Coupons to promote your business activity

September is the National Coupon Month and the famous coupon is 125 years old. Since 2006, coupon usage has been steadily increasing in the U.S.

Valassis Communication is the largest media and marketing coupon business in the world. They produce shared-mail circulars as well as newspaper inserts and coupon packages. However, they are faced with a declining newspaper circulation, slowdown on consumer packaged-goods advertising, and high debt load. They are the single biggest customer of the U.S. Postal Service and recent problems with USPS could further impact the Valassis’ bottom line. Groupon could be another threat to the company.

Groupon derived from “group coupon” is a discounted coupon Website that provides deal-of-the-day service locally as well as nationally. First introduced in Chicago area in November 2008, now covers North America, Europe, Asia and South America and includes more than 35 million registered users. The company is projected to make $1 billion in sales a year. The company offers one “Groupon” a day in its service area. It looks for a minimum number of customers per coupon and when that number reaches, the coupon become available to all. The Groupon keep half of the value of the discount for its service.