The days of clipping coupons may be over, but the days of receiving them on your mobile phone are just beginning in earnest.
In a dramatic effort to rejuvenate the sluggish practice of cutting out coupons for redemption in line at a grocery store or other retailer, five heavyweight package-goods manufacturers are preparing to use mobile marketing for aggressive, targeted campaigns that will give rise to scissor-less coupon redemption.
Advertising Age Magazine is reporting that Procter & Gamble, Clorox, Del Monte, General Mills and Kimberly-Clark have joined forces with retail mammoth Kroger in what has already being called the “biggest test of wireless coupons to date and perhaps even one of the most significant ventures into mobile marketing in the U.S.”
According to the report, consumers between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four will be targeted heavily, specifically those settling into new homes, starting families, and purchasing the detergents, diapers, and other ancillary products typically purchased on a repeat basis by a new or established young family.
“Promotions still work,” said Irma Tavilian, baby-care and childcare consumer promotional marketing team leader at Kimberly-Clark. “The problem is finding where we need to talk to consumers in a relevant way. The whole industry is trying to figure out these channels.”
Roger Entner, senior VP of the communications sector at IAG Research, went one step further in his commentary on the advertising strategies of the future. “Mobile couponing is the future — hands down. Besides avoiding the fuss and muss of cutting out coupons, mobile coupons are never forgotten at home.”
