Right now, every time I see a place that I currently frequent show up on Groupon I cringe. It means that my favorite restaurant or coffeeshop is going to be mobbed by cheapskates looking to save a few bucks. It means that the staff is going to be harried and tired. It means that I won't be able to get a reservation for a few months.
I want a way for these places to say "Hey -- regulars! We love you! Come back and spend time here so that we can avoid daily deals. We'll be happier and so will you!"
The main block is actually apathy from the storeowners - they don't believe they need it, most of them are conformists and traditionalists, not enterprising or risk-takers.
I unsubscribed from their emails after a month as all the offers just seemed to be either
a) Cosmetic treatments b) Health checks from private clinics
I'm a 24 year old male, why do I give a shit about any of those things? GroupOn needs to target their offers more
Nothing new here.... but it has been very profitable.
Tradition advertising means paying for your brand to be seen. Magazines, newspapers, ect can target markets, but not to a very large extent. Google, Facebook, ect can target their market better, and businesses only pay when someone clicks (ie shows a bit of interest in the company). This is why they are stealing traditional advertising revenue. Groupon took this one step further, and made it so that businesses only pay when a customer walks through the door. This opened up advertising to much smaller businesses, Mom and Pop shops, since there is no upfront cost.
You'd think that Groupon would be trying to target their deals better. Have a "select your interests" when you sign up. Yipit is doing this, and it's a pretty cool take on it. That type of service adds a lot more value then a generic daily deal.
Consider that once you do a groupon for a 20% < discount, it is going to be very hard to get that customer again for the full price of the product. So what do you get from the supposed advertisement? A single customer that may or may not give you his business again.
That's not advertising. That's what's crassly known as 'opening your legs'.
Groupon may be a bad form of advertising for most businesses.. but it's still advertising.
However, something worth considering: is the GroupOn audience worth buying? Anecdotally the answer seems to be "no" as repeat business is well below expectations, regular customers use the coupons, customers will use coupons at times when you'd otherwise be busy and the typical profile of the GroupOn customer suggests they tend to spend the absolute minimum for the coupon.
Honestly I'm shocked the GroupOn IPO is oversubscribed. Still, probably not bad for an opening day sell.
Considering the general bargain hunting nature of Groupon-derived customers I wouldn't be surprised if they're possibly the most expensive and the least converted advertising business out there.
Really? I would have thought it would be pretty easy to run a query on their accounts and find out a nearly exact number.
