I came across this blog post by Elaine Fogel about gift coupon, or commonly known as vouchers in Singapore. She wrote:

I was a gift card virgin – until recently. Now, I will not use them anymore. Number one – they aren’t worth the trouble. Number two – they aren’t worth their full face value. There’s hidden info that consumers don’t know about until they try to use them, which brings me to number three – they’re aggravating!

It reminded me how true it is even here in Sg. I remember getting a $20 coupon with my credit card for one of them restaurants only to find that there were so many conditions to use it, i might as well throw it away. No way am I going to arrange my schedule to fit their requirements so nicely!

So if you are in the retail business and you have used (or thinking of using) coupons to get sales going, think carefully. Are you setting too many conditions on the use of that coupon such that it seems you were not being sincere? Are your coupons an extension of your brand’s core values or will your customer see it as just another $$ deal?

“A national survey [in USA] of 1,500 consumers done last spring by WSL Strategic Retail, based in New York, found gift-card fees and expiration dates were among the top causes of frustration. And that’s just among people who attempted to use them. Earlier this year, TowerGroup, a research firm in Needham, Mass., estimated the value of unused gift cards in the U.S. at $8 billion for 2006. And in its fiscal 2006 annual report, the retailer Best Buy revealed a $43 million gain from gift cards that were unlikely to be used.”

Consumers like to deal with authentic businesses. If your marketing tactics involves giving away coupons, you might as well make it another vehicle to promote your brand values and use it as a means to get customers to like you. It shouldn’t just be about getting them to come back. It should also be about getting them to interact with your brand more so they can get to know more. After all, true friendship comes from constant communication.

Have you gotten a coupon and thought it was pointless to use it because of all the restrictions? What are your thoughts on it?