Guest Author - Kathryn Free
The recession has touched everyone. With each new day, life grows more difficult. Knowing which choice is better to make has become cloudy. With each difficult decision, our inner strength is defined. Most will react in fear. Many will react in denial. Some will react in action. A few will react in hope. I am reacting in hope against hope.
The preceding few months I have been researching marketing and how my PDA could assist during the recession. What I found was a notable trend in spending.
According to Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer, wrote in his recent newsletter that 87% of all consumers now prefer to shop at retailers that offer coupons.
A study by Packaged Facts found that 87% of consumers now prefer to shop at retailers that offer coupons, and 89% said they are more likely to use coupons in a recession. Expect mobile to get in on the digital coupon craze, too, as consumers seek deals on their phone right at the point of purchase.
According to comScore, coupons were the fastest-growing Website category in November 2008. Unique visitors to coupon sites were up 32% over October 2008, way ahead of the next-fastest category, jewelry and luxury goods, which grew only 25%, and toys, which grew 24%.
Carol L. Schroeder wrote in her recent newsletter that coupon usage is on the increase due to the challenging economy, so this might be a reasonable opportunity to give it a try.
Entertainment Books have increased their sales by 30% over the last 6 months.
Each study or survey seems to continue saying the identical things - coupons are the most effective powerful method of marketing. The sole problem is where and how to market these coupons. Internet coupons make up only 1% of the 2.6 billion coupons published each year. Is the Internet really the best way to market coupons? ePaper' advertising is on the decline, however, paper coupons are on the rise. This tendency is becoming so powerful that GoogleAdWords now offers 2 coupon templates for the advertiser.
After I pulled together the marketing facts I began considering the ultimate approach to promote the coupons. Entertainment books are the most successful coupon books around. Then you have the coupon cards that schools use to raise money. Sewing & Quilting has very little consolidated coupon effort. Everyone in this industry wants to remain with the old advertising ways. They do not seem to realize that Internet marketing is more than merely a yellow page ad book with web pages posted. The ROI is very limited with that type of advertising.
There are two types of marketing I see evolving. First, name recognition and second, revenue generating. Name recognition does not generate revenue anymore than revenue beings name recognition. Many companies that are not used to coupons do not see this difference.
Business that will succeed through the recession will understand that expanding revenue is not merely increasing sales but increasing customer base. Successful businesses will understand how to market for revenue expansion and not just increased sales. Many companies are running successful coupon campaigns to their existing customer base. Sales are increasing so they believe the campaigns are working. In reality they are not. To increase revenue, you need new customers in combination with new products. This seems to be where the understanding stifles and trying new advertising directions never get off the ground. When their customer base stops spending they find they have not grown and are their business is in trouble!
So I began looking at alternative ways to advertise and new ventures began popping up. I found a unique concept called 'Sewing on the Run' coupon book. This coupon book is industry specific to the sewing and quilting industry. They are offering a book similar to the Entertainment book but with tips and tools while using the technology of tomorrow. One of their marketing directions will be on the PDA. Their 'Sewing on the Run' coupon book will be published so that it can be uploaded to an individual's pocket PDA. This is a fantastic idea. No longer will the customer need to lug around a book, they will have all the information accessible to them on their PDA! No more forgetting a coupon! No more forgetting directions or the phone #'s!
Coupons and the PDA I believe will find many future applications. Once new applications are written it is merely a matter of time before those applications become common place. For the first time, I can see a book that is readable and needed on my personal PDA.
Companies that make it through the present recession will be those who can adjust their marketing strategies, embrace new ideas and technologies and demonstrate the commitment to succeed.
