Rant Discovery Vitality doesnt support Garmin

[Dicky DQ]

How can a program like vitality support a signle manufacturer .. in this case POLAR. And not simply the top three manufucturers which in this country is

 

Garmin

Polar

Sigma.

 

Mailed them and this is their reply

 

http://www.discovery.co.za/email_za/mailers/images/banners/disc_vit_do_well_generic.jpg

 

Thank you for your email querying if can you earn Vitality points, using a Garmin Heart Rate Monitor.

Polar personal trainer is the only partner

We will however put your suggestion to our Partner Relations Department as it is your suggestions that help us upkeep the great benefits of the Vitality Wellness programme.

 

We cannot approach any companies, including Garmin, and request that they become a Vitality or DiscoveryCard partner, as this would be anti-selective behaviour. For us to consider including the Garmin heart rate monitors as one of Vitality's services, they would have to go through a rigorous application process and be able to fulfil certain requirements.

 

Should a heart rate monitor company be interested in becoming a Vitality Partner they can simply forward a written proposal to Terry Solomons (terry-annes@discovery.co.za) or Romy Rosen (romyr@discovery.co.za) in our Marketing Services department.

 

The written proposal should feature:

 

- the service offering

- how the offering is distributed

- how they see the partnership working with Discovery

 

Proposals are reviewed monthly with the Vitality Partnership committee and feedback will be provided to the company thereafter.

 

Please visit www.discovery.co.za to learn more about your Vitality

 

Regards

Michelle Piliso

Discovery Vitality

Web: http://www.discovery.co.za

 

All comes down to money. how much are they prepared to pay Discovery for the right to be associated. It is a business after all.

 

This way Polar sort of protect thier market share. and I believe there will only ever be one partner. so it if is Garmin there will only be garmin and nothing else. uose your head man.

Edited March 11, 2012 by Dick

[Actionman]

Of course it's about money....Garmin doesn't stand a chance of getting in because if they did, Polar would throw their toys big time and withdraw from the exclusive deal. Let's try add another chain of gyms to the vitality pgm.... hmmm, I know exactly where that proposal will end up.

 

Garmin is no different. Whilst visiting my LBS (small setup) for some retail therapy, I asked a question about why he doesn't stock Garmin (i like supporting the small guys but had to buy my garmin 800 at another store).

 

His answer, "Garmin won't supply him with stock..."

[Clinton1]

Pretty strong words there, Clint. Especially from.someone in the industry. Are you a Momentum agent, by any chance?

 

I never stated my occupation here and as such was providing a personal opinion. However, as a result of your question, let me answer you and say no. I am an independent broker and as such have no affiliation to any one company. I am big on telling it as it is though and not selling my clients bells and whistles.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

I never stated my occupation here and as such was providing a personal opinion. However, as a result of your question, let me answer you and say no. I am an independent broker and as such have no affiliation to any one company. I am big on telling it as it is though and not selling my clients bells and whistles.

 

Cool... I just wondered why you insinuate that anyone who regards it as more than mere marketing gimmickry is deluded. Sounded like the type of rhetoric that Momentum training staff tend to come up with, hence the q.

 

And I agree with you - independent is the way to go.

 

And one other thing - in our profession, our personal opinion is interchangeable with our professional opinion...

 

As far as I'm concerned, I get a lot of value from Vitality in my professional, as well as personal, life. As do my clients...

Edited March 11, 2012 by cptmayhem

[geecee]

why momentum, they have the same sort of rewards program, sounds like a pretty uneducated comment mind you.

 

anyway. all these rewards schemes are a load of bull anyway. and shopping through them has never landed me a good deal, i can get my stuff cheaper elsewhere, and locally at that.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

why momentum, they have the same sort of rewards program, sounds like a pretty uneducated comment mind you.

 

anyway. all these rewards schemes are a load of bull anyway. and shopping through them has never landed me a good deal, i can get my stuff cheaper elsewhere, and locally at that.

 

Well, truth be told it's Momentum & Liberty staff who try to convince independent brokers or their tied agents that anything from the Discovery stable is evil, and I've been on the receiving end of "training sessions" where teh trainers do just that - Discovery bashing.

 

Agreed that some of the deals you can get through Vitality and / or Multiply aren't that great. But they're not really about the discounted gym or flights (even though those are fantastic supplementary benefits if you use them) but getting savings on your Life policies going forward (payback every 5 years & a discounted premium in terms of Discovery & a discounted premiums with Momentum)

 

That is where the real benefits come through. The consumer, however, won't actually see those in their monthly budget or income etc, as they are not "tangible" savings. The gym benefits are to an extent tangible (when you find out ho much a non-vitality / multiply gym membership actually is!) as is Discovery's Healthy Food benefit.

