In marketing, a coupon is a ticket or document that can be
exchanged for a financial discount or rebate when purchasing a product. They are often widely distributed
through mail, magazines,
newspapers,
the Internet,
and mobile devices such as cell phones. Internet coupons have become popular
recently,
because there is no postal cost, and the printing cost is borne by
the user (who prints the coupons) rather than the businesses issuing them.
Mobile coupons have emerged as a new and green alternative as no printing is
required whatsoever. Mobile coupons as a method of coupon redemption are
gaining in popularity as more consumers utilize their mobile devices for uses
beyond voice. Each year, coupons generate more than 8 billion dollars in
transactions within the
This is the
second part on my series on how to use the coupons effectively in promoting
your business and not bastardize your price point. It is important to sit down
and work through what you are trying to achieve and if there is an important
message to get across to your customer base. Some of those would be:
- Spreading your sales over more
days and evening out the sales in the slow part of the week or spreading
business over the none busy times.
- Promote a new product.
- Informing the customers that it
is a new business or owners in the area, limit time specials to promote
that.
- Community drives to promote
sales such as sports day specials for certain clubs or schools.
- Limited time offers.
- Cross promoting one or more
business in the same shopping strip, keeping the over all production and
distributing costs down.
- Interactivity with the customer
so they must bring the coupon in to get the benefits stated on the coupon.
Don’t waver from enforcement of the conditions on the coupon.
Coupons are
a very strong marketing tool, but use the strength of the coupon to drive a new
product, special event or store opening. Know your costs and what you’re trying
to achieve in addition to sales, such as branding, special events or even
relocating your pizzeria. There is no reason to give them the shirt off your
back or create the perception that this product should ALWAYS be this price. Make
sure the coupon is dated and stresses a limited time only purchase.
Measuring
the responses is most important because you won;t know the success or failure
of it if you don’t. Produce a spreadsheet where you can track the success. Take the time to sit down and work out costings
on the coupons (printing, artwork, distribution and food costs) before you
embark on such a coupon marketing exercise. For the coupons to be successful it
would have to be an unbelievable offer to work.
You can
also use a tracking code or validation system to track the effectiveness. This
is where most POS come into there own. This can be broken down by postcode and
letterbox drops and the transaction value from certain areas.
Another
cost reducing tip is issuing your coupon on the back of your in store receipt to
reduce your marketing costs and you can change the message as often as you like
to fine tune the message.
Pay
attention to your food costs when the coupons go out. Design the coupon with
the message that you want to get across to your customer base, such ad “Monday
we give you 3 toppings, 9” pizza any with any full priced pickup pizza for
$4.00 extra”. This would be to kick start sales on Monday. You know that your
food costs will be slightly higher than normal. Once again, have a limited time
only.
The coupons
could be tailored to be different in accordance with the demographics of your
area. This way you could see what does and doesn’t work at the same time in two
different areas. Assessment of the results will give you weak and strong areas.
This will tailor your costs in the future with knowledge knowing the areas to
project your future promotions without testing that area when sales decline in
that territory.
Team the
coupon with other different retailers in your area to cut the cost of
production in getting out there. Think of other businesses in your area that
would dearly love to team up with someone to help minimize their cost to market
their business.
Resist the “$$$-off”
promotions as long as possible. You will devalue your product. The public see
this as, “Why isn’t that ALWAYS that price”. There isn’t any going back if you
run this promotion for a long period of time... short bursts only.
If your
going to go down the road of percentage off or $$$-off then seriously consider
the dollars value off avenue. That has a far greater pull for business than a
percentage off. Or if you prefer use the most powerful word... FREE. But if using the free word, make it
a short promotion and give it a disclaimer, such as “free with any order
of (fill in the offer here)”. Don’t give
away the kitchen sink. You want them to return when the offer has finished. Try
something like $2 off or free garlic bread with an order and see which has the
most redemption. So be careful that you don’t devalue your product. Your pizza
has a value and you should use the coupons to your advantage, not to your
customers.
Coupons are
there to build sales. Coupons strategies that build sale and profits should be
considered a cornerstone of your marketing. It should be noted that the coupon
is becoming a stronger marketing tool by big chains to ramp up the sales during
the slow times and this is well structured and thought out in accordance with
the food costs and profitability. The number of coupons offers are endless.
Planning of
the use of coupons should be a team activity. Pizzerias should include the
staff in obtaining the maximum result for the use of coupons. With the staff
being included, they have the feeling of the ownership of such a promotion. The
brainstorming of the promotion and the mechanical aspects of the use of the
promotion can be placed on the table and discussed at length to be sure
everyone understands the objective of whole promotion. Empowering staff to make
decisions to make the campaign run smoothly gives them pride in their jobs.
Right or wrong, staff should be given support from management where a coupon
has been presented and there is a sticking point in the use of that coupon from
the customer’s perspective.
Rules of
engagement for the use of the coupons should be discussed between staff and
management at a team meeting. Pizza Chains usually have a strong team meeting
prior to a new promotion to get a grasp of the forthcoming promotion. A well
informed team is the backbone of your frontline.
Terms and
conditions of ALL promotions should be visibly placed in the store for all to
see.
Team
meetings should roll play the use of the coupon from a customers side to iron
out any problems that might arise during the promotion. This type of team
approach can form a united approach to handling problems that present
themselves with the use of coupons.
All the
staff should be encouraged to write down the rules of engagement at the team
meeting, that way everyone will understand those rules. Team members should
quizzed on those rules before the meeting adjourns to see that all has been
discussed and understood.
In closing,
use the coupon tool sparingly to get your message out there. If it is over done
then your customers will hold off buying until they have a coupon, hence, wait
until you put out your next coupon. So know when to hold and know when to fold
in the use of coupons.
The use of
the coupon should be something for discussion of your formation of your
marketing plan within your business plan. If you have any questions or need
help in your pizza businesses contact me.
Stephen
Millar
Pizza Business
Consultant
0413 902
391
Australian
Pizza News
www.pizzanews.com.au
aupizzanews@yahoo.com.au
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