Out-Of-Control Couponing: When Marketing Incentives Go Awry

Back in the day, coupons provided consumers with the opportunity to shave a few cents off popular household staples like toilet paper, dish soap, and paper towels. Each week, in anticipation of the family’s grocery store run, Moms spent Sunday mornings flipping through the newspaper, clipping coupons for products that appealed to their families and redeeming them at the check-out counter at the end of the shopping excursion.

And for brands, the appeal of coupons also appeared fairly straightforward. Marketers offered coupons to consumers in conjunction with new product launches, to jump-start trial, to provide lift to seasonal products, and to round out promotional offerings.

Contrast that with today’s coupon behavior.

With tales of coupons triggering massive savings and the debut of TLC’s show, Extreme Couponing, examples abound of consumers who take couponing to new heights with their overall intensity and the sheer number of coupons they use. And some “extreme” coupon users go even further and can be found slogging through dumpsters for cast-off newspaper inserts and wiping out store shelves of specific products. In fact, a number of retailers have had to change their redemption policies – or in the case of coupon fraud and counterfeiting – not honor coupons at all.

Marketers face a double-whammy with retailer and consumer reaction to extreme couponing. Brands now recognize that coupons – regardless of their original intent – can generate challenging retailer relations when couponing goes extreme. Not to mention to backlash from the average coupon-user who now faces altered store redemption policies or increased scrutiny when using coupons.

Now, a consumer incentive with roots extending back a generation or two, suddenly appears in jeopardy. Will marketers change their approach to couponing in order to stay ahead of their more extreme consumers – including tightening redemption policies, introducing new barcode technology, or using more selective distribution methods?

Or, will those who zealously take couponing to the extreme inadvertently force the hands of marketers? With extreme tactics undermining the original purpose of couponing, will brands come to the conclusion that coupons have run their course as a marketing tactic and begin to radically change their approach or phase coupons out altogether?

Only time will tell if extreme couponing catches hold or falls to the wayside as the latest consumer and reality TV fad. But as for the future of coupons, it might already be too late – brands most likely already have this age-old tactic under the marketing microscope.