GroupOn love everything about them. They are right there on top 4 of social media facebook,linkedin,twitter,foursquare.We will examine What Marketing mix/technology differentiation they are trying to bring. Recently exactly 5 months back when i saw rediff deals i got facinated is rediff doing groupOn in india with deals. http://dealhojaye.rediff.com/?sc_cid=inhome_i4
Groupon began as a side project of The Point, a website devoted to harnessing the power of collective action. While the company recruits businesses to feature in its deals, subscribers are instrumental in getting the word out through social media like Facebook and Twitter. While generally focused on deals from local restaurants and businesses.
Groupon can attract more people by tapping on sale discounts on social media.it’s huge each time you are on groupon u are saving price compared with other social media sites.They call it collective buying power.I recollect Shiv khera say ” Successful people do not do different things but they do same things differently”. Same coupon on social media is groupon.
Where Savvy consumers get their deal coupon on Groupon site. Groupon/rediff deals are tapping into the power of collective buying, the company helps businesses attract customers by offering them a unique way to save on things to eat, see, and do in more than 100’s markets worldwide.It’s like online wallmart or what we call amazon, but not exactly.In marketing peter Kotler in famous books write about 4 p’s of marketing Product, Promotion, Place and Price..We we do a case study on retail we find Place although seems very important in retails.
The place is where you can expect to find your customer and consequently, where the sale is realized. Knowing this place, you have to look for a distribution channel in order to reach your customer.
Online location can refer to where links are placed on other websites. Promoting products and service online there are number of issues. Recognizable domain name is first stage towards e-promotion. Most organizations today have some form of webpage used in most if not all advertisements. Placing banner advertisements on other web pages is a common form of e-promotion.According to targetted advertising Banner ads must be placed where potential customers browse. Web public relations are another approach to promoting online. News worthy stories based on product or service launches can be placed on the company’s webpage, or Web public relation articles sent to review sites for consumers to read. Hopefully this form of online promotion will pull the consumer in. Direct email is a popular and common form of e-promotions, although slowly becoming the most hated my many consumers. Organizations can send e-leaflets to hundreds and thousands of respondents, hoping a small percentage will reply.
Online Pricing: Traditionally pricing was about finding about your costs, discovering how much consumers are willing to pay, taking account competition pricing then setting your price. The internet has made pricing very competitive. Many costs i.e. store costs, staff cost have disappeared for complete online stores, placing price pressures on traditional retailers. The internet gives consumers the power to shop around for the best deal at a click of a button. Such easy access to information helps to maintain prices within the online world.
CaseStudy: how Amazon wipped out competition latest 3 days back: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/oct/27/amazon-takeover-book-depository-oft
E-pricing can also easily reward loyal customers. Technology allows repeat visitors to be tracked, easily allowing loyalty incentives to be targeted towards them. Payment is also easy online credit cards use allows for easy payments. One of the biggest changes to the marketing mix is online purchasing. Consumers can purchase direct from manufacturers cutting out retailers totally. The challenge for online retailers is to insure that the product is delivered to the consumer within a reasonable time. Location is important within our place strategy.
In each participating city, Groupon advertises a daily deal, typically a half-off coupon for anything from a local restaurant or retail store to a hotel or spa; if enough consumers buy the coupon online by midnight, the deal is on and the featured business can achieve a nice chunk in sales. In late 2010, the company rejected a reported $5.3 billion buyout offer from Internet search giant Google. Groupon instead filed to go public in mid-2011. otherwise would be out list of 50 companies google acquired it would be biggest.
Technology Barrier/differentiation :
1.Simiplicity in Design and Technology: Groupon is so simple, and it proves the case that you don’t need a load of extra technology to create a product that people will buy into. On their site they just provide a few actions – receive deals by email, connect through Facebook, view latest deals and the option join their friend referral scheme.
2. Location based intelligence: this technology helps groupon finding location specific deals,offers,coupons for customers.
3. Localisation L10n:the process of translating a product into different languages or adapting a language for a specific country or region.just to give one more prospective according to economics localisation is the opposite to economic globalisation.how does it matter they got good fix on the target.
Weakness: Mobilitiy: they have to do a fourquare which not huge but still good amount of tasks.
http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/24/groupon-now-app-failing/
but Still Groupon is there on the top 5.same reason why google wanted to acquire it.
Sandyclassic 