Coupon Me, Already
Two years ago I started clipping coupons. In retrospect, I have no idea why. In two months I saved $2 total on anything I really cared about. Cross-referencing that against my hourly rate, I lost about $200. What a crock. It took me another year to figure out that coupons aren’t meant for girls like me. Call it coupon discrimination: there’s no coupons for my kind.
Build me a coupon system, already. I’m a paying customer with a willingness to engage with your brand and risk trying new ones if they fit into my lifestyle. Want a hint? Do this:
1. I eat organic food, I never buy crap. If you are doing any data mining of any kind, you would know this, at least by deductive reasoning. Will you, for the love of all trans-fats, please stop emailing me with photos of the Pillsbury Doughboy? That means, no “Buy three get one free on crescent rolls”, no ready-made cookie dough and no canned frosting in four raunchy flavors.
2. Find out about me. Like all women, I want to be wanted. I like unsalted almonds after a good run. I drink soy milk and tons of fresh fish. Got a deal on wild coho salmon? I’m there! I am willing to play the game, even use my time to do it, but you have to get to the ballpark. I like what I like and I’m willing to pay for it. I’ll spend more if you entice me. Speak to me about Omega-3s and I’m all yours. It’s not hard to find me. Track my purchasing habits and spit out some coupon other than Metamucil, Lunchables and canned fruit.
3. I have children, they are not in diapers. Oh, poor Enfamil, pity poor pathetic Similac, you are wasting your big-dollar samples on me?! You fools! You don’t have a database that’s smart enough to tell you that my children are 7-years-old!? You’ve been sending me diapers and formula for eight years. What freak has twin infants for eight years? Lead nurturing = fail. Upsell me, you silly self-obsessed brands. I would buy Zone bars from Abbot Nutrition, the makers of Similac, but the fools are two single-minded to figure out to to move me through the process.
4. I will not clip jack. I will not cut out little pieces of paper and stick them in my handbag only to use them to dispose of half-chewed gum. If you want me, you come and get me in my playground: the Internet. Load my Safeway card, link to my eScrip and hook me up with mobile alerts, but please, do us both a favor, don’t bother sending me mail, crazy software downloads or silly hoop-jumping junk. Make it easy for me and I’ll hook you up — loyalty included. But don’t think I’ve got one more second for coupon-clipping crap. I don’t.
5. Speak with me. If I engage you, even once, don’t make silly assumptions and target me with five more kinds of rice cereal, instead, ask me why I buy rice cereal. You speak with me — even once — and I’m more likely to engage with your brand. Survey me, use me as a beta tester, play with me in social media. You know how to do it, why aren’t you?
I picked up a prescription today and five coupons popped out. The pharmacist laughed, “Like you need these!,” she said. Boy, was she right.
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If I… Were VP Ad Sales for XMRadio
I am the most loyal XM Radio user — so loyal that I still refuse to call it Sirius Radio. But I’m one ad shy of K-Oing my XM. If I were VP of ad sales for XM Radio, I’d make a few serious changes to keep loyal users in the game. Now, nevermind that the whole business model for XM went down the shitter — originally it was ad-free radio. In fact, that was the whole point of subscription radio. No more, as we all know. A shame since it seems it’s the only business model that works for them. I’m pretty certain their choice in advertisers isn’t supposed to drive their users away from their service, right?
If I were VP of Ad Sales for XMRadio, here’s what I’d do:
1. Local, local, local. Invest in cool technology that can use the geo-targeting in your unit to target local ads. Figure out what newcomer companies like CopiaMobile are doing to geo-target coupons to mobile phones and get on the bandwagon. I’m driving in Campbell and you tell me that I get a free chips with my meal at Aqui Cal-Mex during happy hour. I pull over and go! I call my friends to come! I don’t go in, but I remember that if I mention XMRadio, I get free chips. Your local brand confidence goes up, your brand association goes up, your value to the customer goes waaaay up.
2. Put a cap on ad rotation. I have heard the same four commercials on XMRadio virtually non-stop. It has gotten to the point where I hear the same ads on various XM channels at the same time. There has got to be a cap on ad rotation. The saturation level cannot possible be a value-ad for advertisers and even if positive, the over saturation of the same ad dilutes the value of the message. I’m sure we’d all agree that bombarding your audience isn’t the smartest thing in the world. In place of over-delivery of the same ads, use the opportunity to demo the beta of the local ad targeting.
3. Get smarter about what I want by using social media tools to instigate and maintain two-way communication with your users. Invite your Twitter users to a virtual listening party, create favorites and playlists to be shared. Show up and be a part of local big markets, just like radio stations do. Be present. Ask questions, be relevant to your market. The targeting for XM ads is abhorrent. While maintaining communication with your audience (and building trust while you’re at it), take your learnings and sell back to your advertisers. Be the authority on what your users want and need and then demand that from the advertisers that you are bringing to them.
If XM Radio were to target ads that were relevant to me, added value to my life, provided me with opportunities, showed that I, as a user, matter to you, then I’d have a lot easier time listening to ads on the XM Service. Without improvement in ad targeting and direct communications with what the users want, I fear that others like me will fall off the XM signal and move to a place where there is less noise.
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