What Is Groupon An Entrepreneur?

How would you describe the leadership skills of Andrew Mason? How would you rate his leadership style? In what ways does he fit the profile of the typical business founder? In what ways is he different?

The project Groupon was launched in the year 2008. The idea was launched for dealing with the already existing business The Point that was a platform for starting and pledging a campaign. Andrew Mason, the CEO of the company, started a group for making it more profitable as well as easier to manage a business in comparison with The Point.

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 redefines how small businesses operate when it comes to attracting and selling to consumers. It helps businesses operate and grow more effectively. Groupon knows it has a social responsibility with respect to the society it operates in. It tries to help small businesses grow which in turn boosts the economy. Additionally, given the state of the economy, it helps consumers find deals at an affordable cost. Groupon has a corporate social responsibility department which has employees who work on “strengthening local communities, connecting customers to their neighborhoods, and making Groupon a better place to work” (Carlson)

Groupon’s primary strategy for growth is sales and marketing. They use complex analytics to segment customers not only by city but more specifically, by neighborhood. They target these customers with marketing that is close to home and relevant to their demographic. They provide local businesses with instant access to droves of local customers and in exchange they split the revenue from the sales of “groupons” with the local businesses. Groupon’s market name recognition and vast data warehouses containing intimate customer data give them an advantage over competitors. They use this data to buy Google Ad Words that will attract the most customers and provide an

Groupon needs to improve on its relations with merchants. “Merchants wishing to partner with Groupon and feature their products or services in deals were vetted by the company” (Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, & Bamford, p 11-3). How the partner relationship operates is Groupon negotiates with the various merchants and suppliers to gain promotion deals advertised to be on Groupon’s website. Groupon sells coupons to customers for a discounted price and also receives a commission from merchants. The definition of negotiation is: mutual discussion and arrangement of the terms of a transaction or agreement. If a mutual arrangement cannot be agreed upon or if expectations are too strict, Groupon may lose its merchant base. Furthermore, if merchants do not view the marketing efforts to be worth their time, they will go elsewhere. Merchants can become dissatisfied and look towards the competition that is also offering marketing ideas. Groupon should focus on improving affiliations with merchants so merchants see Groupon as part of their marketing strategy, which would allow for Groupon to do some of the work for the merchants. Groupon can survey various merchants to gather input on what merchants expect - what would work for them or not. Additionally, Groupon can promote the less selling items the merchants offer and promote those products and services. An incentive system to attract merchants is another

As a group, we have chosen to examine and report on Groupon and relevant information on the marketing strategies and efforts employed by the organization, as well as the ethics and social responsibility related to Groupon’s marketing. Groupon’s mission statement according to their letter to shareholders is “To become the operating system of local commerce.” Groupon has stumbled and disappointed users of their services because of rapid growth. Instead of focusing on growth, Groupon must listen to their stakeholders and improve relations with the customers-both merchants and consumers, as well as investors of the organization. We want to evaluate the company’s objectives, goals, marketing strategy, marketing mix, as well as

Groupon offers consumers a unique way into purchasing products they may have never sought out before. From adventurous buys like rock climbing or sky diving to the everyday dining out at a local restaurant, it has grown to encompass just about everything. Groupon’s business model is very creative on how it works with merchants to promote deals on a daily basis. A merchant will create a discounted package but it is predicated on how many people will buy into the deal before it goes live. This method guarantees a minimum amount of revenue that will be generated and comes at virtually no cost to the merchant. Once the threshold is met, the deals have been unlocked and the consumer can enjoy their purchase while Groupon and the store owner

Adding to the list of woes experienced by the young and newly public e-commerce company, in 2012 Groupon was forced to restate it’s 2011 financials due to a series of accounting missteps. Principle among these, was the company’s failure to adequately predict and account for the total amount of refunds that they were obligated to issue under their “Groupon Promise”, which in turn caused the company to allocate insufficient refund reserves. Also, as outlined in the ‘Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 48”, which discusses revenue recognition when right of return exists, revenue can only be recognized if “ the amount of future returns can be reasonably estimated”. (FASB 1) Unfortunately for Groupon, due to their introduction of “high-priced

Groupon is an internet/app-based business. They provide goods, vouchers, and even vacations at a discounted rate. Groupon was launched in 2008 and the site was dedicated to advertising local businesses by offering deals for a limited time (Edelman, Jaffe, & Kominers. 2014). As a consumer you are able to discover businesses and merchandise in your local area, as well in other locations. They are still working on expanding their business, but currently you can find deals on things to eat, see, do, and buy in 47 countries (Groupon, Inc. (GRPN). 2016). The past five years they have steadily increased their sales/revenue with 3.19B in sales/revenue in 2014 (Groupon Inc. 2016).

Groupon is a deal-of-the day Internet start-up company that was launched in 2008 in Chicago.

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.

I believe that Groupon has become successful for many different reasons. First of all, Groupon was the first to transport the traditional “Coupon clipping” to the online world. This opened many opportunities. It was something new, exciting to consumers that they hadn´t seen in this way. So Groupon had a first mover advantage even though they only connected already existing ideas and technologies in a new way. By being online Groupon could reach many, possibly millions, of people at once. This was a strong argument when Groupon talked to local merchants. As most of these merchants did not have an extensive marketing budget and were not necessarily familiar with new

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: