According to Forbes, Groupon is the fastest growing company on the Web — ever. The concept is simple. Get local businesses together, get them to offer massive discounts to Groupon members, and then share the revenue. For customers, the benefits go beyond discounts. There is the fun and novelty of being exposed to local businesses they might not otherwise have known about. Groupon's discounts are so steep that participating businesses might not actually make money on the coupon deal, but what they do get is exposure to thousands of new customers in a single day. What's the value of that? There is a powerful lesson here for printers — especially 1:1 MSPs. Think personalized Value Paks. I saw a terrific case study in the PODi case study archives recently that really impressed me. The printer approached local businesses and created personalized offers for residents in the local area. Because it was a co-op venture, each business paid less for its personalized offer than it would have had to do on its own. What a terrific idea. Why aren't more MSPs doing something like this? The outrageous success of Groupon drives home how powerful the idea of aggregation can be. In the printing industry, we may be competing with the Web, but we can learn from it, too. Groupon's success ought to be getting a lot of wheels turning!
Discussion
By Bill Cline on Aug 23, 2010
You know it really burns me to read a story where people make themselves sound as if they have this great idea that’s going to save the printing industry. Like we are all just printers with ink under our nails and haven’t thought of any ideas to save our industry. Because the concept that you are suggesting that all the printers can learn from has been in the printing industry for years, if not decades. Have you not heard of ValPack? Not only ValPack but there are dozens of coupon company’s just like them in the printing industry. Coupons is not going to save this industry, it’s going to take printers understanding that the industry has changes and the not only the B to C buyer but the B to B buy is now looking at our product as a consumable product and less value. This is what is making us become a communications company and provide web-to –print, purls, QR Codes, email campaigns, and cross media campaigns. If you have a team that can sale those services, this it what will help you. Not selling coupons.
By Heidi Tolliver-Nigro on Aug 23, 2010
Hi, Bill. I never said coupons would save the printing industry. The idea here is aggregated, personalized marketing (coupons or otherwise) on a local level. That's what make Groupon successful — not coupons themselves. The idea of aggregation to serve small local businesses is not an idea that has yet been capitalized on by printers. That was the point I was making. Heidi
By James on Nov 29, 2010
I agree with Heidi. As a graphic designer, I would be all over the idea of a Groupon-like platform for print deals. As long as I KNOW I will have a customer looking for X amount of brochures or whatever, within the year. That's the tricky part. It's kind of a gamble for designers/agencies. Thoughts?