The following is information about Couponz, Inc. the creators of the Epoxy app.
Executive Summary
Couponz’s mission is to create a delightful form of marketing for both business owners as well as consumers (App Users) by creating a mobile platform that alleviates the amount of time required and stress for business owners to engage, adding security to a loyalty program and making a seamless integration into their locations we plan to be able to expand rapidly. Consumers will be more inclined to engage with the marketing that is being provided given that our platform delivers and equally delightful experience to them.
Utilizing the background in customer service and technology the executives of Couponz have plans to continue future growth based upon a direct link to the pulse of consumers and merchants alike. Our focus groups and stream of feedback will enable us to have a backlog of new additions that will allow us to maintain the margin of foresight required to keep us ahead of the technological curve. Our desire is to allow our customers (business owners and app users) to continue to help shape the direction and changes that are implemented.
We believe the future for Couponz is incredibly bright as we have technology that differentiates us from what is currently available, have access to individuals with undeniable talents and experience and have the structure in place to keep Couponz’s growth moving forward at an exponential rate.
General Company Description
Our goal is to provide a simple and easy to use platform for consumers to find most marketing in one place and remove the frustrations of advertising for business owners. Through the use of research and development we will be able to continue evolving our platform and features provided for our users.
Couponz’s goals and objectives are as follows:
- Setup a board of advisors that specialize in
- Advertising/PR
- Sales
- Development (App/Web) –Dave
- Short Term
- Reach a specific # of Merchants (Paying Customers)
- Increase # of App Users
i. As well as # of x’s a user opens the app (# of interactions)
- Improve Marketing/Branding
i. Have “PR” staff visiting businesses (i.e. Couponz Day) where we show users how the app works
ii. Work with (incentivize) employees of businesses
- Medium/Long Term
- Geographical Expansion
i. Expand from Vegas to the rest of the South West (1-2 years)
ii. Expand from the South West to the Mid-West (2-3 years)
iii. Expand Nationally (~5 years)
iv. Expand Internationally (<~10 years)
Our primary philosophy is to provide excellent customer service to both app users and merchants, while utilizing feedback through our events, website and mobile app. The mobile application platform gives us an opportunity to seamlessly receive feedback while providing a service. Once feedback has been provided we can then study and then apply this to the system. We believe if you keep the marketing simple, to the point and clean people will be willing to listen and convert. Once a customer is willing to listen, they can be turned into more valuable, loyal customers.
Couponz’s product is marketed to Mobile App Users as well as Business owners.
Couponz will be operating in the Technology industry. This industry is rapidly changing, and we believe we are ahead of the curve. Our ability to quickly and efficiently listen to the changes in trends, and then apply those changes into our system will keep us ahead of the curve and a leader in this industry.
Products and Services
Couponz is a “two-part” system that has a server that both a website and a mobile application access.
The website serves as a merchant login where merchants can access an administration panel that allows them to “claim their business”. By claiming their business they can then create digital punch cards, offers, events and send out direct messages to individuals or groups in real-time. The admin panel also will provide the merchants with analytics such as the number of recipients for these direct messages, the number of punch cards and offers that have been used as well as the individual customers who are recommending that particular business (the referral system is a pending patent). This will allow the merchant to distinguish between different levels of consumers and compensate accordingly.
The mobile app allows users to find local businesses, and view information such as hours, menus, customer reviews, and offers directly on their mobile phone. Consumers are also given the ability to “scan” the digital punch cards, offers (this is another pending patent) and share businesses with anyone in their contact list with one click. The benefit for the consumer is not only consolidation and having a large number of businesses readily available but also now having the ability to recommend a business and get rewarded with ease.
Our pricing is a simple flat membership fee of $99 a month, without any contracts.
Marketing Plan
Our Primary marketing plan is through use of PR. Joining events such as “The Bite of Las Vegas” to gain exposure to local markets as well as potential app users.
We have setup successful Focus Groups. Through use of focus groups we can market direct to app users
“Couponz Days” where we spend 2 hours at a local business and allow users to receive an addition 10% Off (or custom offer) – this allows us to reach the app users directly promoting more organic growth (users who have exposure to the app through use or at businesses promoting it) as opposed to users seeing it randomly.
We will also be able to market the “Green” Element of Couponz. The fact is the need for print will be dramatically reduced (nearly eliminated) for merchants.
Economics
Facts about Mobile Markets:
I. Mobile Apps are growing at a staggering rate, with over 3 Billion available apps as of March, 2011
II. Currently consumers are overwhelmed with the “shotgun” approach marketing (i.e. direct mail, text campaigns and even computer adds). Couponz allows users to take control of who they hear from, giving them a little control over the way in which advertisements are delivered
III. The potential for growth is again, staggering. With the rate of apps being released exponentially growing, our rate of growth is endless.
