Use of Coupons in Marketing Strategies

In the current world of digital media marketing and advertising, Coupons are largely efficient tools for any business type, and they help in achieving productive sales for an organization. Because of their acceptance by the public consumers or customers, they have proven to obtain extraordinary recognition and eminence among the marketing strategies. Customary utilization of proper couponing procedure will give a constant flow of new clients and brilliant potential customers. Coupon promotions and advertisements have become mandatory for retail stores. Since a long time, they have emerged from magazines and newspapers in supermarkets and stores to the websites on the internet, and it holds to be a vital tool to grab customer attraction and create a positive buzz for promotions in the marketing campaigns.

In my view, coupons offered by the stores create a positive impact on the customer’s mind and drag their attention to purchase in retail stores. No customer would hesitate to accept a coupon or discount offered, and it also helps in increasing the traffic in the retail stores, which provides an additional opportunity to gain sales profit in the stores. Most of the retail stores have in-store and online flyers in their websites, and these help the customers to choose the store they want to buy an item at a discounted price. I use the flyers from stores like Real Canadian Superstore, No-frills, Shopper’s Drug Mart, etc. to do my grocery shopping and most of these stores have promotional offers to gain points towards their purchases and use them for later. Coupons are not only limited to grocery, clothing and retail stores but they are widely used in other industries like telecommunications, travel, health care products, insurance, new technology such as mobiles, cameras, laptops, etc.

In an article written by Carolyn Brown, on how to increase sales and profit in business enterprises by using coupon campaigns, “48 percent of internet users were redeeming their digital coupons, and 11% of the customers of top e-retailer sites made mobile purchases, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter also have a crucial role in the online marketing strategy through e-coupons”(Brown, 2011). Nowadays, consumers are overwhelmed with a variety of choice offers, including social and online codes and coupons.

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In the article published by Golding & Associates on their website, they have discussed main methods, various places, and alternatives to find and gather the coupons in Canada. “Registering with mail out coupon distributors like (http://www.brandsaver.ca, http://www.save.ca, http://www.websaver.ca), hidden portals for additional coupons, printable coupon distributors like http://smartsource.ca, tearpads, cut-outs from product packaging, magazines, and e-newsletters are the efficient ways to collect coupons in Canada”(Where to find Coupons in Canada). Websites can offer printable coupons, product samples to the customers, mobile and social media shareable coupon options to become more user-friendly and increase the sales by marketing and advertising with coupons. Some websites offer a limited number of coupons such as two per household or registered e-mail or mobile number, which, might be annoying the customers in a few cases. Coupon websites should spend some quality time and check the legitimacy and validity of the discount coupons and codes posted on their sites to avoid fraudulent and expired coupons.

Patel, in his article for Advertising Age, describes the behavior of women consumers and their tips for shopping with retail stores. He mentions that “Ad coupons from weekly magazines, newspapers, Checking the websites like Red Plum, P&G or using google are the key strategies to stock up and use coupons for purchases”(Patel,2011). Customized registering based on purchase interests, with the websites through e-mail or signing up for promotional offers, in-store coupons, online flyers, coupons from magazines and newsletters, etc., are the prominent ways to collect and use the coupons.

Turning into an extreme coupon user and building a huge stock doesn’t occur without any forethought. It requires investment to figure out how to shop savvy and become smart in utilizing coupons in enormous amounts. A research was published by four individuals in the Journal of Marketing Management regarding extreme or heavy couponing. This study conducted on 309 individuals about couponing reveals that ” 15 percent of them belonged to the category of using coupons extremely, 24 percent of them appear to be undecided, and 77 percent were not using them largely” (ZBOJA, GOLDSMITH, CLARK, & GATZLAFF, 2018). Consumer Satisfaction, Awareness of the brands, Feedback from the consumers about couponing are the most critical and effective strategies to evaluate the progress of marketing with coupons in making profits.

Print coupons need significant time and some effort to obtain, safeguard, and use appropriately. Web vouchers or coupons are mostly efficient and can be easily procured through online sites and can be saved, shared on mobile devices for future use. These different ways by which customers can acquire and utilize coupons has extended as of late, and customers are progressively requesting these latest methods of circulation.

 References

1. Brown, C. M. (2011). 5 Ways to Maximize Coupon Campaigns. Black Enterprise, 42(5), 34. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=69861142&site=ehost-live&scope=site&authtype=ip,url,uid
2. PATEL, K. (2011). MARKETERS: BEWARE THE COUPON MOM. (Cover story). Advertising Age, 82(27), 1–13. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=62548926&site=eds-live&authtype=ip,url,uid
3. Where to find Coupons in Canada. Golding & Associates. Retrieved June 02, 2019, from https://debtandcreditsolutions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Couponing-Where-to-find-coupons-in-Canada.pdf
4. ZBOJA, J. J., GOLDSMITH, R. E., CLARK, R. A., & GATZLAFF, K. M. (2018). Extreme Couponing: An Exploratory Study. Marketing Management Journal, 28(2), 93–107. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=134340859&site=eds-live&authtype=ip,url,uid