August 26, 2008
CPGmatters: Discrimination in Stores Hurts Coupon Use and Redemption
By Jack Grant
Through a special arrangement, what follows is an excerpt of a current article from the monthly e-zine, CPGmatters, presented here for discussion.
Does perceiving or experiencing discrimination in the store influence coupon use and redemption by minorities?
A researcher who has studied this topic thinks so. Even very subtle and trivial behavior by store personnel – largely at checkout – can be a barrier to coupon redemption, according to Dr. Anne Brumbaugh, associate professor marketing, College of Charleston.
Her national research shows that shoppers who perceive discrimination suffer negative emotions. They believe that the cashier is looking down on them. This affects how many coupons they redeem – or even if they bring coupons to the store the next time.
“We are putting a lot of pressure on the minimum-wage cashier,” said Ms. Brunbaugh, speaking in a presentation at the annual Industry Coupon Conference hosted by the Association of Coupon Professionals (ACP).
Ms. Brumbaugh explained that a “meta-perception” is what people think another people think of them. This perception often has an impact on behavior. It prompts people to do or not do certain things. So, if a shopper believes that a cashier thinks the shopper is “low class” for using coupons, this perception will influence future behavior.
She said that fundamentally there are two kinds of coupon users and their meta-perceptions: those who feel like they will be seen as cheap or poor and those who feel they are seen as smart shoppers.
Here is how Ms. Brumbaugh explained her research: Consumers who are made to feel like smart shoppers when redeeming coupons at the store feel encouraged to use more coupons on future shopping trips. On the other hand, consumers who are made to feel embarrassed, awkward, and inferior feel discouraged – in effect, punished – for using coupons. They would naturally want to avoid or minimize this negative experience again by reducing or eliminating the number of coupons they use and the amount of time they spend doing so.
Ms. Brumbaugh’s earlier studies of Hispanic coupon usage uncovered other insights into the barriers to coupon use from the consumers themselves. The take-away was that Hispanics are simply not as familiar with coupons as mainstream consumers. There are language and discrimination problems in the store, and the small stores that Hispanics frequent may not accept coupons. Finally, the offers are often “not right” in terms of face value or the product being promoted.
“These results say that to induce couponing with a Hispanic customer, you have to have a relationship,” said Ms. Brumbaugh. “One way of doing that is to distribute a coupon in-person so that there’s a human – preferably a Spanish-speaking Hispanic human – giving it out.”
One ideal scenario, she added, was to distribute a coupon at an
in-store sampling event. “You have a human, a sample of the product, and the coupon all there. You’ve got that relationship prior to asking them to redeem the coupon.”
Discussion Question: Does perceiving or experiencing discrimination in the store influence coupon use and redemption by minorities? Or is it that the process is demeaning for everyone, regardless of race or class? What can be done about it?
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When I was in the corporate supermarket setting I was told by our execs that the highest coupon redemption was in stores located in the second tier wealthier neighborhoods. Not the the multi-millionaires but the upper middle class neighborhoods. The lowest was in the minority areas. The answer given to me was simply “they don’t read papers.” Well maybe there might be some truth to that.
It never dawned on me that being made to feel low class was a reason for not using coupons. I think there may be other reasons. For one thing, often an item that has a coupon is an expensive overpriced name-brand item. Lower income shoppers might prefer the more economical, equivalent private label. I have noticed that the highest per capita weekly supermarket expenditures are in the Hispanic areas. I’ve been told that often cultural pride prevents them from participating in free lunch programs at school, therefore increasing dollars spent in supermarkets. However I have never heard that it prevented them from using coupons.
It’s really up to makers of ethnic products to decide for themselves if they want to promote with coupons and print the coupons in the appropriate language.
From all my many years shopping at Great A&P banner supermarkets, I have never seen this form of discrimination there.
A&P has had a love affair with coupon users for many years. It is a coupon friendly supermarket chain that encourages coupon redemption and no clip use.
It’s monthly Easy Solutions publication is always full of valuable, money saving coupons.
