| Wireless: A new niche for coupons as marketing goes digital |
| Sunday, 18 January 2004 | |
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International Herald Tribune 19th January 2004 - Coupons offering consumers discounts on everything from dog food to dandruff shampoo carry a stigma, analysts say: The impression is that only retirees, low-income families or cheapskates take the time to clip magazines and newspapers to save a few cents. By Jennifer L. Schenker, PARIS But coupons are getting a hipper image now, thanks to mobile phones. Digital vouchers sent to the phones are offering savings on everything from entry into trendy nightclubs to stylish clothing. Based on positive results in Asia, several European retailers and phone carriers are starting to sign on for these offers, which give retailers a more targeted approach than many other types of direct marketing."When it comes to mobile marketing, coupons seem to be the direction things will go in 2004," said Daren Siddall, an analyst in London for Gartner, a technology consulting firm. In March, Orange, the mobile phone company, will begin what is being billed as Europe's largest mobile coupon offer to date: a two-for-one ticket deal at over 90 percent of the movie theaters across Britain every Wednesday night for the next three years. Orange will introduce its marketing campaign over traditional avenues like television and newspapers. To participate, pay-as-you-go or monthly Orange subscribers need to send a text message to the number 241, for the same price as any other text message. The subscriber is then sent a code in return. When that person gets to the theater, the code is read aloud to the cashier, or the cashier is shown the code on the mobile screen. The cashier then keys the voucher code into machines developed by Flytxt, a British mobile marketing company, said Stuart Campbell, an Orange spokesman. The machines link to a central database via a wireless network to track when people redeem their coupons. What is in it for Orange? It hopes that the campaign will increase customer loyalty. In addition, Orange will have exclusive mobile content rights to at least one major release for the first month after it reaches theaters during the three-year trial. The company hopes to use film clips, images and ring tones tied to those films to draw users to its Orange World mobile portal and increase data traffic, Campbell said. For theaters, they see it as a way to increase business at midweek. While the Orange trial is expected to serve as a good benchmark for mobile coupon use, the key to widespread consumer acceptance of mobile coupons will be getting the technology to work smoothly, analysts say. At the moment, there are plenty of kinks. For the time being, retailers say it is too expensive to change their cashier systems, so somewhat clunky systems have been developed to help consumers redeem the coupons, analysts say. Several other types of mobile coupons also are now in use or being tested. Those sent as text messages - the most common today - cannot be read by traditional bar-code readers, so either the retailer or consumer must type in a long number. Coupons can also be sent in the form of electronic bar codes, but only to phones that can receive graphics. What's more, in-store scanning equipment often has difficulty reading bar codes displayed on mobile screens. A third type of digital coupon, which can also be received only on phones equipped to get picture messages, includes both the logo of the brand being promoted and encrypted information to prevent fraud. This type of coupon cannot be scanned using traditional bar code readers, so consumers have to figure out how to use specialized machines in retail outlets. After scanning the phones, these machines print out a paper coupon, which is then presented to a cashier. If scanning mobile coupons turns into a major chore or slows checkout lines, it could turn off retailers and consumers alike. Proponents, though, say that most of the problems will disappear once the majority of phones are equipped to download images. And they point to some early successes elsewhere. In a survey taken last spring by the London-based market research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres of 4,688 mobile phone owners in 11 Asian countries, only 5 percent said they had redeemed mobile coupons, but 32 percent said they would be interested in doing so. © Copyright Flytxt Ltd 2006. Unauthorized use of any content constitutes a material breach. |
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