Times are tough all over and everyone I know is cutting back everywhere they can. My wife and I were even invited to a “recession party” where we were supposed to bring our own food and drink (I was tired so we stayed home and ordered in. If I have to buy my food to take to a party I’d rather order in some Thai food and hit the couch)). It appears consumers all over are looking for a way to save and there is a growing demand for discounts and coupons in order to some extra money. A USA Today article addressing web search for coupons offered the following

As consumers troll online to save money, searches that include value words such as “coupons” rose 161% in December vs. 2007 to 19.9 million and “discount” rose 26% to 7.9 million, reports tracker ComScore.

Coupon distribution and redemption had been flat in 2008 until the fourth quarter, when coupon distribution rose 7.5% and redemptions rose 15% vs. a year earlier, the Promotion Marketing Association says.

“That’s when consumers suddenly starting saying this is for real and marketers said we need to react with more coupons to keep our sales up,” says Charles Brown, co-chair of PMA’s coupon council and a vice president for coupon company NCH.

The web has always been a great resource for discounts. It is so easy to simply search for a product  and then Google “coupon for that product” But what about Mobile? It appears its time maybe growing near with the downturn in the economy. The following is an excerpt from an article over at RCR Wireless

discounts delivered and redeemed via handsets — will be used by some 200 million mobile users by 2013, according to a recent forecast from Juniper Research. While nearly all mobile coupon activity is currently limited to the Far East, uptake will surge in Western Europe and North America over the next few years, the market research firm predicts.
“We believe that consumers will be attracted to mobile coupons compared to traditional paper, and by the ability to tune the types of coupons received to their personal preferences rather than receiving all types through the vanilla distribution mode that is allowed by paper coupons,” Howard Wilcox of Juniper Research wrote. “Today, the overwhelming majority of coupons are paper-based, but the mobile phone is the ultimate individual marketing device, and mobile coupon pilots show great increased redemption rates — often double-digit percentages.”

Take for example Kroger Super Markets who tested the concept in a  219-store trial in the Southeast and saw redemption rates as high as 20% — compared with print campaigns that typically result in a 2% return. How impressive is that. Mobile Marketing companies all over should be taking note.

We have been discussing this simple application delivered to phones via SMS here at Mobivity for quite sometime and it appears the hurting economy maybe giving the concept a much needed boost.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 5:20 pm and is filed under General, Mobile Marketing, SMS. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.