Are you familiar with the ENTERTAINER UAE?
It’s a buy one gets one free app (i.e., BOGO app).
Like other BOGO apps, it provides buy one gets one free voucher that the app’s paying members can use at select merchants in Dubai and the northern emirates.
The package may also make them eligible for deals outside Dubai and Northern UAE, such as BOGO hotel deals in Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Doha, and Manama.
In short, BOGO apps are like coupon booklets, except the ‘coupons’ are digital and are primarily BOGO deals, such as:
- Buy one ticket, get another ticket for free.
- Buy one main course, get another main course for free.
- Buy one massage, get another massage for free.
- Stay one room night, stay another room night for free.
- Book one room, get another room for free.
How Do BOGO Apps Work?
Deals apps can take different approaches. However, one of the most common systems involves the customer buying a deals package for a set purchase price from the BOGO app. In exchange for their payment, they become the app’s members and gain access to thousands of buy one get one free offer from participating merchants.
In the ENTERTAINER’s case, customers can choose from multiple packages. Members can select the ENTERTAINER Dubai 2025 or the ENTERTAINER GCC 2025 package. The ‘2025’ pertains to the year the package (or membership) is valid. Meanwhile, the package name indicates where the member can claim deals: Dubai and the Northern Emirates for the Dubai package and the Gulf Cooperation Council cities for the GCC plan.
Why Does the BOGO Scheme Work?
Value-driven consumers love BOGO apps because they provide excellent value. With a buy one gets one free voucher, a BOGO app member spends AED 100 and gets AED 200 worth of product or service. According to the ENTERTAINER, members from Dubai save an average of AED 3,435 per year. That’s money they did not pay for the freebie products or services they redeemed.
What’s in it for the merchants? Restaurants, salons, spas, amusement parks, event organizers, and hotels agree to offer their products and services for effectively half the original price because BOGO deals for marketing gains and to drive spending.
BOGO deals can:
- Raise awareness about a brand. Merchants who want to increase their reach can do so with a BOGO offer. A new coffee shop may become a BOGO app partner to introduce its brand to the app’s members.
- Promote products and services. Sometimes, merchants simply want to let potential customers know what they offer. In BOGO apps, a restaurant can showcase its best-selling dishes.
- Induce a customer to try a merchant’s product or service. Someone who wouldn’t have bought a cake at Baker A may be more willing to try it if they can get two cakes for the price of one.
- Encourage spending. A customer who feels like they’re getting tremendous value may be inclined to spend more than they initially planned. For instance, someone who got two full-body massages for AED 500 instead of AED 1,000 would have saved AED 500. They would be more likely to part with this AED 500 savings, perhaps by spending it on a facial scrub or lifting massage. It’s money they would have spent anyway, so why not use it to get more services while they’re there?
- Increase cash flow during off-peak hours and seasons. A café may use buy one get one free offer to encourage spending during the midday on weekdays. They can do this by attaching redemption window hours (and dates) to their offers.
Doing BOGO Right
Buy one get one free offer are best used with a friend. If the deal says you get two facials for the price of one, you can take advantage only if you bring a friend to get the facial with you. To save money on the service, you and your friend will split the bill. In effect, therefore, you save 50% off the published price; your friend enjoys the same discount, too.
Hotel vouchers may be an exception. Some hotel deals let you get two room nights for the price of one room night. You can go on a solo staycation and still get that 50% discount.
How Not to Use BOGO Apps
Once you’re a BOGO member, it can be tempting to claim all the offers available. The BOGO app becomes a challenging game you must conquer, and the goal (and reward) is to see the savings in your tracker rise.
However, using vouchers to ‘rack up savings can set you up for a fall. This can lead you down the path of indiscriminate spending, buying cosmetics you don’t need (or don’t even plan to use) or eating out a lot more frequently than you would have without a BOGO offer.
If you do this, the greater amount you’d ‘save’ would not be true savings. After all, you would be spending more money than you would have done on things you wouldn’t have even bought.
Be Discerning
BOGO apps can save you hundreds or thousands of dirhams and are an ingenious way of maximizing the value of the things you purchase. Use buy one get one free offer to pay less for products, services and experiences that you need or want, stuff you’re actually willing to buy at full price. Stay true to this principle, and you can extract the most value from your BOGO app membership.