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ABSTRACT
Coupons are among the most important promotional vehicles used today. Traditionally, coupons have been distributed through printed offline media, such as newspapers or postal mails. Along with technological advances, the Internet has emerged as a new method of coupon distribution. This study empirically examines coupon redemption behaviors between online and offline coupons. Specifically, differences in the impacts of face value and benefit type on coupon redemption rate are investigated. The results showed some similarities and differences as well as new interesting findings on the relationship pattern between face value and redemption rate of coupons.
Keywords: Online and Offline Coupons; Coupon face value; Coupon benefit type
INTRODUCTION
Coupons are among the most important promotional vehicles used today (Bawa, Srinivasan, and Srivastava, 1997). According 2010 NCH Coupon Facts Report, consumer packaged goods manufacturers distributed more than $311 billion coupons in 2009, and consumers made a total savings of $3.5 billion by redeeming coupons (NCH Marketing Services, 2010). As consumer markets have become more competitive, many companies take more efforts to advertising and promotion activities to attract consumers. In addition, recent economic downturn has made customers more price-sensitive, thus increasing the importance of coupons as promotional vehicles.
Traditionally, coupons have been distributed through printed offline media, such as newspapers or postal mails. Along with technological advances, the Internet has emerged as a new method of coupon distribution. As the Internet is getting used widely, online coupon distribution is becoming a more popular promotion method (Blundo, Cimato, and De Bonis, 2005). Although there have been many studies on traditional offline coupons, it is necessary to study online coupon redemption behaviors to develop more effective coupon strategies under both online and offline media context. One of the important questions is whether consumers react the same way to online coupons as they do to offline coupons. This study attempts to examine and compare coupon redemption behaviors in both offline and online coupons to find answers to this question.
Coupons have been widely used for grocery items in the United States. Past research on coupons, which has been mostly conducted in the United States context, has mainly examined coupon redemption behaviors in consumer products or grocery items. Relatively few studies have examined coupons in service sectors (Peattie and Peattie,...