 

As for the person who said that the client is forced to shop at certain providers - BULL. You're perfectly entitled to go wherever you want to. It's just that if you go to certain providers / retailers, you'll get a discount. No one is saying you HAVE to shop at XYZ. But if you do, it benefits you. If you don't, well then that's cool. You'll not be losing out on anything as you'll be paying the same as Joe Average.

[covie]

Yeah cam from Momentum, and also a load of bollocks, even their gym membership is bollocks as you need to do at least 10 sessions a month to basically see any benefit, and then their monthly fee is half the gym membership anyway. I only use a gym if I cannot ride my bike in the outdoors in other words winter training when there is SEVERE bad weather.

 

At least with discovery its only like 36 times a year.and its doesnt have to be x amount of sessions per month. So that works well for me and my winter training program. (Basically the only time a gym will see me.)

Edited March 12, 2012 by covie

[FanieFiets]

I dont see the fuss. If I read the letter from Discovery it is quit plain that Garmin needs to approach Vitality. They will then add them as partner as well. Like they added Adidas mycoach thing now.

You should contact gamin and ask them to approach Vitality.

I actually enjoy my Vitality, but remember that they purposely try to change your behaviour. The monthly benefits that I use most is 20% back on my cell phone bill, free gym, 25% cash back at PnP, 25% back at Adidas factory stores, 20% back at stuttafords, 20% cash back at cape union mart. These are places that I would have spent my money at anyway, so if I can score....why not?

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Yeah cam from Momentum, and also a load of bollocks, even their gym membership is bollocks as you need to do at least 10 sessions a month to basically see any benefit, and then their monthly fee is half the gym membership anyway. I only use a gym if I cannot ride my bike in the outdoors in other words winter training when there is SEVERE bad weather.

 

At least with discovery its only like 36 times a year.and its doesnt have to be x amount of sessions per month. So that works well for me and my winter training program. (Basically the only time a gym will see me.)

 

Yeah. You need to go 10 times p/m to get max saving (on Multiply) and that is only a max R 300 per month discount that you get. Whereas Vitality benefit is either FREE or 80% off list price (classic membership) or 145 per month (premier membership) with the proviso that you have to go 36 times in a rolling year.

 

At the moment, I'm using the gym to shower after my morning rides (priceless) and will be using it when the laaaightie arrives to get a bit of "alone time" and chill out (CLUB V - you get 2 hours per day) while the qualified "nannies" look after babba.

 

My wife is REALLY looking forward to that!

[Wrigs]

I dont see the fuss. If I read the letter from Discovery it is quit plain that Garmin needs to approach Vitality. They will then add them as partner as well. Like they added Adidas mycoach thing now.

You should contact gamin and ask them to approach Vitality.

I actually enjoy my Vitality, but remember that they purposely try to change your behaviour. The monthly benefits that I use most is 20% back on my cell phone bill, free gym, 25% cash back at PnP, 25% back at Adidas factory stores, 20% back at stuttafords, 20% cash back at cape union mart. These are places that I would have spent my money at anyway, so if I can score....why not?

 

:clap:

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

I dont see the fuss. If I read the letter from Discovery it is quit plain that Garmin needs to approach Vitality. They will then add them as partner as well. Like they added Adidas mycoach thing now.

You should contact gamin and ask them to approach Vitality.

I actually enjoy my Vitality, but remember that they purposely try to change your behaviour. The monthly benefits that I use most is 20% back on my cell phone bill, free gym, 25% cash back at PnP, 25% back at Adidas factory stores, 20% back at stuttafords, 20% cash back at cape union mart. These are places that I would have spent my money at anyway, so if I can score....why not?

 

Yip yip yip...

 

And as an aside, I get 50% off Adidas gear at Totalsports... And I like adidas... (Healthy Gear, Discovery Credit Card, Vitality & Vitality Drive)

 

Plus 25% off Healthy Food (which I don't use 'cos my wife works for WW - staff discount & waste)

Plus 45% off Kulula flights (travel at least 3 times a year to DBN)

Plus a MASSIVE saving on gym, movie tickets (have you SEEN how much a movie ticket is nowadays?!)

Plus all my other benefits - 55% of my life policy premiums back every 5 years; up to 40% discount on fuel; 10x normal Smart Shopper points; free annual screening tests; 25% off schedule 1 & 2 medication at clicks (plus my other Clicks cashback benefits); Partner store discounts and so on and so on.

