Leading representatives from the coupon sector are hoping to work together with retailers to develop new best-practice guidelines to tackle misredemption.
Charles D’Oyly (pictured), managing director of the UK’s biggest coupon handler Valassis, and Clive Mishon, chairman of the ISP, are working with MP John Greenway to spearhead moves to set up a cross-industry group.
Speaking at Valassis’ coupon conference at Bafta in London in November, Mishon said they needed to reverse the culture that made it acceptable for consumers to use coupons without buying the products.
“There’s a sense of corporate social responsibility at the moment between doing the right thing and something that doesn’t feel right,” he said. “We need to see if what’s going on meets retailers’ standards in terms of corporate social responsibility.
“There are some quite strong feelings and I hope people will sit down round the table and have a sensible discussion about it. We want to review what best practice is and get people signed up for it.”
He added that they did not want to take action without the retailers on board.
Mishon pointed out that the risks were highlighted by the fall-out from the badly run premium-rate phone-in competitions, which had damaged broadcasters’ brands that had taken decades to build up.
Misredemption had been a factor in the decline in coupons as a promotional mechanic, he added. “There’s a big prize at the end of it. We can double or treble the size of the industry and take coupons back to where they were in the 1960s and 1970s.”
D’Oyly added that misredemption was unique to the British, highlighted by it not being an issue in the US. “They don’t have a better system of EPOS. It’s just not a habit they have got into,” he explained.
“They know that if they present a coupon and they have not bought the product, they could be embarrassed. It’s not driven by the systems. It’s driven by conscience.”
The number of coupons being distributed this year is rising, with a particular increase in their use for promotions in newspapers, according to new figures from Valassis.
Redemption levels were also edging upwards in the first six months of 2007. Speaking at the coupon conference, Valassis’ head of new product development, Zoe Eastwell, said the volume of coupons distributed was likely to be up by 7.4 per cent if the trend for the first six months continued for the year.