90,000 coffees and R36 million – how Discovery Vitality tricks your brain

Discovery Vitality members are set to earn more than 10 billion Discovery Miles this year, spending over R36 million a month on purchases using the reward points. 

This is part of how Vitality tries to ‘trick’ your brain by giving clients immediate gratification for behaviours that benefit them in the long run. 

Members earn Discovery Miles from millions of Healthy food items purchased, workouts, driving well, weekly exercise, drive and financial goals.

Over a year, members redeem billions of Discovery Miles on over 1 million coffees and smoothies, on over 100,000 donations to charity initiatives, and to fund over 1 million local and international flights.

This equates to over 90,000 coffees and smoothies purchased per month using Discovery Miles. 

The rewards system is central to Discovery’s shared value model, which aims to create a win-win situation for the company and its clients. 

Discovery has gradually expanded this model to areas of its business outside of medical aid and life insurance as part of becoming a full-service financial institution.

In particular, it has focused on leveraging this model in the banking space through Discovery Bank as it gives the bank a unique competitive advantage. 

By encouraging better health and financial behaviour, the company reduces its risk of insurance claims and defaults while giving clients added benefits. 

For example, with its home loan product, the company can reduce the interest charged on the mortgage depending on the client’s financial behaviour. 

As the risk of default recedes, Discovery Bank can lower the interest rate to reward this good behaviour. 

The financial behaviours that are rewarded include saving, being adequately insured, investing for retirement, and paying off home loans faster. 

In an interview with Daily Investor, Vitality South Africa CEO Dinesh Govender said it is challenging to keep people motivated to pursue good habits. 

These behaviours will only benefit them in the long term, making it hard for them to justify now instead of the immediate gratification offered by a fast-food meal. 

People inevitably fall off the wagon and take the path of least resistance for immediate gratification.

Thus, Vitality has “got to trick the brain” to help members make beneficial long-term behavioural changes that will benefit their health. 

It does this by bringing rewards from the long term into the present in the form of Discovery Miles. 

These can be used to purchase smoothies, coffees, and other products ranging from K-Way jackets to Nespresso coffee pods. 

Short-term rewards are coupled with larger long-term rewards, such as free flights with Discovery Travel. 

These rewards give a short-term incentive for habits with long-term health benefits while encouraging the healthy habits to continue for longer so Vitality members can receive larger rewards. 

Govender explained that it is important for these rewards to be tangible and be felt immediately, giving members instant gratification for exercise, healthy eating, and good financial behaviour. 

Vitality’s efforts to help members sustain healthy habits resulted in over 8,000 members achieving exercise goal streaks in multiples of 100, with nearly 2,000 sustaining their habits over 300 days. 

Govender said this ties in with Discovery’s overarching mission to make people healthier and more financially responsible through Vitality. 

The company aims to make its rewards and nudges more personal through machine learning and artificial intelligence to keep people engaged and live better lives. 

Vitality has expanded its offering in 2024, with the launch of the Vitality Fitness platform to make it easier for members to engage in physical activity.