And its U scan, self checkouts are a coupon redeemer’s dream. Fast and efficient, just scan the coupon and place in the coupon box.
“Ann Page,” the voice of the U Scan reminds me of that on every weekly shopping trip.
Legally and morally, companies that support or even remotely tolerate any type of discriminatory behavior should be called out–by the FTC and by an organization like the ADL (whose mission is combating hatred and bigotry).
From a marketing standpoint, coupons by themselves are less effective without a customer relationship across all types of people, regardless of ethnicity or culture.
This brings up another issue: breakage. Whether it’s coupons or other promotions, when it’s difficult (intentional or otherwise) for customers to take the offers, it is harmful to the customer relationship and the brand credibility both long- and short-term.
Redeeming coupons in a store is, so far as I am concerned, a waste of time and energy on everyone’s part. First, the company has to think about it and have those coupons designed and printed with an expiration dates. Then, the consumers have to spend their time cutting coupons and remembering to take them when going shopping. Then, the cashier has to scan each coupon and make sure that the consumers bought “qualified” items so coupon can be redeemed. What a game we play and waste everyone’s time!
If companies are really interested in offering savings to consumers then they will start by respecting consumers’ time!
I agree with Mr. Mehta. As retailers, consumers, and technology has changed, the couponing mechanism we use today has become outdated. It is extraordinarily inefficient for all parties (manufacturers, consumers and retailers) primarily because of huge time and labor costs for all 3 parties. We need to rethink how we create targeted discounts, including exploring new mechanisms, and seriously think twice about the very material opportunity costs of programs like couponing.
Having been deeply involved with the supermarket coupon business for a long period of time, I’ve got to admit that the idea of coupon users being made to feel inferior by cashiers never crossed my mind. I use ’em all the time and have never gotten that impression personally, nor have I observed it with other customers. Believe me, I’m watching.
However, what DID immediately cross my mind upon reading this topic was customers who use food stamps and how clerks are trained not to make them feel inferior for doing so. Surely this training applies to coupon usage, don’t you think?
In the old days, just after the earth cooled, many of the IGA stores I worked with had “Coupon Exchange Tables.” There, shoppers could deposit coupons they didn’t intend to use and search around for some they prefer. It’s fun for customers, and strongly encourages coupon use. It’s also a bonanza for the store owners, because they periodically clean off the table and send all the coupons to their clearing house for redemption.
I doubt that are any stores left that don’t emphasize that cashiers and deli clerk are probably the only personal contact with a consumer.
Customers become impatient in line if they feel someone is slowing the line down, from new cashiers to customers whose credit card is not working. If the cashier scans the coupon it really is no different than scanning a can of corn in so far as time.
Cashiers are paid by the hour, so they work 8 hours or whatever, who cares? The pay’s the same. It might be slightly aggravating to ring up 24 different varieties of baby food, but the pay is the same.
I’ve never seen any discrimination in coupon usage.
I have experienced negative feedback from cashiers regarding coupon use first hand. Not so much that they were looking down on me, more because they acted as though the discount was coming out of their own pocket.
The problem is that cashiers are not trained in customer service. They are taught how to operate a register and that’s all. And many store management teams have not figured out that in most case, that only human contact a shopper has with a store is the cashier.
The demographics of coupon users support David Livingston’s recollection: higher income shoppers are heavier coupon users than very low income shoppers. The numbers are even more clear online: online coupon users are wealthier, younger, and have more kids than their newspaper-clipping counterparts. That of course doesn’t answer the question of whether discrimination exists, but it does suggest that if there is discrimination it is probably not socio-economic, although it might be perceived that way.
I couldn’t disagree more with Mr. Mehta–would he similarly dismiss all marketing as a waste of time? Coupons are effective promotional devices precisely because of the way they work. Manufacturers are not striving to save time for consumers, they are using a very effective tactic to induce specific consumer behaviors in a specific group of consumers. The goal is not to give every purchaser a lower price.
