"All the consumer needs to do it take 15 seconds a day to…"
— many a dead internet start-up hoping for consumer behavior change
Consumers don’t always behave in the most efficient or logical manner. Many a start up has gone under waiting for the consumers to see the light and change their daily routine. Unfortunately, for most, people don’t like to change their routine and the best solutions involve interacting with consumers while they are doing something they are already doing. Online couponing has been one area that has always held significant promise but failed to deliver.
Online coupons have been an elephant graveyard for the tech
world. You would think that this would be much more useful for
traditional coupon clippers. Tell a service what you like and have it
deliver the relevant coupons to you (web, email, stored value card,
etc). Alas,
Coolsavings, CouponSurfer.com, Coupons.com, CouponBar, eBates, eBay, Entertainment Book, Eversave , Keycode, Valpak.com
have all tried to crack the code but to no avail. It seems that people
don’t want to go through the effort of setting up preferences, visit
their account (or get emails), print them out and take the coupons into
stores. Too much work. They prefer to clip the coupons out of the
circulars.
Google has addressed many challenges in one clean strategy. It will
let businesses offer discount coupons if they use the Google Maps
service. This is a direct assault on both the coupon and yellow pages
business. The benefits are the following:
1) higher redemption/use: consumers are indicating interest when they look up a business or address on the map.
2) adoption:
unlike other coupon sites, it does not require the consumer to change
behavior. They are already browsing for the location and this pops up.
Like with their search ads, this is taking advantage of the consumer
self-identifying interest.
3) more search $’s: Google is
betting that users will increasingly use their local search if they
know they will likely get discounts on products at those stores.
4) more ad $’s: Businesses may spend more money promoting their coupons through the Google ad network.
5) kick-starts local search: Google’s local search business has had limited success to date. This has the potential to get this scaling much more rapidly.
I
have been waiting for someone to figure out how to get online coupons
to work. Current models have been to invasive and require too much
effort on the users part. In addition to being much more straight
forward, this system is also…free to both consumers and businesses.
Looks like another marketing sector is feeling the wrath of Google.
One of the reasons I have never used any of the online coupon services before is because you could not simply click on the coupon and print it. Many of them require download and use of a specialized software app just to view and print. I will check out Google coupons, though, since it does certainly sound as if they are trying to take a different approach.
One of the reasons I have never used any of the online coupon services before is because you could not simply click on the coupon and print it. Many of them require download and use of a specialized software app just to view and print. I will check out Google coupons, though, since it does certainly sound as if they are trying to take a different approach.
There are a couple of other interesting approaches including ScanAps in Los Angeles that makes a small fob scanner that goes on the end of your key chain. You will use this mini scanner to scan coupons that your come across and then download at the store at checkout. Eventually, someone will figure out a non-invasive way to handle coupons online and link them back to stores…an obvious win for everyone. Of course, fraud will be an interesting problem to deal with…
There are a couple of other interesting approaches including ScanAps in Los Angeles that makes a small fob scanner that goes on the end of your key chain. You will use this mini scanner to scan coupons that your come across and then download at the store at checkout. Eventually, someone will figure out a non-invasive way to handle coupons online and link them back to stores…an obvious win for everyone. Of course, fraud will be an interesting problem to deal with…
There are various things asscociated with coupons. I am certainly not a authority but trying to know why me or people around me don’t use coupon.
It is pain even if I subscribe to some simple interest like Pizza to get a coupon. Since I like particular pizza or even if I am ready to try one, sometime they can not find that particular place in my area. The catch would be give me something which I use give them more business rather than first introduction.
Second, Value of coupon. For me, going through inserts and finding coupons also is pain to justify that effort for say $2. I will say, majority coupons on groceries are ok but beside that cheap value coupons dont do any good to anyone.
Consumers are interested to list their interest but we need to get that information from some non frictional way.
I am doing a lot of research on this area. Google model as you said is good, but hey if I am looking for a pizza place then only google is good (search interest in location). Mostly i know places around me, so I am looking for a better way or I would say much greater success when it comes to coupon as way of marketing on new electronic media.
Thanks for discussion, your blog is really insightful and gives clear pic of other (investor) side.
There are various things asscociated with coupons. I am certainly not a authority but trying to know why me or people around me don’t use coupon.
It is pain even if I subscribe to some simple interest like Pizza to get a coupon. Since I like particular pizza or even if I am ready to try one, sometime they can not find that particular place in my area. The catch would be give me something which I use give them more business rather than first introduction.
Second, Value of coupon. For me, going through inserts and finding coupons also is pain to justify that effort for say $2. I will say, majority coupons on groceries are ok but beside that cheap value coupons dont do any good to anyone.
Consumers are interested to list their interest but we need to get that information from some non frictional way.
I am doing a lot of research on this area. Google model as you said is good, but hey if I am looking for a pizza place then only google is good (search interest in location). Mostly i know places around me, so I am looking for a better way or I would say much greater success when it comes to coupon as way of marketing on new electronic media.
Thanks for discussion, your blog is really insightful and gives clear pic of other (investor) side.
Great observations. I have the same reaction, generally, to coupons I get in my mailbox (they go in the circular file directly). Couponing suffers from network effects like other major systems. There have to be enough relevant offers to make it useful to the end users. Like with search originally, people would come back if they got what they wanted the first time or two. If you keep getting Jiffy Lube coupons when you want Gino’s Pizza, you aren’t coming back (or getting Pizza Hut offers vs. Gino’s). Google is trying to use the self-serve model (and making it free) to self-populate the coupon pool. A lot of businesses need to take them up on this for people like you and me want to go there. I would guess that if we relevant $’s off on things we actually wanted to buy, we will go there more often since we would not only get directions, but also monetary value. Yellow pages are in trouble if they hit this tipping point. If they don’t hit the tipping point, then it will fail.
Great observations. I have the same reaction, generally, to coupons I get in my mailbox (they go in the circular file directly). Couponing suffers from network effects like other major systems. There have to be enough relevant offers to make it useful to the end users. Like with search originally, people would come back if they got what they wanted the first time or two. If you keep getting Jiffy Lube coupons when you want Gino’s Pizza, you aren’t coming back (or getting Pizza Hut offers vs. Gino’s). Google is trying to use the self-serve model (and making it free) to self-populate the coupon pool. A lot of businesses need to take them up on this for people like you and me want to go there. I would guess that if we relevant $’s off on things we actually wanted to buy, we will go there more often since we would not only get directions, but also monetary value. Yellow pages are in trouble if they hit this tipping point. If they don’t hit the tipping point, then it will fail.