Marketing Mondays: Groupon & Such

It\’s no secret the daily deal craze is in full swing across North America. Groupon, Offeron, Wagjag, Dealathons – these are just a few of the purveyors of the daily deal: a special one-time offer usually suggesting an offer of 50% off retail rates. Prospective buyers are able to see these deals by signing on to the e-list of the purveyor. They all work a little differently; some require a certain amount of buyers for the deal to be \”on,\” others contribute some of the dollars to charity, almost all are a time-limited offer. Commonly, the offers are for restaurants, hair stylists, auto detailers, dry cleaners and such.

Occasionally I\’ve noticed someone in the western world test the waters of the daily deal, such as the California trainer above who offered nearly 60% off on western riding lessons and sold out of them. His \”deal\” ran in the Los Angeles Times LA Deals. 

It\’s unlikely we\’ll see the top trainers of the nation moving towards daily deal offers, their barns are likely full with waiting lists, but for those trainers just starting out, or perhaps, wanting to reach out to more of an urban demographic to encourage new involvement this could be a an interesting marketing venue to test.

Incidentally, Western Horse Review has a Groupon subscription effort running June 6-12. Our marketing circulation director thought it would be interesting to test it; so we are. Our test region will be Alberta – primarily the Edmonton and Calgary region. If that shows significant return, we\’ll look at a national effort. Since we\’ll be promoting our July/August issue with a special cover, it\’s a good opportunity to invite new readers to see what Western Horse Review is all about.

The incentive for us is the low cost of entering the agreement. The client (WHR) needs to only agree to offer a product at 50% off. The downside is the payback. Each subscription is offered at $12.00, or 50% off the regular rate of a subscription. Groupon takes half of that, and the other half comes back to WHR. Which means we realize $6.00 out of every subscription sold. Certainly not a profit in this scenario, but we do it for two reasons: 1) to introduce new subscribers to the product and; 2) for the renewals on year two, assuming these new subscribers will be back for year two.

And, of course they will be!

I\’ll let you know how it went in a future post.