Marketing Pilgrim

We haven’t talked about Groupon in a while. There is actually a reason for that. Mostly it’s because when we post about the company our readers don’t seem to care. I have wondered why that is (maybe you can help enlighten me in the comments?) but this is somewhat significant to help us understand the state of the daily deal industry. So here we go.

According to USA Today

The online deals site, reporting for the first time as a public company, said its fourth-quarter revenue nearly tripled, but it lost money and its shares fell sharply after hours.

Groupon’s net loss totaled $42.7 million, or 8 cents per share, for the final three months of 2011. A year earlier, as a private company, it booked a larger loss of $378.6 million, or $1.08 per share.

It’s February. Love is in the air and the chocolates are piling up in the stores. Valentine’s Day is less than a week away but folks are still planning on how they’ll honor their partners without going over budget.

A new survey from PriceGrabber shows that 68% of shoppers will spend under $100 on Valentine’s Day, most spending between $25 and $50. For most shoppers, this is about the same as last year.

4% of loved ones are going to be in for a shock when their partner comes home empty handed.

In addition to buying for their spouse, 36% of shoppers said they’ll be buying for other relatives, including their kids. Only 17% said they’d be forking out for the boyfriend or girlfriend. What’s up with that?

Ready for another Groupon horror story?

Amy Kunkle owns Food for All Market, a specialty grocer in Philadelphia that sells food items for the very allergic. As you can imagine, it’s not the biggest store in town, it has a small, but loyal client base and up until recently, made enough to pay the bills.

Then Groupon called and convinced Ms. Kunkle that she could increase her business by offering a $15 for $30 worth of merchandise coupon. Of that amount, she would get $7.50, Groupon would get $7.50 and she’d eat the rest in the name of marketing.

What wasn’t agreed upon was a cap. Groupon sold 450 coupons and Food for All Market went belly up. In an interview with a local newspaper, Ms. Kunkle estimates that she lost nearly $10,000 on the deal.

I am woman and if you hear me roar, it’s probably because I’m at the overload point and there’s still grocery shopping to be done, dinner to be made and bills to be paid. Grrr.

In this, I am not alone. Look at this chart from a new survey by Hearst Magazines and Fleishman-Hillard International Communications.

The women surveyed. . .

Well, two out of three ain’t bad. The numbers come from part four of the Women, Power and Money series of reports. This one is called “Game-Changers: Women Defining the New American Marketplace.“

What they found overall is that women feel responsible for the well-being of their families. That need to help often extends out to their co-workers and friends of both the physical and virtual kind.

TLC has a TV show called “Extreme Couponing,” which demonstrates the lengths people will go to in order to save a buck. The saying “only in America” comes to mind and a new survey from GfK bears that out.

The study took a look at the behaviors of “Xtreme Shoppers” around the globe. They don’t offer a clear definition of which shoppers fall into this category, but they’re definitely people you want on your side.

Europe has a larger concentration of xtreme shoppers with Russia and the UK taking the lead, well over the US. What’s really fascinating is how folks on the two sides of the globe answered the following shopping questions.

The January issue of STORES magazine has an article called 20 Ideas Worth Stealing. Since they’re advocating helping yourself, I figured they wouldn’t mind if I borrow a few of their ideas to share here.

The entire article is a great mix of basic marketing manners and innovations that use mobile and other digital options to enhance the in-store experience. But there are also ideas that the strictly online retailer can use as well.

Reward Loyalty

Home decor flash sales site One Kings Lane surprised 6,900 of its best customers with a special gift that shipped the first two weeks of November. Based on purchase history, shoppers received taper candles, a silver pitcher or an inlaid bone box.

So you think you know the connected consumer, do you? Well Zmags challenges your notions with this sweet infographic that puts it all in perspective.

If you imagine that connected shoppers are young people who can’t survive without their mobile phone, think again. Their survey showed that more than half of connected shoppers surveyed where women with a mean age of 40.

She owns multiple internet-connection devices and not surprisingly, she enjoys Facebook and shopping excites her. Can’t get a better customer than that.