A History of Coupons: From a Pen to an iPhone and Everywhere Inbetween

It started in 1894. An Atlanta businessman ­_­used handwritten tickets for a free glass of Coca-Cola to market his new soft drink. This was the birth of what we now know today as coupons. Coca-Cola was in every state within two decades and every 1 in 9 Americans had received a free Coca-Cola soft drink. Last time I checked Coca-Cola is doing pretty good in the recognition category right?

C.W. Post, 1 year later, started using coupons to sell groceries. The coupon was a one-cent discount on his new breakfast cereal called Grape Nuts. Throughout the 30’s and 40’s, coupons had grown from a small grocery store fad to a tradition that even chain supermarkets(then just starting to become popular) were following.

By 1965, half of all American households were clipping coupons. Fast forward even further to the 1990’s and you will find the birth of printable coupons. The 90’s were also a time where 83% of all Americans used coupons. Not to be outdone, the new millennium was the first to invent online coupons. Internet retailers used coupons in the form of “codes.” Otherwise known as promo codes, promotion codes, shopping codes, source codes, ect. They were enormously effective. In 2006 “free shipping” was one of the most popular coupon codes used. Free shipping is one of the largest determinants of where people shop online. I know I’m certainly guilty of scouring coupon-code websites to find “free shipping,” or “10% off order” coupons.

Needless to say, coupons have proved to be an excellent marketing tool. On March 10^th, 2010 coupons have taken another form. Target launched the first ever scannable mobile coupon program. Consumers can opt-in to the program on their computer by going to Target.com/mobile, on their phone at m.target.com or by texting COUPONS to 827438. Once in the program customers receive a link to a mobile web-page with several offers, all of which are accessible through a single bar-code.

The target of the campaign is not overtly obvious. So I’m going to guess…. here it goes. The target market is tech savvy. They know how to find online coupons, but would prefer to go shopping at a physical location for products that Target stores offer. There is a time and place to shop online, when they go shopping at Target it’s for a quick trip. The target market likes a sense of immediacy as they cannot wait to check their email until they get home; hence they have an iPhone/Blackberry.

It’s not laziness that prevents this target market from coupon hunting, it’s time constraints. So the solution is this mobile coupon program. What’s better than a store that you inevitably go to now and again sending you coupons? It does take the target markets initiative to sign up for the program, so the annoyance factor is out the window; they literally asked to be texted.

Target has stated in their press release from the 10^th of March “Target is committed to providing a fun and convenient shopping experience with access to unique and highly differentiated products at affordable prices.” In measuring their effectiveness, I would say they get high marks. This is clearly an innovation that nobody else can lay claim to as of yet. Coupons have been a proven success, from the early days of Coca-Cola and C.W. Post with his Grape Nuts cereal, to online promotions codes and now mobile coupons. Target is taking convenient shopping to the next level by coupling it with convenient discounts. I have yet to find anybody that hates discounts, so this program looks like a win-win to me.