I do agree with some of the other comments about consumer relationships and cultural differences. Even the word “coupon” has a different connotation in Latin America. One of the reasons online coupons are taking off is that a brand can engage a consumer, exchanging a coupon for some consumer attention, and send the consumer off with not just a coupon but a better sense of the product and the brand. You can do that in person as well, but not on the scale and at the low cost of online distribution.
It seems archaic to stand behind someone writing a check at the supermarket these days or anywhere else. Maybe the time factor has a great deal to do with it.
I happen to live in a very high coupon redemption market and the cultural make up here does not follow the conclusions of the study. In fact, it couldn’t be more opposite.
It simply may be time for manufacturers to find a new way.
I believe Ms. Brumbaugh’s conclusions are correct, but that she may be missing “Page 2” of the reason why. Consumers certainly react to how they are treated at the store, but they also come to the store with an established sense of “who and where they are in life.”
Shoppers who know they don’t have to use coupons feel smart when they do. During the first gas crisis we began to refer to the “soccer mom in the Neiman Marcus sweatsuit, filling up her BMW at the self-service pump” as a marketing stereotype.
On the other hand, shoppers who know they need to use the coupons to feed their families are much more susceptible to having their egos damaged at the cash register. So the challenge may go beyond just being neutral to coupon users. We need to get those minimum wage cashiers to actually promote their use as “smart shopping.” And to do it convincingly, they may have to actually change their basic perception of who that person with the coupons in their hand is. A tall order–perhaps too tall.
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When I was in the corporate supermarket setting I was told by our execs that the highest coupon redemption was in stores located in the second tier wealthier neighborhoods. Not the the multi-millionaires but the upper middle class neighborhoods. The lowest was in the minority areas. The answer given to me was simply “they don’t read papers.” Well maybe there might be some truth to that.
It never dawned on me that being made to feel low class was a reason for not using coupons. I think there may be other reasons. For one thing, often an item that has a coupon is an expensive overpriced name-brand item. Lower income shoppers might prefer the more economical, equivalent private label. I have noticed that the highest per capita weekly supermarket expenditures are in the Hispanic areas. I’ve been told that often cultural pride prevents them from participating in free lunch programs at school, therefore increasing dollars spent in supermarkets. However I have never heard that it prevented them from using coupons.
It’s really up to makers of ethnic products to decide for themselves if they want to promote with coupons and print the coupons in the appropriate language.
From all my many years shopping at Great A&P banner supermarkets, I have never seen this form of discrimination there.
A&P has had a love affair with coupon users for many years. It is a coupon friendly supermarket chain that encourages coupon redemption and no clip use.
It’s monthly Easy Solutions publication is always full of valuable, money saving coupons.
And its U scan, self checkouts are a coupon redeemer’s dream. Fast and efficient, just scan the coupon and place in the coupon box.
“Ann Page,” the voice of the U Scan reminds me of that on every weekly shopping trip.
Legally and morally, companies that support or even remotely tolerate any type of discriminatory behavior should be called out–by the FTC and by an organization like the ADL (whose mission is combating hatred and bigotry).
From a marketing standpoint, coupons by themselves are less effective without a customer relationship across all types of people, regardless of ethnicity or culture.
This brings up another issue: breakage. Whether it’s coupons or other promotions, when it’s difficult (intentional or otherwise) for customers to take the offers, it is harmful to the customer relationship and the brand credibility both long- and short-term.
Redeeming coupons in a store is, so far as I am concerned, a waste of time and energy on everyone’s part. First, the company has to think about it and have those coupons designed and printed with an expiration dates. Then, the consumers have to spend their time cutting coupons and remembering to take them when going shopping. Then, the cashier has to scan each coupon and make sure that the consumers bought “qualified” items so coupon can be redeemed. What a game we play and waste everyone’s time!
If companies are really interested in offering savings to consumers then they will start by respecting consumers’ time!
I agree with Mr. Mehta. As retailers, consumers, and technology has changed, the couponing mechanism we use today has become outdated. It is extraordinarily inefficient for all parties (manufacturers, consumers and retailers) primarily because of huge time and labor costs for all 3 parties. We need to rethink how we create targeted discounts, including exploring new mechanisms, and seriously think twice about the very material opportunity costs of programs like couponing.
Having been deeply involved with the supermarket coupon business for a long period of time, I’ve got to admit that the idea of coupon users being made to feel inferior by cashiers never crossed my mind. I use ’em all the time and have never gotten that impression personally, nor have I observed it with other customers. Believe me, I’m watching.
However, what DID immediately cross my mind upon reading this topic was customers who use food stamps and how clerks are trained not to make them feel inferior for doing so. Surely this training applies to coupon usage, don’t you think?
In the old days, just after the earth cooled, many of the IGA stores I worked with had “Coupon Exchange Tables.” There, shoppers could deposit coupons they didn’t intend to use and search around for some they prefer. It’s fun for customers, and strongly encourages coupon use. It’s also a bonanza for the store owners, because they periodically clean off the table and send all the coupons to their clearing house for redemption.
I doubt that are any stores left that don’t emphasize that cashiers and deli clerk are probably the only personal contact with a consumer.
Customers become impatient in line if they feel someone is slowing the line down, from new cashiers to customers whose credit card is not working. If the cashier scans the coupon it really is no different than scanning a can of corn in so far as time.
Cashiers are paid by the hour, so they work 8 hours or whatever, who cares? The pay’s the same. It might be slightly aggravating to ring up 24 different varieties of baby food, but the pay is the same.
I’ve never seen any discrimination in coupon usage.
I have experienced negative feedback from cashiers regarding coupon use first hand. Not so much that they were looking down on me, more because they acted as though the discount was coming out of their own pocket.
The problem is that cashiers are not trained in customer service. They are taught how to operate a register and that’s all. And many store management teams have not figured out that in most case, that only human contact a shopper has with a store is the cashier.
The demographics of coupon users support David Livingston’s recollection: higher income shoppers are heavier coupon users than very low income shoppers. The numbers are even more clear online: online coupon users are wealthier, younger, and have more kids than their newspaper-clipping counterparts. That of course doesn’t answer the question of whether discrimination exists, but it does suggest that if there is discrimination it is probably not socio-economic, although it might be perceived that way.
I couldn’t disagree more with Mr. Mehta–would he similarly dismiss all marketing as a waste of time? Coupons are effective promotional devices precisely because of the way they work. Manufacturers are not striving to save time for consumers, they are using a very effective tactic to induce specific consumer behaviors in a specific group of consumers. The goal is not to give every purchaser a lower price.
I do agree with some of the other comments about consumer relationships and cultural differences. Even the word “coupon” has a different connotation in Latin America. One of the reasons online coupons are taking off is that a brand can engage a consumer, exchanging a coupon for some consumer attention, and send the consumer off with not just a coupon but a better sense of the product and the brand. You can do that in person as well, but not on the scale and at the low cost of online distribution.
It seems archaic to stand behind someone writing a check at the supermarket these days or anywhere else. Maybe the time factor has a great deal to do with it.
I happen to live in a very high coupon redemption market and the cultural make up here does not follow the conclusions of the study. In fact, it couldn’t be more opposite.
It simply may be time for manufacturers to find a new way.
I believe Ms. Brumbaugh’s conclusions are correct, but that she may be missing “Page 2” of the reason why. Consumers certainly react to how they are treated at the store, but they also come to the store with an established sense of “who and where they are in life.”
Shoppers who know they don’t have to use coupons feel smart when they do. During the first gas crisis we began to refer to the “soccer mom in the Neiman Marcus sweatsuit, filling up her BMW at the self-service pump” as a marketing stereotype.
On the other hand, shoppers who know they need to use the coupons to feed their families are much more susceptible to having their egos damaged at the cash register. So the challenge may go beyond just being neutral to coupon users. We need to get those minimum wage cashiers to actually promote their use as “smart shopping.” And to do it convincingly, they may have to actually change their basic perception of who that person with the coupons in their hand is. A tall order–perhaps too tall.