 

So as for those who say it's a bunch of Marketing Gimmickry - yeah. Okay. It must either not have been explained to you properly, or you (and your broker) didn't put the effort into going through it to see how & why you would benefit, and you're still not on GOLD status, which is where you get the majority of the benefits...

[covie]

I dont see the fuss. If I read the letter from Discovery it is quit plain that Garmin needs to approach Vitality. They will then add them as partner as well. Like

 

So your telling me out of the what 100 000's garmin users of which i suspect about 30 000+ would be vitality Discovery members not a single one has ever suggested to them that Garmin should be on the list?

 

From what i interpret from their mail that they send they would need to pump serious money into the vitality kitty before they would get added to the list. So that has nothing to do with tracking your health or they would have provided that facility by default. It has to do with how much of a financial partner these companies can be to Vitality. And thats kind of what bugs me about this program.

 

look not that I am fazed the biggest benefit to me is the gym, and that my kiddy can go free. But it would have been nice if these guys actually did some market research, found out which technologies they should support to enable people using their program, that you as a consumer pay for every month.

 

Now i have to make it my problem to get in contact with Garmin so that I can do their work for them? Im not about to go mailing Garmin, and then Garmin throws up smoke and mirrors. If logic prevails Garmin would have contacted them, and either Polar would have sole right and they are paying for that right, or Garmin is not interested in playing the lets throw money at vitality game.

 

Bottom line is that they should support the devices that are commonly used, wihtout a price tag to be part of the program. But i am still naive I still beleive in rights for the little people like me.

[covie]

Ok well just for the fun of it i fired of a mail to Garmin lets see what they say

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

 

Bottom line is that they should support the devices that are commonly used, wihtout a price tag to be part of the program. But i am still naive I still beleive in rights for the little people like me.

 

In an ideal world, that would be the nr 1 prize (like it is with the gym partners - VA & Planet Fitness, and you can get points if you go to another gym, but not discount)

 

Unfortunately, I think in this case that POLAR went in with an exclusivity agreement which (back when POLAR was the number 1 fitness article in SA by miles, and Garmin hadn't really made an impact) was mutually beneficial to the companies. Now that GARMIN is probably overtaking POLAR, that exclusivity agreement might not be the best thing. But in terms of business practice, GARMIN can't get in (or don't want to) because POLAR is there... GARMIN would probably want an exclusivity agreement of their own as well. So which one would be the best? Stick with what they have, or boot all the polar users out and implement a new partnership agreement?

 

anyway - the POLAR points are pitiful. go for one fitness assessment (at R 185 per assessment) and you already have the same amount of points as if you had done 50 workouts and received the most amount of bonus points from each workout...

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Ok well just for the fun of it i fired of a mail to Garmin lets see what they say

 

ROFL.

 

Give us ONE MILLLLLLLLLION DOLLARS and then we'll try...

[FanieFiets]

So your telling me out of the what 100 000's garmin users of which i suspect about 30 000+ would be vitality Discovery members not a single one has ever suggested to them that Garmin should be on the list?

 

From what i interpret from their mail that they send they would need to pump serious money into the vitality kitty before they would get added to the list. So that has nothing to do with tracking your health or they would have provided that facility by default. It has to do with how much of a financial partner these companies can be to Vitality. And thats kind of what bugs me about this program.

 

look not that I am fazed the biggest benefit to me is the gym, and that my kiddy can go free. But it would have been nice if these guys actually did some market research, found out which technologies they should support to enable people using their program, that you as a consumer pay for every month.

 

Now i have to make it my problem to get in contact with Garmin so that I can do their work for them? Im not about to go mailing Garmin, and then Garmin throws up smoke and mirrors. If logic prevails Garmin would have contacted them, and either Polar would have sole right and they are paying for that right, or Garmin is not interested in playing the lets throw money at vitality game.

 

Bottom line is that they should support the devices that are commonly used, wihtout a price tag to be part of the program. But i am still naive I still beleive in rights for the little people like me.

 

Ag, I dont know. But I an pretty sure polar doesnt pay Vitality. It is about the systems and garmin needs to design a app or something on the website to link with Vitality. Is it possible that Garmin is not interested in go through the trouble for a few consumers in a far off country?

But also have look https://community.bikehub.co.za/topic/111658-seeking-polar-hrm-files/page__fromsearch__1, someone on thehub was designing a app so that you can upload your garmin file for points, maybe he is finished.