Promo - July 2008 - (Page 28)

FLYING THE COUP BY THE NUMBERS Internet coupons help marketers reach young shoppers By Amy Johannes Want to pull people into your store? Try coupons. Maybe you’d like to reactivate old customers or encourage sampling? Same advice. But that doesn’t mean your coupons should be distributed in the same old ways. Experts say marketers can get higher redemption rates and reach younger audiences online. Print coupons are still tops. Counting freestanding inserts (FSIs), 99.5% of all offers still come on paper, according to Charles Brown, vice president of marketing for coupon agent NCH Marketing Services and co-chair of the Promotion Marketing Association’s Coupon Council. But online coupons are gaining ground. While they account for a small percentage of all those distributed, Web coupons increased by 80% last year (compared with 1.5% for FSIs), Brown says. That pace is expected to continue. “Internet coupons are the fastest growing because more people are online,” he adds. “So marketers are using the Internet as a way to reach consumers more effectively.” One reason is that redemption rates for online coupons average 15.4% vs. 0.5% for FSIs, says Matthew Tilley, marketing director for grocery coupon processor CMS and the PMA Coupon Council’s other co-chair. Also, people are snubbing newspapers and getting news on the Web. Tilley believes young people are particularly hard to reach through FSIs: “The Internet certainly has possibilities. It makes sense to promote in an environment where a lot of consumers are.” Ocean Spray sees the logic. The fruit-juice maker is distributing online coupons in addition to traditional FSIs. The goal? To expand its reach and drive new product trials. Visitors to www.cranergy.com can print a $1-off coupon for its Cranergy juice drink. “For us, couponing has become a lot more targeted,” says marketing vice president Larry Martin. “We know our consumers are highly engaged on the Web.” Is it working? As of June, the company reported 157,000 online coupons had been printed. The effort, which Coupons Inc. is handling, is slated to run through September. Likewise, General Mills has doubled spending on Internet coupons over the last two years, according to Karl Schmidt, director of promotion marketing for the packaged goods firm. “These people are not in our reach in the traditional way,” Schmidt says. “[Web coupons can] expose them to incentives to purchase our brands. Online is a great way to reach younger households and growing families.” General Mills has signed on to Coupons.com Brandcaster, a new service that tailors coupons based on site content and sends them to clickers’ printers. Hundreds of other companies also use the technology, including Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Foods and Clorox. Brandcaster offers have a better redemption rate—17%—than mailed or FSI coupons because only qualified 86% of people in the United States use coupons. Shoppers redeemed 2.6 billion grocery coupons last year. The average coupon value was $1.28 in 2007. 63% of coupon users say coupons give them an incentive to try new products. 66% 67% of shoppers often combine manufacturer’s coupons with in-store specials. are more likely to use coupons during a recession. 77% of 18- to 34-year-old shoppers say they’d use paperless coupons. Sources: PMA Coupon Council; ICOM 28 July 2008 / WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM / Promo http://www.cranergy.com http://www.Coupons.com http://www.promomagazine.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Promo - July 2008

Promo - July 2008 Contents Editor's Note Shelf Help Beautiful Bovines Rest Stop Who Let the Dogs Blog? A Helping Hand Commentary Solid Gold Q and A: Mighty Mattel Flying the Coup Putting E-mail in Motion Resource Center The Agency Center The Young Prefer Mail Index of Advertisers

Promo - July 2008

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