Marketing jabs in the right direction

Call them nudges to make you jab, or jabs to get you poked. Businesses incentivising Covid vaccinations are showing how the power of discounts is not to be discounted. It’s too early to figure out whether vaccine hesitancy has been put in its place by the offers of 10-20% discounts on beer, taxi rides, burgers and shopping on showing proof of being vaccinated. But the needle is pointing to the right direction. Coming up on top is a nudge that comes with a wink – Savio Figueiredo‘s matrimonial advertisement where a ‘Roman Catholic girl 24/5’4″, MSc (Maths), self-employed, Covishield-vaccinated (both doses) desires alliance with Roman Catholic boy, 28-30 yrs, post-graduate, independent, patient, humorous and reads books, Covishield-vaccinated (both doses)’. No matter that Figueiredo‘s ad was made-up. It still points to something that can well – and should – become a key criterion in the free market of arranged marriages.

The ad, which went viral on the internet, like the genuine F&B incentives, could be the first steps to making being Covid-inoculated ‘cool’. And, as every durable consumer knows, nothing is better for any product or service to sell than its acquisition being trendy, whether ‘utilitarian’ or not. So, more than avuncular advice and statutory warnings, a little spur can go a long way in developing happy herd behaviour.