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August 16, 2006

12:31 am | 0 recommendations | 3 comments

“Do You Have Any Coupons?”

| posted by Kevin Dugan

A pile of coupon news came out today as Google announced yet another free service. This one allows businesses to offer coupons to consumers via Google Maps.

Bath & Body Works also announced it is offering coupons to its customers via mobile phone. Mobile phone coupons present an interesting opportunity to tap into the coveted third screen by providing these instant discounts.

The consumer appeal is obvious. Seth Godin tells marketers that coupons are also “trivially easy to test, track and practically free to distribute.” They give retailers a lot more flexibility than the printed coupons in the Sunday circulars.

But mobile phone coupons feel like an old approach bolted onto a new media. You have to show the cashier your coupon code in Bath & Body’s current model. Hopefully as mobile phone utility increases, it will become a bit more intuitive to the device.

Marketers are using mostly push approaches to reaching mobile phone audiences. We need more creativity to make the third screen an on demand pull for marketers. Take Kraft for example. They offer recipes for download onto your iPod so you can scroll through and make sure you buy all the right ingredients.

Text messaging and point of sale seem to hold a lot of opportunity here. Would you text a point of sale wine display to get complimentary meal recommendations and recipes? What information would you like to receive on your mobile phone?

Tags: Innovation, blogjam 2006
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Recent Comments | 3 Total

August 16, 2006 at 9:50am

Rob Gregory
Texting is definitely fast becoming the means of communication for many people in my generation and younger. It is an easy way to get to the point faster and very convenient. I would definitely text a number (if there werent any additional text message fees associated with it) for a coupon on a given product. I think this is a good idea and plays into the "on-the-go" lifestyle that people lead where they dont want to spend the time sitting around sifting through and clipping coupons. I could see this working very well as an almost point of purchase display type setup where the numbers would be placed next to the items and people could text for the coupon if they wanted. This could serve to boost sales of certain items that are struggling as the convenience and savings provided by that setup would attract more consumers.
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August 16, 2006 at 4:56pm

Ravo Kamdar
WAiting till it comes in my country India. However, I think the Japanese are far ahead in this type of ideas as they allow M-shopping(Payments through mobile instantly)
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August 21, 2006 at 2:23pm

Allison Gower
Your point about creativity in mobile phone interactions is right on. I grew up as a brand-marketer 'back in the day' of newspaper inserts and forecasted redemption. We were so worried about duplication, distribution and circulation that we missed the point that we were actually WANTING to get people to learn about our products. Advertisers have an opportunity with mobile phones to walk-away from this 'controlled approach' and leverage their viral nature. That is, like Seth Godin says - make the offer sent to the mobile phone 'remarkable' and people will take the time to remark upon it, and hence pass-it-along. Therefore, the '3rd screen' opportunity for advertisers is not to use the mobile as another way to execute 'old-style' coupons, but instead to engage and interact (and provide remarkable news), and then, if appropriate, add a coupon or promo. And, PLAN/ENCOURAGE the message to be passed on and distributed via forwarded text messages. Using point-of-sale or in-store venues is a good way to do that. Someone is there, have a conversation with them via text (everyone has their mobile on them). qtags text is helping Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits do this right now in Houston. On reader boards & on-doors, customers are asked - want free food? text 'popeyes' to 78247 (QTAGS). It's a coupon, sure, but more than that it's a thank you for visiting - we appreciate your business.
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