Tag: Newspaper

Getting the Deal – Part 2

swebman1 Comment

The convergence of the coupon and your smartphone is about to happen…….

In part 1, we reviewed many of the “terrestrial” based coupons that are available today through traditional print mediums (Newspapers, FSI‘s, direct mail, in-store, etc.).  Those where we must clip or cut a physical coupon and present it at the point of purchase.  We also discussed the plethora of digital/on-line coupons available; yes they are on-line but most of these still require a printer and are redeemed at the point of purchase in the traditional way.

With nearly 50% of the US enabled with smartphones we are on the precipice of an incredible transformation through the range of applications and capabilities on your smartphone, both domestically and globally.  Innovative companies such as Starbucks have now connected your point of purchase behavior and the capabilities of your smartphone.  Their smartphone application was only one part of this connective tissue.  In order to enable this coupon/purchase card capability at the point of sale, they needed to replace their scanning technology to make sure that these capabilities worked right every time.

For coupon redemption via smartphones in grocery and other retail outlets to become a reality, it is critical that the process and the technology is aligned at the point of sale.  Most scanners in grocery stores cannot read a bar code displayed on the screen of a cellphone.

“Couponing has been one of the tried and tested tools to incentivize consumers to try our products,” said P&G’s VP of Global Business Development Jeff Weedman. “Ads around the world have moved digital but there was a hole in the system. You can deliver coupons digitally, but frankly our customers weren’t happy about it. It doesn’t scan at most grocery scanners and it slowed the system down because the check-out person would have to plug-in the numbers manually.”

One company that is working on this specific opportunity is Mobeam.  www.mobeam.com – In October, Cupertino, Calif.-based Mobeam raised $4.9 million in capital to solve this exact problem, by converting the bar code data into a beam of light that can be read by most scanners found at the check-out counters.  They are still early in the process, but it is apparent that our point of purchase behavior around using coupons is about to change radically.

Enjoy the ride and the savings!

Let me know what you think about this blog by commenting below.

Have a great weekend.

Webman

Take Five!

swebman4 Comments

Newspapers were once the primary source of information for us.  We would regularly walk to the store to pick up the daily paper to learn how our favorite teams were dong, what was happening in the world, the local community, business, arts, leisure and all other categories that continue to be covered by the newspapers today.  Newspapers were at the center of our information world and they were raking in the cash from two primary revenue streams – subscribers and advertisers.

What a difference a few years make.  In 2005, the newspaper industry had $49.5 billion in advertising revenue.  In 2010 the number was $25.8 billion, 50% of 2005. http://www.naa.org/Trends-and-Numbers/Advertising-Expenditures/Annual-All-Categories.aspx  Many newspapers have closed, local coverage has been disbanded, other sources are now used for content.  The most prominent newspapers continue to try new business integrated print and digital business strategies to slow the decline and survive.  An old business model that has been completely disrupted by competitors that were not even considered competitors just a few years ago.

One of the best attributes of leafing through a newspaper was exposure to new and interesting topics that were not on your radar screen.  If you were like me, I first read the sports section and moved on to business, world and local news.  But before I passed the newspaper on I would go through the entire paper on time, many times “stumbling upon” other interesting articles in science, architecture, technology or other topics that I was less familiar with.

In today’s “sound bite” society, we can quickly peruse Google News, Yahoo, the home pages of our favorite newspapers and magazines.  The world has changed from one where the publishers controlled access to their information to one where content distributors provide one stop shops for all content.   Most of you use these content aggregators everyday as part of your ritual of being current about what’s happening.  You choose what you want to read and what you don’t.   You still read the sections that you are most interested in, but since you are time starved are you spending an extra few minutes looking at other topics of interest.  Maybe you are, maybe you are not.

Here are a few suggestions for you.  If you have a smartphone or and iPad, check out the applications from Flipboard, Zite and Pulse.  They are awesome content aggregators, in easy to use formats made specifically for these devices.  They will provide you with your key areas of interest but they can also connect you with many other topics, such as design, humor, arts, leisure and many others.  Zite enables you to create your own channels that finds stuff you are interested in – I have set up feeds for the Beatles and Italy as examples.

So today take five minutes to read something new, to go outside your normal routine and engage with a topic or news article just interests you, not because it is part of your routine or you need it for work.  It will open your mind, expand your interests and give you a peak at what is happening in other peoples worlds. Take Five!

And hey, you just might become the most knowledgeable person at all of those holiday parties you will be attending!

Let me know what you think of this blog by posting your comments below.

Have a great day!

Webman