Nikki Baird

Coupon Redemption at All Time High

July 22, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Consumers are looking to save money wherever they can and they're clipping coupons at a furious pace, according to NCH Marketing Services (a division of Valassis). Will coupons continue to grow as part of the advertising/promotional mix for brand marketers and retailers?      [more...]

You can blame part of brands' coupon craze on oil--yup. Oil. When gas prices were high, retailers told CPGs they didn't want to see price increases on products, so CPGs created smaller pack sizes (which had its own consequences, but that's another story). But when oil prices fell and the economy tanked, rather than go back to increased pack sizes and face the possibility that costs might go up yet again, retailers and manufacturers both moved towards coupons as a way to make the effective price less, without changing the fundamentals of pack size and "base" price.

However, 'coupon' is just the mass, non-targeted version of a customer offer--and that's really where we should be headed. I have to say, after being stuck in line in the grocery store for 20 minutes this past weekend, and that's not just perception on my part, 20 agonizing minutes by my watch, while a woman with no less than 30 coupons (clipped from FSIs, printed from online, cut from targeted mailers) wrangled with the cashier for every last penny of her discounts, something has got to change. Between this woman trying to slip in coupons for things she had not purchased, and the cashier, determined not to let even 25 cents go out the door that weren't earned, I was about ready to strangle them both.

If this is the volume of coupon use that we're going to see from here on out, then please, please, please--Hurry up Digital Coupons! We need you.