Coupon Compulsion

By Sherri Collins

Editor, Pet Product News International

Does your store accept manufacturers’ coupons? Do you offer store coupons? If not, you should consider doing so…and here is why.

According to a recent poll conducted on our sister website, DogChannel.com, more than 60 percent responded positively to the question “Would you try premium natural dog food if you had a coupon for significant savings?” That’s a fairly significant number of potential customers who would be willing to spend a little more for quality dog food. Moreover, if the dog likes it, then they’ll be back for more—with or without a coupon.

I know it works with cat food as well, because I bought a super-premium brand after receiving a $5-off coupon. I had considered trying that brand, yet was reluctant to spend $20 for a 3-lb bag of food my cats might not like. However, spending $15 didn’t seem as egregious and if they didn’t like it, I’d give it to one of my cat-owning neighbors. Fortunately, my cats ate it up and now I buy it regularly—without a coupon.

The independent pet store I frequent on a monthly basis doesn’t accept manufacturers’ coupons, but it does offer an impressive array of store coupon’s in its monthly newsletter. Courtesy of the savings offered every issue, I usually spend more than I intended, but have yet to regret a single purchase. I’ve purchased a wide variety of super-premium canned cat food with the store’s “buy three get one free” promotions, and have returned to buy more—with or without the promotion—of the ones my cats deigned to eat.

I’ve also come away with toys, scratchers and dishes; all thanks to the incentives found within the newsletter. By offering different promotions along with a few tried-and-true ones in every newsletter, the store is essentially guaranteeing repeat business. I look forward to the next newsletter as much as I do Trader Joe’s “Fearless Flyer” (I don’t know which I like more, the food or their clever descriptions).

Now, granted, I come from a family of avid coupon clippers, so I may not be a “normal” test case; although I’m not as rabid as some of my relatives are when it comes to clipping coupons. (I won’t clip a coupon for a product I have no interest in just to save money as some unnamed persons do—they know who they are—since that defeats the purpose of saving money.)

However, in these difficult economic times, I’m betting that many of the people who never once glanced at the “Smart Source” coupons in their Sunday paper are now looking for ways to cut costs without cutting out quality—and coupons provide a way to do just that.

Coupons also help engender loyalty. There are a few cat food brands at the independent store that are also available at the bigger chains, but because of the added savings I get with my store’s newsletter coupons, I will only buy them there. It’s not so much an obligation as a wanting on my part to give something back to the store that saves me a good amount of money while offering quality products and service.

It was the newsletter and coupons that got me into the store in the first place, and it is the coupons, along with the products and the service, that keep me coming back.

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