Couponing and A Down Economy, Part 1

This is the first entry of a two-part series examining different online marketing strategies and tactics in a struggling economy.

The economic climate today means folks are conspicuously tiptoeing around the big “R” word – recession. Marketers everywhere are battling to maintain, if not grow, their share of the consumer’s shrinking pocketbook.

This climate reminds me of 2001 when I worked with a regional restaurant chain based in the California Bay Area. The ripple effects of the Internet bubble-burst were felt throughout the Bay Area, Silicon Valley and along the Pacific coast. A company that was already aggressive in couponing through clippers and FSIs upped the ante, pushing more coupons. And, following September 11^th the situation was dire. By this time the customer was trained to respond to the coupon, which they could expect in every Sunday paper.

Was this the right strategy? I don’t know. Regardless of the medium – an email or an FSI – this question persists: is aggressive couponing an effective approach in a down economy?

Within some categories – specifically Consumer Packaged Goods – couponing will always thrive. Brand loyalty is scant and couponing is a necessary part of trial and adoption and building purchase frequency.

In other categories, a marketer needs to take a long-term look at a short-term couponing strategy. The short-term goal is to keep the numbers up during a down economy. But, if now is the appropriate time to ramp-up a coupon program, when is the appropriate time to pare it back? Will your customer return to rack rate with you?

See part two here.

This entry was written by Bryce Marshall and posted on May 23, 2008 at 12:15 pm and filed under Online Marketing Tactics with tags email marketing, trial and adoption. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

3 Trackbacks/Pingbacks

By Couponing and A Down Economy, Part 2 « The Lunch Pail on May 26, 2008 at 3:41 pm

[...] The Lunch Pail « Couponing and A Down Economy, Part 1 [...]
By When is a coupon more than a coupon? « The Lunch Pail on August 18, 2008 at 9:43 am

[...] multiple sides of the issue concerning couponing. Specifically, I addressed the following question: Is coupon discounting an effective tactic for marketers to consider in a down economy? I concluded that a couponing strategy needs to be deeply scrutinized by any marketing organization [...]
By Odds, Ends and Mobile Trends « The Lunch Pail on September 12, 2008 at 11:38 am

[...] what does that mean for retail? It means coupons, and lots of them, through any channel possible. We have some opinions on the right way to coupon in these economic conditions. An immediate and interesting trend of note is that the response rate to mobile coupons is [...]

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