Author Archives: Dan Gershenson

In Search of the Biggest Brain in E-Couponing

Being the first to launch an idea in the business marketplace often gives you a great head start as a leading authority, but it doesn’t guarantee long-term success. Because one thing is for certain: The minute you think of it, the next minute someone else is going to try to get in the game with something better.

Take the e-coupon market, for example. There’s Groupon. There’s LivingSocial. And now we have Google getting into the action with Google Offers.

All with slight differences but all still functioning from the basic premise that each day you have the opportunity to take advantage of an offer from a local business.

It’s worked well for Groupon up to this point, so well that they had to reject a multibillion-dollar buyout from Google.

But that was then. Now the stakes get raised beyond deal versus deal, the competition really begins and things get interesting.

The problem with couponing sites is that at their very core, they offer no brand loyalty unto themselves. They can offer discounts to a variety of places and, yes, if the coupons of one site appeal to you more regularly than another site, you may wander over to that site more frequently. But even if they have great deals, that’s not enough to keep you going to that one site over another.

And while the three sites mentioned are the predominant players, it’s not terribly difficult to get into the e-offer game.

The true winner in the Groupon/LivingSocial/Google Offers war will be based on four factors:

• Personalization and “learning”

• Sharing

• Mobile integration

• Vendor relationships and control

The coupon site that accomplishes all four will be the brand that wins the greatest loyalty, and that’s no minimal thing.

Personalization and “learning”

The time has passed for offering generalized buckets of coupons for a city or neighborhood or even coupons based on event preferences. The winner here will be the site with the biggest “brain.” In other words, the site that has the greatest capability to learn what you like most and suggest offers that fit your lifestyle preferences.

Much like how StumbleUpon might learn your news preferences or Pandora might learn your music preferences, it’s the offer site that learns your favorite places and connects you with them that will grab the greatest market share and loyalty. You select more, it gets “smarter” in its suggestions. You thumb it up or down (or something similar) to help it “learn.” It’s not a matter of who has this capability first as much as who does it best.

True, some people like being surprised by offers outside of their preferences now and then, giving them options to try something new. But it stands to reason that many more will want to stay within their range of things they like to do.

Sharing

The ease (and fun) of sharing offers with friends is such a given that I’d almost not mention it, but it is that important. You must have the ability to share coupons with ease on any major social media channel and, assuming you’d like them to, your friends should be able to see the kinds of places/events you like to frequent so they can take advantage of those offers, too. Much like Facebook’s Timeline feature, you should be able to see where your friends went so you can get in on the action, if not this time, then the next.

Mobile integration

Pay-by-smartphone is going to become even bigger in 2012, to where you can use your phone at an establishment or venue to purchase what you need. The coupon site that integrates this functionality into its offer system is going to smoke the competition as more customers in the mainstream adopt this convenient feature and get comfortable with it. It’s not a “nice-to-have.” It’s a “must have.”

At the moment, Google’s ability to merge its Offers with Google Wallet is a strong indication of just how formidable the company could be in this area. When its programs stand alone, Google’s offerings historically can be a hit or miss. When they tie programs together, such as where you can pay with your smartphone and show a coupon, Google becomes a competitor that’s difficult to ignore.

Vendor relationships and control

Of course, when you’re talking about small-business merchants, you can’t relate to them on code alone. If the coupon war is won on the ground, you have to cultivate relationships through sales people. Groupon has a strong head start here in terms of sheer number of sales reps getting small businesses to enroll. That is, unless too many of them are overaggressive reps like the ones described by a former Groupon employee in this TechCrunch article. Yikes.

Who wins? For brand equity, it may be none of them.

I like the potential of Google Offers best in terms of the technology it utilizes. But the one Big Asterisk on all of these e-coupons for businesses to consider: From a brand standpoint, I hate it when price is the lead factor in getting someone to come through the door. The argument may be that e-couponing gets new customers you didn’t have, but I would like to see more businesses go for building loyalty among their best, most frequent customers who can spread word-of-mouth than for mechanisms that aim to get the most bodies through the door at all costs, because I’ll bet a decent number of them aren’t really that loyal as the ones you’ve had already.

Originally printed in: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120208/BLOGS06/120209804/in-search-of-the-biggest-brain-in-e-couponing#ixzz1qBbg4GXG

You can’t pay for a taco when you ordered the filet mignon.

