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Debunking seven common myths about couponing
The overall decline in coupon redemption rates in the U.S. and Canada raises a question as old as coupons themselves: What prompts a consumer to redeem?
For an ICOM Information 6k Communications analysis of coupon redemption drivers, a data pool was assembled that allowed the research to break down coupon redemption trends across a variety of market segments, including health and beauty, food and beverage, and apparel. Information was derived from a 20-year database assembled in the course of designing 6300 targeted direct mail programs and issuing 425 million coupons to 28 million U.S. and Canadian households.
Coupon variables that were analyzed included expiration, value, volume and product type. User-related variables examined such characteristics as current versus competitive user, frequent versus infrequent user, store-brand versus non-store-brand user, and American versus Canadian redemption characteristics.
Finding the Sweet Spot
Time and value are two important variables to consider when looking to predict coupon redemption. Of them, value in recent years has been stable or increasing, while the trend has been to cut expiration lengths. In the majority of cases, a shorter expiration length reduces redemption far more than any corresponding increase...