An Odd Use of a Coupon

  There’s not much car dealerships won’t do in order to sell a car, especially when the economy is looking a little rough. Test-drives, discounts, free oil changes, free iPods, and more. But is it possible to go too far? A car dealership in Germany is teaming up with Groupon to give consumers access to coupons for their Ford Fiesta. For those of you who don’t know, Groupon is a deal-of-the-day website that features discounted gift certificates usable at local or national companies. This particular Groupon voucher costs a mere $130 (99 euros) and knocks off nearly $7,175 (5,450 euros) from the price of the car. That’s an ample 30%!! I definitely wouldn’t be complaining if I got to walk into a car dealership, coupon in hand, prepared to use it. This technique does make me wonder though if this promotion is lowering the brand equity of the company or appearing tacky to anyone. It’s one thing to add a discount to products here and there but utilizing coupons for such a high involvement product seems strange to me. Maybe soon we’ll be stuffing our pockets with coupons when we visit the realtor to buy our dream house at a lower price. You never know. Looks like I need to invest in a Groupon account in case these deals start heading our way. Sites used: http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2013/04/german-dealer-turns-to-groupon-to-sell-ford-fiestas.html