Thank for your comment. Needless to say it is “heartwarming” to read that this is all about Red Plum’s and the manufacturer’s bottom line. I always knew it was all about that and I am glad you had the guts to come out and just say what it is plainly evident.
I don’t understand why I should be thankful that others are saving while I won’t be able to anymore. Perhaps this is the mentality you have bought into at Valassis. However, from the consumer’s point of view, I am NOT thankful.
Like I told Tom, you are switching from regular coupon users to infrequent coupon users. That’s your choice. But don’t come here trying to make consumers agree with your corporate mentality because it’s not very likely it will happen. The same way you don’t care about our bottom line, we don’t care about yours.
Mercedes

PS. I am glad to hear manufacturer’s don’t care about brand loyalty. It will make the switch to generic guilt-free.

I hardly think you are a random poster with no agenda. I wonder where else your response will show up….

Let’s look at the pure economies of scale… newspapers are losing readership (and have been for years). The Cleveland Plain-Dealer (the impetus for much of the negative blog posting) lost 2.7% Sunday circ. from 2004-05, -1.6% in 05-06, -1.4% in 06-07 and the 07-08 figures will not be pretty. Advertisers are looking to reach as many people as possible with their advertising in the most cost-effective manner. The fact is that, while a small group of people may think that their purchase of multiple copies of the newspapers is a powerful driver of successful ROI, the fact is that if an advertiser can reach 10%, 20% 30% or 40+% more people by using the mail for the same cost per person as using a newspaper, that is a good thing!

The inability of a group of people to buy multiples of a product using multiple coupons is significantly offset by the ability of an advertiser to reach hundreds of thousands of new consumers who might buy their products.

While consumers may find this hard to believe, manufacturers don’t actually want people buying 10 newspapers to use 10 coupons on their products. They would much rather have 7 new people each use one coupon? Really? They would rather sell 7 items instead of 10? Yes! Coupons are about trial — the goal isn’t to give multiple coupons to a single person — it is to engage a large group of people to try the product and hopefully become regular consumers. To do that, you need to get your coupons in the hands of the most consumers.

If anyone believes that the manufacturers want them using multiple coupons at one time, they need to know that is not reality. That is why there isn’t a coupon every week for the same product. That is why manufacturers are embracing the move to distribution via direct mail. That is why P&G (the largest pckaged goods company in the world) does not advertise online — they are worried about coupon fraud (i.e., consumers printing multiple copies). By that same argument, they would consider the buying of 10 copies of a newspaper to be “newspaper fraud”. In other words, they don’t want people using 10 coupons. They want you using one coupon and then returning to purchase more of the product at the regular price. If manufacturers really wanted you to buy multiples with coupons, they could provide coupons that can be used on the purchase of “up to 10 products”. Then you only need one coupon and can buy as many of each product as you need. Ask yourself why they don’t do this.

Additioanlly, the newspaper business is in danger, and it’s got nothing to do with Red Plum moving to mail (I find the posts ironic that claim that Red Plum moving to mail will put the newspapers out of business). The newspapers don’t need any help with that. In the last 2-1/2 months, 33 newspapers have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and many more. And, yes they all carry SmartSource and Red Plum coupons and they are still failing financially!

We really can’t blame Red Plum for listening to their advertisers and providing a strategic solution (with shifts to mail and online couponing) that increase the coverage for their advertisers, allow more consumers to have access to their coupons and provide an option should newspapers close or cease business (like the Rocky Mountain News)?

Bloggers, while disappointed that they no longer have access to 10 coupons for their favorite product should be thankful that hundreds of thousands of other consumers in their market can now receive coupon discouts during this financially dificult time. They should be excited that, should their newspaper cease operations, they will still be able to receive their Red Plum coupons in the mail. And they should be pushing their retailers to accept online coupons (if they currently don’t). Finally, they should be making friends with their neighbors, because if they want extra coupons, all they need to do is ask their neighbors if they can have theirs (and they don’t even need to buy extra newspapers to get them).

I buy the newspaper at Walmart or the Dollar Tree.

Mercedes

Do you have your paper (from the next largest city) mailed to you or delivered? I don’t get the same coupons as larger cities in my state, but so far I cannot find a newspaper that will deliver outside their area.

Thank you so much for your email and for leaving a comment on my blog. I am sure direct mail is good for companies as a whole but I am not sure it is good for regular coupons users. These are just two situations I can share from personal experience:
1) As a regular coupon user I understand that I save more money by using more than one like coupon. I am not talking about 20 of the same coupons. But a family of four that uses coupons to save money and uses them well, understands that they will save the most by stockpiling items. I regularly need two or three sets of coupon inserts. If my family regularly consumes orange juice, I know I will save more by having three coupons to buy three half gallons than just having one coupon. By sending inserts by mail now I only can buy brand orange juice once with my coupon and I will probably buy generic the next time because it is everyday lower priced than brand orange juice.
2) I live in a region that gets very poor coupons in their inserts. Either the value of the coupons is lower or a lot of the coupons that other areas get are not included in my inserts. I work around this by buying the newspaper of the largest metro area closer to me. If my coupons are mailed to me I know they will still be the same poor coupons from before and now I don’t have access to better value coupons because they are not available to me in the Sunday newspapers. So what am I likely to do? use generic brands. This is advice that is everywhere on the media: don’t want to bother clipping coupons? buy generic. With no coupons to use that’s exactly what a lot of people will do.

I understand the benefits of deeper market penetration to companies You are aiming to gain more coupon users and turn occasional coupon users into regular coupon users. But by taking coupon inserts away from newspaper distribution you are also alienating a lot of current regular coupon users. Also, using internet printable coupons is not an option to many because a lot of retailers refuse to accept them. I am also concerned that this would create greater demand for the coupons issued through Smartsource, surely having only one issuer of coupons through newspaper inserts can’t be healthy for the industry. Is there a way you could do direct mail and newspaper distribution?

Thank you again for taking the time to comment on my blog. I really appreciate it.

Mercedes Levy

Mr. Murry, if you are the REAL Tom Murray from RP then you’ll understand the REAL reason the coupon world is up in arms. We do NOT care that you are reaching more people – you are not reaching out to the people that you’ve made your money on. You are now reaching “quantity” instead of “quality”. The real couponers want access to more than one insert. Your direct mail campaign is a bust according to bloggers across the country who have signed up for it and have yet to receive it. Give those of us who support you and your advertisers what we want: PUT THE COUPONS BACK IN THE PAPER.