights.
Recommended actions
Action 01
Start from the site
In the membership redesign, mark the moments when membership is actually called upon, rather than starting by reworking a discount-led definition of membership.
Action 02
Keep it to one page
Replace longer explanations with relationship rules, keeping only what supports “first, write the rules of behavior between members and the brand.”
Action 03
Judge it by one question
Redesign review asks only: strip away the discounts. Does membership still have a rule you can state clearly? If not, it isn’t yet a decision.
Action 04
Name the owner
Membership lead. Membership without an owner gets quietly rewritten when conflicts arise.
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