The Potential of Mobile Coupons: Current Status and Future Promises

Coupons continue to be one of the most favourite promotional tools for the marketers to influence, incentivize, and encourages customers towards trying the product. Mobile-coupon (m-coupon), an extension of the traditional coupons which is accessible on mobile device, has emerged as one of the promising tool in marketer’s arsenal. Since the mobile device is a highly personalized medium, it enhances the opportunity for the marketers to reach out to the potential customers in an effective manner. The opportunity to customize and provide flexibility, and the convenience that m-coupons provide to the customers/mobile-users are the main reasons for the growth of m-coupons. This paper traces the origins of m-coupon and how marketers are making cost-effective use of different types of m-coupons in order to convert the potential customers into buyers of their products and services. The paper provides a sketch of strategies adopted, success areas, drawbacks and limitations observed, while also looking at some of the success stories across the different approaches. This paper concludes by examining the potential which m-coupon holds and the implications for Indian markets.