Jackie Danicki

Getting bargains on the go just got easier, as there has been a recent proliferation of mobile coupon applications for mobile devices. The device I use almost exclusively now is the iPhone 3GS, so I’m going to talk about iPhone apps here.

Back in 2003, my partner in crime fun Adriana Lukas created an early prototype of a mobile voucher product. 2003 may as well be 1003 for all that has happened since then, what with the advent and explosion of the mobile apps market, but the idea captivated me way back then. The execution fell by the wayside as other work projects took precedence over the next six years, but I’ve been digging more deeply into this space lately.

Recently, my friend Jeff Nolan blogged about an app called MobiQpons. From a customer’s point of view, this is a fantastic application: It uses the iPhone’s location awareness to find deals near you, categorizes them, and even offers one-click ability to share your bargain on Twitter and Facebook or email it to a friend.

I couldn’t wait to try it, and when I arrived in Honolulu, fired up MobiQpons to find a good deal on dinner ($10 off $20 or more worth of food and drinks at a restaurant I won’t name, since I’m pretty sure I got food poisoning there but don’t want to get into any libelous language). The staff at the restaurant seemed somewhat familiar with the concept - “Oh, the iPhone coupons!” my waiter exclaimed. I made sure he and his manager knew the name of the application; after all, Apple didn’t build the program, they just erected the platform for it. More to the point, MobiQpons only gets paid on a per transaction basis. What sucks for them in this case is that the staff didn’t bother to scan the barcode or even note the fine print of the offer, so I doubt MobiQpons got credit for my spend.

Since then, I’ve downloaded a bunch of other mobile coupon apps for my iPhone, and in addition to MobiQpons, the best for in-person (not website) purchases seem to be Yowza, Coupon Sherpa, and Valpak. I used a Yowza coupon to get 15% off my Sunday lunch, and again, the staff seemed to know what the coupons were but did not bother to look at the voucher code. (NOTE: Please, if you use coupons of any sort in a dining situation, tip based on the non-discounted price.)

From a customer perspective, there are some minor issues, such as certain coupons being served which are not actually valid in the local area. (I was briefly taken by the idea of hitting Chuck E. Cheese with friends for some ski ball, but noted in the small print that the voucher MobiQpons offered was not good in the state of Hawaii.) You’d think that duplication would be the headache, but it seems the big issue here is aggregation. There is very little overlap in the coupons offered by each program: MobiQpons had one set of deals, Yowza a different set, Coupon Sherpa yet another, etc. There is a wide open market for whomever can make those multiple apps redundant and give me one simple, engaging app with baked-in organic dissemination (aka “viral loop,” I term I dislike - another topic for another post).

The even more massive opportunity: making mobile vouchers a truly global experience. There are technological and logistical problems to solve here - multiple device platforms and cracking a fragmented coupon market for starters - as well as a cultural one. In the US, using coupons is much more socially acceptable than in, say, Britain. (My friends in the UK were taken aback when I described the American Sunday coupon tradition to them. I’m not quite sure where the shame is in retaining one’s money rather than giving it away, but England is the same country that shuns the doggy bag, so…)

There’s a lot in this for merchants, too. Increased sales is just part of the equation: Companies pay a ton of money for data about their customers, and are using increasingly sneaky and intrusive ways of getting it. People, just because a cashier asks you for your phone number when ringing up your purchase, you don’t have to give it to them. I almost never do, and when they ask why not, I simply tell them: “I’m in marketing. You have enough information about me.” The exception to this is an independent shop like my friend Dan Korman’s Park + Vine. He wasn’t my friend until I fell in love with his store and his entrepreneurial spirit, so I’m happy for him to know who I am, where I live, and what products I purchase; I trust him, and the benefit to me is that I get more highly targeted offers and find out when he’s holding events I might want to go to (or tell my friends about, since I no longer live near his store).

I had a long phone call about mobile coupons over the weekend with my friend (and fiercely anti-doggy bag activist) Pat Phelan, who’s been blogging on this for a while and thinking about it for even longer. I don’t want to give too much away from our chat, but let’s just say that if Twitter acquires Foursquare - and there’s a bet I’ll take - they’d be missing a trick not to invade this space in a big way. I’m sure Google is also verrrrrry interested in this area, not least because of what becomes possible once the payment mechanism is nailed.

Filed under: Life