Groupon 's Marketing Plan For The World 's Commerce Operating System

Based on the market and situational analysis, the marketing plan for Groupon produces the internal, and external environmental analysis the report has identified the strategic future for the company. Based on the competitive advantage the report has made recommendations for the effective marketing in future with respect to product prices place and distribution of the business.

Groupon is an internet website company focused on generating revenue by utilizing relationships with merchants to provide consumers with discounts on select items. The goal of the discounted vouchers is to drive additional consumer store traffic and generate revenue for merchants which are shared with Groupon via a predetermined contractual percentage. Groupon generates visibility and exposure with email and social networking to increase consumer spending at specific merchants. Groupon has many features from personalization of product offerings to specific demographics and target segments. In addition, a more defined value proposition allowing merchants an opportunity to showcase their own product offerings on

Andrew Mason, Founder & CEO of Groupon, had a big idea, but was not aware how massive it could grow. Before Groupon, Mason begun a website called ThePoint.org as a site for collective action, to get groups of people together to solve public and social issues. It wasn’t as effective as he projected, and so started to think of how he could take the group approach of ThePoint.org and turn it into a business channel. Mason believed the Internet had potential to change how people discover and buy from local businesses. That’s when Andrew Mason came up with the excellent concept for Groupon. “Part of Groupon’s success is the simplicity of its business model…” (Kerin & Hartley, p. 110) Groupon offers “Deal of the Day” coupons from local and nationwide

Groupon, Inc. (“Groupon”) is a company that specializes in local commerce. It has relationships with companies on a global scale and alerts consumers on the hottest deals with respect to shopping for various products, travel destinations, and popular spots, goods and services that a city has to offer. The stock ticker for the company on the NASDAQ exchange is “GRPN.” The company is listed under the sector ‘Technology’ and industry ‘Internet Information Providers.’ It started off as ‘ThePoint.com, Inc.’ but in October 2008 it changed its name to ‘Groupon, Inc.” Groupon was founded in 2008 by the now ousted CEO Andrew Mason. The current CEO is Eric Lefkofsky who initially invested $1,000,000 toward the development of the company. The Chief

After discovering errors in its accounting and the failure to set aside enough reseveres for customer refunds, Groupon. Inc announced revision of its first financial results posted as a public company in April 2012, which resulted in a cut to its 2011 fourth-quarter revenue of $14.3 million. In addition, this revision has reduced its fourth quarter operating income by $30 million, net income by $22.6 million, and earnings per share by $0.04, due to an increase of operating expenses after compliance with GAAP.

In conclusion, the understanding of consumer behavior mixed with the growing social trends of technology was a crucial part in the growth of Groupon in 2008. By being able to understand consumers and the target market, Groupon were able to affect the wants of their customers and help start their process of the purchase decision using daily deals, providing them with warranties such as the “Groupon Promise” and discounted prices.

What is the one four-letter word that every consumer loves to hear? “Deal”. Plain and simple, consumers are always looking for a deal. Whether it be for dining and entertainment, clothing or groceries, individuals will scour the aisles or the local paper for any sort of penny saving technique they can find. Enter Groupon. Groupon is an innovative technology that connects those frugal individuals with the best deals and the merchants that supply it. Thus expanding the merchant’s business and the consumer’s

Groupon’s name is the combination of the words “group” and “coupon” and the company was founded in 2008 in Chicago by CEO Andrew Mason who is also the founder of the campaign organization website ThePoint.com, the company which Groupon grew out of. So, the idea of groupon was born from a frustration of the founder when he wanted to cancel his telephone subscription. Groupon’s concept grew into an entirely new venture: a daily deals service that relied on the power of groups and the company remains the market leader in the sector of daily deal industry. The first deal the company offered was for 50% off at a pizza restaurant from the bar motel in Chicago, where it is currently headquartered. The company expanded quickly into Boston, New York, and Washington DC and has shown impressive growth. Groupon is one of the business website that continues to rise day by day and as proof, the company rejected refused $ 6 billion acquisition offer from Google. By 2010, it served approximately more than 150 markets in the north America, 100 markets (in Europe, Asia, and south America), and boasting 35 subscribers worldwide and 1.6 billion dollars of revenue in 2011 (exhibit1, Pg.11-8). Groupon makes money through commissions on the Deals of the day and the explosion of daily deals on Groupon is its key to success. The success allowed the company to become the second fastest website to reach the milestone of $ 1 billion of wealth in short time duration of 16 months,

1.) As Groupon goes global, executives need to keep the values of other cultures in mind. If the company does not react to changes in other cultures, the business will not thrive in other areas of the world. Groupon must keep other perspectives in mind while deciding on contrasting deals and promotions to advertise. Daily deals proven to be extremely popular in the United States will not necessarily be the same deals that are popular in other areas of the world. Since humor is a key part of their advertising approach, Groupon should definitely hire different writers for promotions in other countries. A topic considered humorous in the United States could be immeasurably offensive in nations like China and Germany. Their company

As Groupon is established in many countries of the world, a global strategy has to be pursued

Groupon is a deal-of-the-day website that is localized to major geographic markets worldwide. Launched in November 2008, the first market for Groupon was Chicago, followed soon thereafter by Boston, New York City, and Toronto. Groupon has over 50 million subscribers across 300 cities in more than 40 countries. The idea for Groupon was created by Andrew Mason who is currently the company’s CEO. [update]Groupon serves more than 150 markets in North America and 100 markets in Europe, Asia and South America and has amassed 60 million registered users. The growth in the future is likely to be at a slower pace, primarily because the company is already one of the largest in the local deals space.

So, Groupon will need to decide if the large dollars spent on advertising is a sustainable approach as merchants reevaluate if doing a Groupon is worth it for the boost in promotion. Lastly, Groupon relies on online word-of-mouth promotion to virally spread across the web as customers share it with friends using tools like Facebook and Twitter, to further increase a company’s brand exposure.

In my opinion Groupon is not a ready-to-go solution to the problem of low marketing budgets of many local merchants. If Groupon is good

With the internet technology, everyone can stay at home for online shopping. What’s more, if you can enjoy daily discounts with all the information, home delivery and 24-hours daily operation, that’s all can be found by buying Groupon. Groupon, the company has successfully captured millions of online consumers throughout the world. The marketing strategy of Groupon captures the consumer behavior. Consumer buying behavior, defined as... “The buying behavior of final consumers, individual and households who buy goods and services for personal”.Groupon consumers mainly responses to:

What we recommend is that, Groupon needs to separate its financial duties once the company go public on the stock market, it has to go out and make quarterly earnings meaning to say it will be transparent. Because one company has to go on transparent to the public as this plays a big role in the growth of the company, stock market where investors would want to decide whether to buy Groupon stock or not. Groupon as a middle person between it’s customer and the merchants who offers a deal. When all of these happens, the least thing that could occur is that the stock goes down and Groupon’s stock lost about 85% of its value which is really bad that it’s worth was a little more than $2 billion.