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It seems like you worked out a lot of the positives and negatives that Groupon brings and strategized around them. How much of this planning was done from insid
by ssharp 15y ago
It seems like you worked out a lot of the positives and negatives that Groupon brings and strategized around them. How much of this planning was done from inside your business and how much was done/consulting on by Groupon reps?
Was the 30% breakage specific to your business, or was that quoted by Groupon reps as an average? I'd have to think that a Groupon for something that requires specific scheduling and booking would have higher breakage than something like food coupon.
I haven't spent too much time thinking about how Groupon effects small business, but it seems like businesses like yours are in the best position to really benefit. Jumping out of a plane is an experience, and one you're probably not used to doing. Seeing that show up in your email may spark the idea of jumping out of a plane. Since it's somewhat novel, your customers are more likely to take advantage of upsales. It's also a thrilling experience, so the customers will be pumped up on adrenalin, and more likely to be sold apparel afterwards. Did Groupon customers fall in line with normal % of customers buying apparel or did they differ?
I can really see the value to both the customers and your business in running a Groupon. However, as a consumer, I'm not going to go skydiving once a day. I'm not going to go once a week. I'm probably not going to get into trying out these adventure activities with any substantial frequency. Groupon can't just load up on these things and still provide intriguing daily deals. It seems like they have to have a mix of businesses, and some of these businesses are either not capable of strategizing around a Groupon, doing the proper measuring and acting intelligently on it, or their business model simply doesn't mix with Groupon. It's these people that are going to be most vocal with their Groupon experience and drive the bad press. Without real data (which we'll never have) we can only speculate on anecdotal reports. Even so, I see much more value in your account than another person complaining about how Groupon screwed them, or someone just running with the assumption that Groupon is railroading every small business who will talk with them.
- joeguilmette 15y agoThis strategizing was done almost 100% on our end. We consulted with them and asked questions, asked for other skydiving facilities that ran Groupons, looked at them, called them and talked to them, etc. We modified pretty much everything about our business around running the Groupons. Still, I feel that our rep did a good job helping us out, much more so than another form of marketing would. Would you expect a billboard company to come to my business and tell me how to run my business more efficiently, make sure I can handle it? We ran a radio promotion around the same time and they did ZERO insofar as making sure we'd be ok. It also cost us a lot of money. Restaurants and coffee shops have more to overcome when running a Groupon, but that's their job, right? Pick a good marketing strategy, be successful, make good decisions, etc.
- StavrosK 15y agoThis is unrelated, but how many accidents have you had since you opened? Or, generally, is it a risky sport?
- scythe 15y agohttp://adventure.howstuffworks.com/skydiving8.htm http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/skydiving8.htm >The big question is always, "How dangerous is skydiving?" Each year, about 30 people die in parachuting accidents in the United States, or roughly one person per 100,000 jumps. Look at the US Skydiving Incident Reports to get an idea of the types of problems that lead to fatalities. If you make one jump in a year, your chance of dying is 1 in 100,000. http://www.uspa.org/safety/incident.htm http://www.uspa.org/safety/incident.htm
- StavrosK 15y agoAh, those odds sound better than driving, thanks.
- redsparrow 15y agoIsn't that only relevant if you skydive instead of driving? :)
- pilom 15y agoThere are significant differences based on type of jump too. Most first timers do tandem jumps with an instructor on your back. Those jumps have a fatality rate around 1 in 140,000 where static line jumps are closer 1 in 50,000. And the injury (not fatality) rate for static line jumps is around 1 in 200.
- roel_v 15y agoI'm subscribed to several Groupon-like services, and it seems that maybe 75% of the offerings I get are similar to this - skydiving, drive a Ferrari, race car driving course, spend a night at a fancy castle and drink champagne for breakfast, those type of things. I guess there's a market for them, but I wonder why those types of products are so prominent in the offerings here in the Netherlands.