I wanted to throw out this idea to see what all of you thought about it.

I've always been interested in marketing and an idea hit me...what if I set up a Myspace page where local companies could post their coupons for local customers? My goal would be to add as many local friends as possible. Local coupons would be placed under my picture pages and could be sorted according to company type.

My front page would explain what my company was about so that people wanting to add me as a friend would know exactly what to expect from me.

Each week, I would post a new bulletin that would tell friends about local deals that were available. Posting just once a week would help to avoid becoming annoying.

The main thought behind all of this was to find a way to help companys market themselves using Myspace without violating Myspace's policies. My first inclination is to keep the cost to put a coupon on the page low, maybe $20-$25 per month.

I'm open to all thoughts, criticisms, etc.!

Thanks so much!
Rodney

Hi Rodney,

I think that setting up such a site is a great idea. I am certain that online retailers as well as local retailers will be happy to contribute, although, I'm not so sure about the price to list on your page though... You'll need to explain to the retailer why putting a coupon on your page is worth $20-25 per month to them. Especially since the more coupons that get used, the more your page will cost them. Secondly, you'll need to be aware that a lot of retailers will think, "hey, that's a great idea" and then they'll just go put it up on their website.

Finally, if you get good positive feedback and decide to do this, I recommend doing it on a real website not on a Myspace page. I doubt retailers are going to want to pay someone to list their coupons on a Myspace page... I wouldn't, although I might consider doing on a real page that used myspace to drive traffic to it.

T


Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

Tina,

Thanks for the input. I do hope to eventually move to a full web-site and still use Myspace to drive traffic to the site.

I appreciate it!
Rodney

>Tina,
>
>Thanks for the input. I do hope to eventually move to a full
>web-site and still use Myspace to drive traffic to the site.
>
>I appreciate it!
>Rodney

Feel welcome to solicit me when the time comes... Also, remind me that I asked you to contact me when you were ready... just in case I don't remember this conversation.

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

A good idea, indeed. Another thing that comes to mind is the time it would no doubt take to win reasonable traffic to such a site. Myspace has been recently inundated with spam so many people are not bothering to separate legitimate deals from trojan horses. You'd also possibly need some kind of "in" to your local circles on myspace, unless you already have this worked out.

I wonder if Facebook, which is now gaining popularity over myspace, could ever accommodate such a model. Like the creation of a web app that updates with said coupons every so often. Then again facebook has been clamped down pretty tightly against ads.

MG1

You can create corporate pages on Facebook. I have been thinking of creating one for my business to do just that... offer coupons. But I haven't taken the time to do so yet.

What I like about Facebook is the local connection, it networks first in your neighbourhood, rather than just blindly wherever on the web.

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

This business model, offering coupons to consumers on behalf of participating retailers, has been done for decades in many different forms.

What we have learned is that the success of the business model hinges on your ability to drive traffic to your site. It doesn't really matter if you have a MySpace site with friends, or a website that emails out weekly coupons to its email list. What does matter is that you have a very high distribution rate. We are talking at the very least in the low thousands, depending on the size of your local area. If you do not have this distribution level, there is no compelling reason for retailers to pay you money only to have to give a discount to the customer you bring in.

In the beginning, you need to consider how you are going to build your distribution and share this plan with your retailers. Then get to work on getting the word out.

The idea may fly, but it remember that because of its novelty it may wear off fast if you don't have the distribution.

Best of luck!

Mark Bebout