General Management
22
Masterarbeit
Dynamic Issuance. A Promotion Strategy for Active Users in Germany and the United Kingdom Graduate Paola Crevatini Rebsamen Supervisor Brian Rüeger, lic. oec.
Since the days when Romans painted on walls to advertise
coupons, which may be explained by the fact that the in-
gladiator fights, promotional tools have developed greatly
stant benefit is more visible to users. The results also show
and marketers continue to employ various techniques to
that coupons with a specified minimum spend may put
attract and maintain customers. Today, coupons are the
users off making purchases. A positive relationship be-
most common promotional tool, triggering sales by offer-
tween coupon promotions and average spend per user
ing an instant price reduction and therefore instant gratifi-
was also identified in the experiment, these results being
cation. The consumer is thought to be homo economicus,
specific to the situation where users have already shown
meaning consumers strive to make the best choice for the
interest by viewing an item online.
lowest cost. Researchers and marketers have always been interested in finding the stimuli for purchase behavior in or-
The findings provide vital insights for the practice partner
der to improve their promotional strategies. This Master’s
and are a stepping stone for future research as well as the
thesis therefore explores the impact of various dynamical-
organization’s long term promotional strategy. The findings
ly-issued coupon offers on purchasing behavior in a major
are also in line with the current policy on print coupons and
online market place. The main aim was to understand how
contribute to the literature as they provide concrete find-
coupons stimulate purchasing behavior in Germany and
ings concerning coupon use in an online setting.
the UK when targeting active users who are viewing items online but not making a purchase, and to discover the optimal offer mix in terms of redemptions and incremental money spent on the website. A mixed research methodology was used. In the initial “qualitative phase”, the objective was to describe the current situation, and for this purpose in-depth, semi-structured interviews with key in-house experts were conducted. In the second phase, the objective was to explore and test the hypothesis and for this purpose a field experiment was chosen. A deductive approach was followed, and the stimulus-response model was used as a basis for the research. The experiment was designed to test value-off vs. percentage-off coupon offers as well as minimum-spend vs. nominimum-spend offers. The results show that users responded better to “value-off” than to “percentage-off”