The second purchase is the only one that matters

Most consumer promotions are built to win a first purchase. A discount, a free sachet, a chance to win something. They work: people try the product. Then the promotion ends, the shelf goes back to normal, and a good share of those people go back to whatever they bought before.

You did not buy a customer. You rented one, at a price per pack, for the length of the campaign.

What repeat purchase actually needs

A second purchase needs a reason that exists at the moment the shopper is standing in front of the shelf again, two weeks later, with your pack and a competitor’s in front of them. A memory of a nice advert is not that reason. An unfinished reward is.

The strongest promotion is one your customer has not finished yet.

A punch card that pays cash

This is the oldest loyalty mechanic there is: buy four, get something. The coffee shop version has been working for decades. It has never worked for an FMCG brand in Kenya, because the brand sells through distributors and dukas and has no way of knowing that the same person bought four times.

A unique code inside each pack fixes exactly that. Each code identifies the pack; the shopper’s WhatsApp number ties four of them together; the reward lands on the fourth. Nobody carries a card, and nobody has to install an app.

• The count is per shopper, per campaign, and it does not expire at the end of the week. Buy four sachets over three weeks and the fourth still pays.
• Each scan tells them where they are: “Scan 3 of 4. One more pack and KES 200 is yours.”
• A fifth pack starts a new card. It is never told it is worth nothing — that shopper just bought another pack, and telling them it counts for nothing is how you end the habit you paid to build.

Why the number on the card matters more than the prize

Four is a decision about your category, not a default. A product someone buys weekly can ask for four. A 5-litre cooking oil bought monthly cannot, and asking for four will simply fail: the reward is too far away to change what happens at the shelf.

The same is true of the amount. The reward has to be worth more than the effort of typing a code, and small enough that you can afford to pay it to everyone who finishes. A reward that is spectacular but unattainable is just a draw with extra steps.

What you get that a discount never gave you

A discount buys a purchase and tells you nothing. A multi-scan campaign leaves a record: how many people bought once, how many came back, how many finished the card, and how long they took. That is a picture of loyalty you can actually plan against — and next campaign, you know whether four was the right number.