It sounds hilarious. Ridiculous. Insane. Because the reason so many of us can relate to this funny but painfully true video is that we have heard such things prospective clients have said in order to get out of paying nearly as much money. In addition to these, I have echoes of phrases like “sweat equity,” and “if you do this for me, I know a lot of people…” embedded in my brain.

So if you’re a purchaser of services and believe you’re being slick and savvy in wanting to pay for a taco when you ordered the filet mignon, you’re not. When you’re purposefully trying to screw the other party, that’s crossing a line from good faith negotiation into being less than professional and respectful.

And if you’re a provider of quality services, stand up for yourself. I know you’ve got bills to pay right in front of you. But if you’re striving for better relationships and in turn, greater fulfillment in what you do for a living, you can’t get bullied into someone telling you that you’re worth less.

Because in the end, all you’ll feel is worthless.

Political Candidates Must Vote For Social Media Early and Often.

No matter what side of the left or right you sit on issues, the actions of one candidate pose a good lesson about where social media should rank in terms of political campaign clout.

Even though he’s running a distinct 3rd (or 4th if you were looking at his results here in Illinois), it’s a tad mystifying to me that Newt Gingrich has decided to pour so much of his budget into social media at this late stage of his campaign. Not that this is a bad move at all but the timing of it is unfortunate for him as it appears in his case that using social media seems like a method of last resort when campaign staffs get slashed and budgets dwindle. If so, that’s a lousy view of how to use it. If we didn’t learn anything from 2008 politics, it’s that social media has officially arrived as a standard and absolutely essential component of any campaign’s success, Republican or Democrat.

Regardless of whether you’re running for President or Alderman of Chicago’s 44th Ward, you can’t see social media as an afterthought. You have to see it as a vital investment right out of the gate to help mobilize your supporters and encourage fluid communication. Without it or without much consistent use of it, you’re pinning too much of your hopes on traditional methods. And while you still have to get out there and press the flesh of potential voters to be relevant, you can’t ignore the undecideds behind a computer screen who might be searching for clear positioning points of view of your candidate.

It just proves once again how important it is to have good planners behind the scenes who can truly make or break these “brands” with how they select media and craft the right message. It’s really not that far removed from how we strategize the success of products and services.

Idea for your next event: 3D Projection

3D projection technology is a big deal in Europe and South America as there have been shows done on all kinds of iconic buildings and statues. But lately I’ve seen it adopted gradually more here in the U.S., which is cool to see. Here’s one that my friends at Metropoly put on in the West Palm Beach area.

Fitting to think about this now if you’re planning a special event for the Spring or Summer in Chicago (or beyond that if you’re lucky enough to have great outdoor weather year-round). I can easily see this used before, during or at the conclusion of an event that gets people talking, big-time. Hotel managers, restaurant owners, property managers, chamber of commerces and more could easily benefit from delivering a 10-minute show like this as part of the entertainment.

I happen to know the fellow who did this one, so I’ll be glad to put you in touch with him. Let me know by just emailing me at dan@ChicagoBrander.com.

Special rate for our readers to see Seth Godin, Gary V. and more!

Seth Godin. Gary Vaynerchuk. Mitch Joel. Randi Zuckerberg. Keith Ferrazzi. Avinash Kaushik.

Hearing one of these influencers in the world of social media and marketing is rewarding in itself. Hearing from all of them in one day is what I call one awesome intelligence download. Which is exactly what you can do when you join me in attending a special conference called The Art of Marketing, coming to The Chicago Theatre on Tuesday, April 24th.

If you want to get a better handle on metrics and analytics, creativity, brand development, marketing strategy and where social media is headed next, this is money well spent.

Especially since you can spend less of it as one of my readers.

That’s right. I’ve just been offered a special preferred rate from the event’s organizers to pass along to readers of Chicago Brander. Drum roll, please……

Special Offer:

Readers of chicagobrander.com will receive a savings of $50.00 per ticket or $100.00 per ticket when registering 3 or more people at the same time. This is a great deal as the regular price to attend The Art of Marketing is $399.

The promo code you can use when registering online is SK23 or by using this link:  http://www.theartof.com/marketing-chicago-2012/register?promo=SK23

To learn more about this incredible event, visit the event’s main link at: http://www.theartof.com/marketing-chicago-2012

For questions, call 416.479.9701 / 1.866.99.ART.OF

Hope to see you there for what should be a sold-out event!

Dan