The Rules of Attraction: Couponing for Fun and Profit
Power Up With Coupons
There's a whole generation of people who grew up playing video games and surfing the web, and coupons make perfect sense to them. In a video game, you have to go searching for the 'power-up' that gives you special abilities, extra lives or some other reward. In real life (or IRL as they say) coupons are these power-ups. Young professionals stretching their first salary know that if they want to purchase your goods or services and keep their budgets under control, they want a coupon, and they'll go looking for a coupon. And if they can't find a coupon for your store ... they'll find one for a different store.
Coupons Adds Fun To Shopping
Couponing makes shopping for anything more game-like and fun. The challenge is to get everything cheaper and thus be able to buy more. The rules are simple and the thrill of winning is very real. Coupons work in today's age not because people like to do the old-fashioned work of paging through a newspaper insert and finding deals on the things they're already planning to buy, but because coupons often determine what people buy in the first place. Sending out a coupon to your customer list will inspire them to purchase items and services they hadn't considered before, simply because you've made the transaction into a 'win' by putting the 'power-up' right in front of them - customers feel like they've won simply because they got a deal.
In fact, research has shown that the more complex you make the rules, the more people will buy. Designing coupons to be combined in creative ways challenges the gaming sensibilities of customers and inspires them to be creative, trying to find the perfect combination of cou pons that will get them the most for the least - and while the savings are very real, the increased volume makes financial sense for your business. http://www.amazines.com