Gee, is there any marketing problem that a Groupon promotion can’t solve?!?
As always, Tom Fishburne provides a light-hearted and thought-provoking insight into an aspect of contemporary marketing with his post “holy groupon”.
Here’s my take on how Groupon and it’s numerous competitors (I notice Google has a coupon program in beta right now) fit into your marketing mix, if at all…
The first issue is to have a good handle on the basics, with a clear, differentiated offer to prospects and a clear strategy to upsell and retain clients.
Without that, price discounting is highly unlikely to offer any long term benefit. Used indiscriminately the likely outcome is simply training people to buy on price whenever there is a promotion.
On the other hand, if there’s a clear marketing sequence in place, then discounted offers may be a very good way to generate leads. As always, testing and tracking will provide the answer.
Pretty basic stuff, I know. However, w-a-a-a-y too many people make the mistake of seeing the latest marketing fad as being a magic bullet solution to all their marketing and business problems.
(In passing, how new is Groupon anyway? It’s just the latest twist on a very old marketing device.)
Get the marketing strategy right first, then decide which tactics are best suited to help you reach your objectives.