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Anyone else starting to get a bit annoyed with the spam of special discount offers filling your inbox every morning? This blog was inspired by an offer from Groupon this week. For once, there was a product (a pillow) I had actually been meaning to buy. As opposed to a candlelit meal offer at a local restaurant with a very questionable hygiene record. However, after five minutes of research on the net, I found an even more sumptuous version the memory foam  pillow cheaper elsewhere without the need for the ‘76% off’ a ridiculously overinflated price.

 

Like many of you, I was drawn-in by the delightful daily deals offered by the likes of Groupon, kgb deals and LivingSocial. Heck, I even bought a few things. As an Indian, bargain hunting is as inherent as a pint of Guinness is to the Irish. But this was something else. A crisp cold pint of the dark stuff delivered to your inbox without any need to do anything.

 

But as time has gone by, I’ve realised this is a bit of a flawed marketing model and one that we’ve seen many years ago. The problem with the likes of Groupon is they adopt a classic one-size-fits-all mass market approach i.e. here is our product that we are offering to everyone regardless of individual tastes or needs. And we’ve seen this approach about a century ago. Henry Ford famously said: ‘Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants. So long as it is black.’

 

This example of Mr Ford is schoolboy marketing to show how things used to be. But times have moved-on in the world of marketing. Data collection, segmentation tools, customer intelligence and tailored targeting in consumer markets is unbelievably clever today. Just look at the relevant and enticing nature of your offers from Tesco and Amazon. They know what you like and what you are likely to also like. And the chances are something will be of interest.

 

There has been much written on how these discount dealers have actually driven small companies out of business as quite frankly, firms have cut prices too deep, made losses and not been able to fulfil demand. In fact, a spa offer I bought last year never materialised as the day before we were due to go, the company went bust. It left us stranded in Glasgow. I know. Frightening. To be fair, as a consumer, I’ve experienced the customer service of Groupon and kgb deals, and both were in fact helpful and efficient. And Glasgow was actually a delight. Anyway, let's get back to marketing.

 

Habituation is starting to creep in among many customers where they are simply tired of these repetitive irrelevant offers so start to delete, send to spam and unsubscribe. Not all these discount giants will survive but the ones that start to get a bit smarter about collecting info from customers (other than an email address and location) in a bid to tailor offers may just win the day.

 

Let's talk! Telephone: 07808 796 300 or email: raman@ramarketingpr.com