Blog 10

Costco (http://www.costco.com) is my first example in that it draws a lot of consumers in by making them feel like insiders. Costco requires that anyone who comes into the store to shop must have membership. By doing this, it takes advantage of people's desire to be in selective groups. In addition, it uses the principle of exclusivity in that it is an incredibly large store, but those who have memberships have the ability to access the large amount of products it carries. The next example I have is the Netflix show-- House of Cards (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1856010/)-- which is a political drama that is very popular and my absolute favorite show. This show exemplifies the remarkable aspect of getting social currency. This show is not the first to be about American politics, but it is the first to really highlight the corruption and inner workings of our democracy. This show illustrates the ruthlessness that is American politics. In addition, it shows our politicians many times have their own agendas that take precedence over their actual job responsibilities. In this way, this show is remarkable because it is the first political drama of this era to really highlight these aspects of politics. My final example is the Hy-Vee Fuel Saver Card (https://www.hy-vee.com/perks/). This uses the game mechanics aspect of social currency in that it encourages consumers to buy their groceries from Hy-Vee so that they can build up points which can be used to pay for gas. Although the individual points earned may be small, the accumulation of these points becomes a game to see how many can be added up and used to save money.