Is there a perceived administrative burden for each of your coupon campaigns? Not sure how the process works or how to construct a budget? Despite couponing still being a really effective sales promotion technique we think that both of these questions are putting brands off from using this valuable tool to encourage trial and repeat purchase.
And then there’s the added dimension of UK FMCG retailer initiatives to recover their money by direct deducting from trading accounts (and more major multiples will no doubt follow suit to speed cash recovery and cut down admin costs in store).
There’s no doubt that coupons work in terms of achieving brand objectives: there are numerous surveys and articles which cover the topic and demonstrate the technique’s effectiveness. With the advent of digital, innovative distribution methods continue to appear. The landscape will change again once retailers invest in EPOS systems across their estates that are capable of scanning coupons from mobile devices and the technology to enable single-use only is mastered (& the not insignificant investment made). Of course this will only happen if retailers are willing to give an even playing field to both price led initiatives and such brand led campaigns.
We’ve been clearing coupons for both retailers (cash recovery) and manufacturers (achieve promotional objectives) in the UK for 20 years, so we know what we are doing.
We predict that a reinvigorated interest in the use of couponing will happen very soon. Some retailers (Co-op, Asda) already have systems in place to validate that the correct product has been purchased when the coupon is presented. This system uses live data to eradicate coupon misuse (intentional or otherwise) by ensuring that the coupon is valid and the correct product GTIN has been scanned. This ‘scan & burn’ approach will quickly be adopted by other retailers.
We are already working with promoters to help them conform to the new retailer requirements and we have created a single source for authorisation, redemption and validation of coupon campaigns. We can consolidate all redemptions and costs and provide the usual post promotion analysis without the need for the client to brief several different parties and to keep track of many different lines of cost.
Did you know? We also have a digital ‘click & print’ coupon product called Webcoupon. Developed specially for the UK market, Webcoupon can easily be integrated into digital platforms. Check out more information here
Why not have a look at our approach to Coupon Clearing, Processing and Settlement.