Norm Leferman is president of Leferman Associates, a Southborough, Mass., research firm.
Every once in a while I feel compelled to reach out to shake someone about a research issue. The June edition of Quirk’s reported on a study conducted by GfK Knowledge Networks (“More saving, more spending”) that seems to conclude that “digital coupon users shop more frequently and spend significantly more . . . than the average U.S. consumer.” A pretty neat conclusion to reach on behalf of their client (Coupons.com).
Perhaps the study was conducted properly and the editing of the article leaves out some important details. However, it seems to me that the conclusion is a self-fulfilling prophecy – e.g., people who print out digital coupons do so to save money on an item that they had already decided to purchase. As such, they are more likely to spend money than the general population.
For me, a better question would have been to assess how the availability of digital coupons for an item affected purchase intentions – e.g., does the availability of digital coupons get people to buy more or sooner than they would have otherwise?
There also seems to be an unbelievable logic in the article’s conclusion that digital coupon users spend more. Since coupon users, by definition, are paying less for an item than non-users are paying for the same item, it is seemingly impossible that coupon users could be spending more (at least on those items).
And, if one accepts the argument that by spending less on Item A (which had the digital coupon) they had the money to now buy Item B, it begs the question as to who benefitted from the digital coupons – Item A, which got reduced revenue for having offered a coupon or Item B, which did not?
While I am generally a fan of using coupons to stimulate interest in products or to protect a brand from competitive efforts, let’s not jump to spurious conclusions just because they sound newsworthy.