Early last year I was interviewing with a company that did research on people who played games that were connected to Facebook. Many of these games required users to take quizzes which questioned their demographics (sex, age, location, etc.) From this information, the marketing research company would then sell this information to a company that works with local companies in respective cities to give deals to people in the area. Thus, the coupon, or the 'Groupon Phenomenon', has been re-born and re-defined in the social media world - spurring impulse purchases.
How many times have you purchased deals on yoga classes? or restaurants? or skydiving lessons? Every morning my inbox is crammed with new sites that are offering deals in my area. Some of the common ones are Groupon, Living Social, Homerun, and now Yelp is starting to offer deals also. Because these deals are only offered for one day, there's a sense of psychological urgency to 'get the deal before it's gone', albeit they are good deals. The fact that many consumers are price-conscious due to the economy is an additional benefit to these daily deal sites.
In terms of customer retention, I'm not sure how well it works. Speaking from personal experience, I have only ever redeemed one of my purchases. But, what an interesting way to look at product marketing and consumer behavior.
No comments:
Post a Comment