Coupons

This is a bit off topic for me, but a recent Media Post Research Briefcaught my eye as an online consumer:

Young Coupon Clippers Looking Online

The results of a new study by Platform-A and IRI (Information Resources Inc.) from 36,000 panelists on trends in consumer couponing, shows that more than 90 million consumers (78% of retail shoppers) currently use newspaper coupons, with nearly one out of every four of the newspaper coupon clippers likely to be at least 65 years old. It also revealed that nearly four out of every 10 shoppers, a total of 40 million consumers, would be very likely to use coupons accessed online.

Well, I haven’t been called young in a long time, but I am an avid coupon clipper. And, I am very frustrated that this still means that I need to buy a newspaper to get them. I often look online hoping to find coupons, but I have only met with disappointment. (My recent experience with Swiffer being only one in a series of disappointing events.)

I have never quite understood the underlying strategy of coupons. (Like, why do the paper coupon supplements advertise some products without an associated coupon? Any, why in 20 years of clipping is the average value still around 50 cents?) With all the talk and data showing how many consumers are online, I do wonder why more companies don’t have coupons as part of their online marketing mix.

Ideas anyone?

Red Cross Website – Great First Impression, Downhill from There

I recently analyzed the Red Cross website as part of an analysis for a Balance Interactiveclient. My first impression was postive. This is a large organization, but its home page is uncluttered and the navigation is broken into a few categories.

Action words are used to speak to the visitor: Give Blood, Volunteer Time, etc. Donations can be made online. Visitors can be matched with volunteer opportunities. An interest form can be completed and submitted online. People affected by disaster can list themselves as “safe and well.”

Then I started to pay attention to the site navigation.

One of the first things I noticed as I poked around is that there are several designs in use within the site. As a result design and navigation items appear and disappear and change altogether.

Some of the visual cues are not clear – why is the Join Us tab blue? What is the relationship of the items under the main “tabbed” navigation to the main navigation?

The navigation takes some unexpected twists. Many main navigation items launch new windows and seem to take the users to other websites.

The bar below the tabbed navigation has all the children for each section shown on the home page. This is unusual and can be confusing at first. Another oddity – these children are not visible at all from any of the interior pages of the site.

When a section is selected, such as Volunteer Time, the left navigation does not appear to be items within that category. It is not clear what they represent. It is also not clear what section you are in.

Navigation should create paths within a website that take users deeper and deeper in to the content. The home page is the high level, the next level offers more detail, and the next level even more.  Users should be drawn into these levels, and always know how to move forward as well as backward.

Organizing site navigation is tough. You have to categorize and prioritize. This is particularly challenging when every part of your organization wants to be on the home page. However, this effort is a necessity of a good website. Without organization your site becomes a series of one-pagers. Content gets disjointed and the visitor never gets drawn into a deeper level of understanding or relationship with the website and you.

Swiffer Website Offers Lessons on What Not to Do

My kitchen broom is broken and somewhat nasty looking. So, instead of cleaning the house today, I decided to work on modernizing my cleaning equipment a bit. Surely, I thought, I should be able to get a coupon for a Swiffer starter kit on line.

Well, yes, and no.

I went to google and got the Swiffer website as the top result: http://www.swiffer.com/en_US/home.do So far, so good.

The navigation is simple and clear. I headed right for Promotions and realized there are several types of Swiffers. So, I went to the Products area to learn more.

First thing I noticed was that a flash element took a bit to load. Oddly, it does not seem to be animated at all. You can mouse over the products and it names them. Really not worth the ait.

Then things really took a turn. I clicked on the name of a product. I got the page template and NO content. I use IE7. I tried all the products with the same result.

So, I decided I would print coupons for all the products and decide in the store which was the right one for my needs.  Unfortunately, all the coupons are in a booklet that is MAILED. So, I am ready to make a purchase today, but need to wait 5-7 days for a booklet in the mail.

So the misses here:

• Long loading flash graphics that add no value
• Content that does not work in a major browser (IE7)
• Inability for the consumer to act online – if they reach you online interact with them there

The site does get points for being easy to navigate. Also, I was asked to complete a survey about my visit to the site. Hopefully, the results will 1) be seen and 2) be acted on.