
Groupon marketing results - customers are out there - pchristensen
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2010/03/19/groupon-marketing-results/
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dejan
With a man-in-the-middle between product and service providers, both later are
at a loss. Customers could get a higher discount, while the providers could
make (more) profits. Exposure is overrated imho with groupon's army of clones,
as the crowd is nomadic and isn't loyal. Moreover it may bend perceptions and
expectations for the future.

Long term effect of these deals are none to negative, as they may easily
cannibalize regular business. Volumes of customers in the services business
essentially requires time. That's obvious for the article above where costs of
paralel servicing are very high (other helicopters).

Shameless self-promotion: our startup is changing that by removing the
intermediary and seller fees with a simple widget for web shops. Unlike others
with restricted applications in services, we've made it universally applicable
to anything that sells online and offline, above $30 most likely. It's meant
to work as sister button to the _Add to Cart_ \- _ _Join Group Buy_ _.

It is more than a marketing/advertising tool. It is a new way of seeing
shopping.

While the exposure comes through the clever system of incentives, we're
working on much more by opening the deals information to the world in real
time.

<http://www.syncfu.com>

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callmeed
It seems Groupon is hot right now but I'm still not on the bandwagon. Most of
the deals I see appear to be along the lines of _"2 week membership to
gym/yoga/karate for $X"_ or _"Some tourist attraction for $X (normally $2X)"_

Basically, stuff where the vendor is trying to get your foot in the door or
simply selling you an attraction where the "an $X value" may or may not be
accurate.

The helicopter one is interesting, particularly because this is something
those 2,600 people would never search for in Google. But then end result shows
that deals like this benefit Groupon much more than the vendor.

If stuff like this keeps happening, are people going to want to continue
offering deals on the site?

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brandnewlow
They made $100 MM last year, their first year being up in more than a handful
of cities. I think they're in good shape.

It's funny, there's a ton of Groupon people here in Chicago and at parties
they all whine about the local media not covering them more. Yes, I'm sure
they want to heap praise upon a business hoovering up all their advertising
dollars..

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aresant
2500+ sales from an email sent to 200,000 local Groupon members.

That's a 1.25% blind conversion rate from email send which is UNHEARD of
outside of very targeted newsletters.

Where can I invest in Groupon stock again?

That blows my mind wide open.

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gojomo
I think the driving factor is "OMG 2-hr helicopter lesson and I've never even
flown as a copter passenger before for only $69!" -- not Groupon's magic pull.
And PhilG makes it clear they're selling these initial lessons far below cost.

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brezina
I wonder what Groupon's repeat business is like. Do they convince some small
business to price their service incredibly under cost, take their rip, and
leave the business to deal with 2,000 loss leading customers? I'd love to hear
from this helicopter company again in a few months after they've worked their
asses off to give out 2,000 cheap lessons all for 2 or 3 repeat customers.
That model simply isn't sustainable.

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aresant
Yah, very interesting if you measure in that context.

Lots of the restaurants seem to be doing a "food at cost" type offer and make
it up on the booze sales. For a restaurant that could be a great strategy -

