Though 2009 was anything but a banner year for auto sales, 11 straight months of improvement is a welcome indicator or improving consumer confidence.
The Big Three Detroit firms all showed good growth with Ford leading the way, up 19% according to this article in autonews.com.
You may be familiar with Groupon, a deeply discounted social couponing program. In some metro markets it has become the latest big thing for early adopting marketers.
The environment would appear to be right. As we’ve reported here for the past two years coupon redemption rates have rebounded in the down economy and coupons have been hot.
Locally we have not seen strong retailer interest in coupons. We’ve published coupon books and coupon pages and we found pretty limited response to an online auction deal program a few years ago. The trade materials I’ve been reading are beginning to migrate from lots of hype about Groupon to a more balanced view of the pluses (can generate lots of business) to the minuses (deep, deep discounts that often don’t lead to profitable sales). Here is a one of the better current articles from Harvard Business Review. Here is another article from the same source wondering whether the pluses outweigh the minuses for businesses.
If your business has tried this, or something like it, I’d be interested in hearing of your experience.
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