"Just get out quickly!" This is currently the motto of many Germans when it comes to shopping. Whether out of fear for their own health or out of sheer aversion to the mask: sprinting through the supermarket has become a popular sport in times of coronavirus. If you can, you pack everything with you so you don't have to go to a second shop. After all, the shower gel and socks from the supermarket do the trick too...
According to a survey by the HDE retail association, drugstores and the clothing industry in particular fear for their Christmas business. Almost 90 per cent of respondents from these sectors expect Christmas business to be worse than last year. In a situation where shops are open but politicians are urging people to stay at home, gift shopping in the city centre has become unpopular.
Coupon campaigns with special discounts can help retailers to attract customers to their shops in this exceptional situation. Coupons can be used in a wide variety of ways and offer valuable evaluation options for measuring success over and above pure sales. In the long term, coupons can even help you to get to know your customers even better.
Here is our couponing overview:
Who uses coupons?
The good old "discount brand" doesn't deserve its dusty image. According to a survey by couponplatz.de, only a quarter of coupon users are older than 40, and only 9.5 per cent are over 50. Singles are difficult to reach with coupons, and users are almost exclusively found in multi-person households. A striking number of households that use coupons also have pets (just under 60 per cent). The household income of coupon fans is usually over 1,500 net per month (70 per cent), 30 per cent have an income of more than 2,500 euros net per month.
Where should coupons ideally be placed?
In the simplest variant, the coupon is placed directly in the retailer's leaflet. The disadvantage of this is that the retailer normally only reaches broad target groups who already read its leaflet and appreciate the company's offers. If the focus is on acquiring new customers, other placements are advisable. For example, a print in an editorial environment - for example in an advertising journal or a daily newspaper - also reaches people who appreciate editorial reporting but tend to discard leaflets without reading them.
If you want to address specific target groups, you should either have the coupons partially addressed ("To all animal lovers in Zoo Street") in a defined distribution area or send them as a fully addressed mailing to individual addresses.
Where is the trend heading?
Quite clearly: towards personalised coupons! Instead of the infamous "watering can", retailers can now use their CRM systems to track the purchasing behaviour of individual customer groups and plan specially tailored coupon campaigns. A number of expansion stages are conceivable: from addressing larger customer groups to absolute individualisation for individual customers.
How can MEDIA Central support me?
In principle, MEDIA Central can support you with any form of coupon campaign: whether unaddressed, segmented to predefined target groups or even personalised to individual customers.
The distribution of unaddressed coupons as a supplement to a leaflet or as an insert in an advertising journal is part of our daily business. It would also be possible to place an advert with detachable coupons in a local medium, such as a regional newspaper. Thanks to our comprehensive quality assurance measures, we can guarantee you seamless controlling of your distribution and a high level of transparency regarding the distribution results.
Do you want to acquire new customers? Then we will be happy to support you in segmenting and locating relevant target groups. Based on our geodata, we will find out where your target group lives and help you to avoid wastage. We plan on the so-called "KGS14PLZ" level, which splits the postcode areas into 118,000 sub-levels. And we can overlay these areas with the delivery districts of the DPAG letter carriers. On request, we can also acquire address data for you for dispatch.
If your focus is more on addressing existing customers, we can also use the data from your CRM system to send personalised print mailings to your most valuable customers.
How do I benefit from couponing in the long term?
A major advantage of coupons is their longevity: even 14 days after being sent, around 13 per cent of coupons are still being redeemed, and 9 per cent after 21 days. And even 161 days after dispatch, coupons are still being redeemed (just under one per cent). Couponing also offers you the opportunity to get to know and understand your customers over the long term. For example, you can provide each individual coupon with a personalised code that allows you to check exactly what the customer has bought. These valuable insights can then be used for the next coupon promotion.
Even if, of course, we hope with you that we will be spared another lockdown in the future...