Announcing what seems like a foregone conclusion, Harris Interactive and Placecast released findings that mobile-based coupons are becoming increasingly mainstream — particularly, among families with young children.

Coupled with widespread adoption of smart phones, driven by disruptive innovations in the delivery and presentation of content, mobile coupons (and, in a related vein, mobile-based customer service programs) are no longer relegated to the world of tech-savvy early adopters.

Of the study, Adage.com reported:

A study conducted by Harris Interactive found adults with children at home are more likely to be interested in text alerts about sales and promotions than those with no kids at home. Of people with kids younger than 6 in their household, 35% are at least somewhat interested in getting opt-in text alerts from favorite businesses, compared to 32% of households with older kids and 25% of homes with no children. (The study, conducted in May with 2,000 adults, does not distinguish between childless adults and empty-nesters.)

That’s a big shift from last year when the same study found mostly young males were interested in receiving marketing alerts on their phones, which coincided with the demographic most quickly adopting smartphones — young, affluent males. Mobile marketing firm Placecast funded the Harris studies both years.

The new data also show that parents of youngsters are also more likely to sign up and redeem coupons via e-mail, online or through services such as Groupon. While the difference is less dramatic, it’s the same group most likely to clip and redeem coupons from fliers, mailers or newspapers.

In the year between studies, the balance has tilted away from men, as adoption of smartphones such as the iPhone and various Android devices has become more popular. Most receptive to mobile offers are still young adults 18-34, and women’s interest has grown year over year.

To see the actual report, click through the link!

Examples of strong building relationships through social media, in  a blog post by Yael Davidowitz-Neu, a Sales Strategy Analyst at Google responsible for analyzing consumer behavior, search trends and market dynamics: 

Building Long Term Relationships

While it’s true that the web has made building individual relationships cheaper and easier than it used to be, this doesn’t mean that businesses can necessarily expect to build deep connections with their entire customer base; in many cases, this is neither feasible nor cost effective. However, if a firm focuses on building brand loyalty with a small subset of customers, they may find that it has an exponential impact.

Let’s look at a few examples of companies that have done this successfully:

Yelp’s Elite Squad: Yelp operates a social networking, user review, and local search website for members to post reviews and get user feedback on local businesses and restaurants. The Elite Program is a way for the Yelp to reward its most passionate users for making their site “funny, useful and cool” by providing them with exclusive offers and members only events. This allows Yelp to strengthen loyalty among Elite Squad members, offers an impetus for wanna-be-members to post additional reviews; and, makes the site content stronger – keeping the broader community active and engaged.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team In Training (TNT) Program: The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is a charitable organization focused on fighting blood cancers. To raise funding, they developed a variety of programs to expand their outreach, including The Team in Training Program, which offers group training to those interesting in running a marathon to raise money for the cause. TNT encourages trainees to leverage the power of their personal networks, by providing participants with a personal, customizable microsite for reaching their fundraising goals by getting donations from friends and family. The microsite functions much like a Facebook Page – marathon participants can share their goals, visitors are able offer supportive messaging on the participant’s wall, and donations can happen directly on site.

Lion Brand’s Lion Brand Notebook: Lion Brand is a yarn company that has been in business for over a century. To build their online presence and appeal to passionate knitters, Lion Brand developed a bi-weekly podcast and corporate blog, They also helped to facilitate offline “knit-alongs” (shared knitting projects), by helping interested parties to find others in their local area looking to get involved. Lion Brand Yarn found that their customer outreach strategy drove impressive e-commerce results – those who visited the company’s blog were 41% more likely to buy at the Web site.

The rest of the article is also very good, in terms of strategic suggestions for building relationships through social media.
 

On a recent Deloitte study, covered in MediaPost:

The good news from Deloitte’s “New American Pantry” is that the vast majority of consumers don’t feel bad about the recession — they actually love it: 81% of those surveyed say they find saving money, using such techniques as coupons or loyalty programs, fun.

The bad news is for brands everywhere: The more adept consumers get at saving, the less they care about buying a certain brand, and are more willing to trade down or in favor of a sale than most marketers imagine. Think they’ve got a favorite brand in many categories? Ha: 51% percent say they are loyal to no more than two to three brands, in any given supermarket.

But there’s still hope for brands, it seems.

Deloitte also asked consumers to weigh in on brands in 21 categories — more than 100 brands in all — and found that only a handful are what it dubbed “destination brands,” which he says means “an abundance of consumers say ‘I will seek them out, regardless of channels, and for the most part, regardless of price.” The second category was “preferred only” brands, which consumers say they would like to buy, but won’t go out of their way to find them.

And finally, there was a category of “sale-only” brands, where consumers say they would only buy them if there were a significant promotion. “Consumers have a real ‘I don’t need ‘em’ attitude toward this final category,” he says, adding that the implications for marketers are considerable. “There are brands offering coupons and promotions that probably don’t need to, and others that need to know how little they are valued.”

I imagine one of the key differentiators of ‘destination’ brands is their customer experience. When brands can provide a special, engaging experience around their brands — e.g., Apple, Whole Foods, Ralph Lauren — people are willing to pay a premium — even if there are comparable, similarly functioning competitors.

For an executive summary of the original study, follow this link.