IV. What barriers to entry do you face in entering this market with your new company? Some typical barriers are:
o Market Share – Mobile Market
o Exposure – App users familiarity with our features
o Market Share – Merchant Market
o Brand Awareness
o Sales Structure
V. And of course, how will you overcome the barriers?
- Market share and presence has been our primary obstacle. Through the use of PR and events such as “Couponz Days” we will gain two types of exposure simultaneously. One, we will be able to get the brand awareness out to app users and two, we will be giving them hands on experience and in turn making them more familiar with brand new features.
- Market share in the merchant market will be done through our “claim your location” style of advertising. Merchant locations can be added to the application by not only Couponz staff but by app users as well. By doing this, Couponz sales staff and marketing can be directed at informing business owners that they can “claim” their business via our website, which will be free. For merchants to utilize our features (i.e. punch cards, offers and analytics) would require joining Couponz on a month-to-month basis.
- Our sales payment structure will be a commission-based system. At our current state a commission based payment structure is the most conducive to our business.
Product
Our customers view our product as a convenience. Primarily removing the need to store and save paper offers such as coupons or punch cards. Additionally, app users have responded particularly well to the fact that Couponz is free of charge, and allows the features it does.
Features and Benefits
Mobile App Features:
- Cost, Couponz is free
- Convenience: Everything is delivered right on consumers device
Couponz will allow users to see businesses in their area, read reviews and share these businesses with friends with one simple click. Users will also have the ability to redeem offers directly from their device through the use of our patent pending software design via their camera. Users benefit from Couponz because they can “filter” the amount of advertising they are exposed to while merchants still have a platform to share offers on.
Merchant User Features:
- Cost: very affordable.
- Convenient: Everything from creating offers, adding events and informing customers is now done via our website. Merchants simply login and update their customers base as well as new customers
- Informative: Analytics
Benefits of these features include:
- Saving Time, now merchants can not only update customers immediately and in less than 1 minute, they can also track offer usage (Punch Card and Coupon redemption history)
- Less frustration: by combing all of these features into one central platform, merchants are also provided a much simpler way to advertise.
- Gives merchants “real” as opposed to “theoretical” analytics, meaning that they now can distinguish the actual number of consumers that have “seen” an offer or message. Once this figure is known, merchants can now more accurately market.
Customers
You may have more than one customer group. Identify the most important groups. Then, for each customer group, construct what is called a demographic profile:
App Users:
· 18-40
· Male and Female
Merchants:
· Food and Service Industries
· Small to medium size businesses
· Good quality and service
Competition
Currently Yelp would be our primary competitor for the “Reviews” feature of Couponz. Groupon, Living Social and Amazon Deals are competitors for the “Offer” features of Couponz.
Yelp
706 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 908-3801
Couponz has features that have evolved and will continue to evolve directly from user input and interaction. Couponz’s reviews allow a user not only write reviews about a particular business, but also allows a user to follow fellow users with similar tastes and receive updates when the users they are following write reviews.
VI. Table 1: Competitive Analysis
(See the chart when you download the full 8K! It is worth the read.)
Our competitive advantage relies heavily on Mr. Gasparine’s experience in the industry. His background in owning and operating several restaurants has proven to be an asset to this concept. Our key features that differentiate Couponz from the rest are the recommendation and rewarding system and the integration of technologies that allow business owners to sign up and engage without the need of any equipment.
Niche
Our niche is the small-medium business owner who can benefit from word-of-mouth marketing that don’t have a lot of time to spend towards marketing. National chains as well as multi-chain units are our primary goal.
Strategy
Initial Strategy will be to spend time targeting small-medium size businesses that have a positive reputation and good product. Advertising campaigns will be geared towards explaining the benefits of “claiming” your business on Couponz as well as how simple it is to use. This indirect approach has proven to be received most positively, as it is uncommon and less intrusive to the merchant. We currently see that merchants are overwhelmed with being advertised to.
Secondary Strategy will be affiliated marketing strategies that will enable us to expand our reach through these networks and place our brand into larger national chains.
Promotion
Promoting Couponz to merchants will be done through marketing to Couponz Mobile App Users. Promoting the download of Couponz in-store is a very efficient approach as this is mutually beneficial. As we market to App users this increases our database of users and simultaneously increases the number of customers a merchant can reach again after a customer visits that location.
Utilizing a multi-faceted approach to advertising such as billboards, sales videos and increasing visibility to our website via tutorials will be the most efficient initial approach.
We will also utilize the customer base within the app to help reach our merchants via a word-of-mouth recommendation program the enables users to recommend Couponz to business owners for a reward.
Promotional Budget
Our initial promotional budget will be $30,000/annually
Pricing
Our pricing is a monthly recurring fee of $99/month and we will not require a contract.
Operational Plan
Development
· Continued Research and Development (Focus Groups of both merchants/app users)
· Design improvements (utilizing Bobby Dragulescu’s skills/services)
· Development (implementing the ideas and feedback into future versions of Couponz)
Management
David Gasparine is the sole officer/director of Couponz, Inc.
Dave Gasparine. Mr. Gasparine started Couponz, Inc in April 2011 from scratch and with a plan to provide an easy to use tool that alleviated the frustrations he experienced while he was operating his other small businesses, Tropical Smoothie Café. Mr. Gasparine owned and operated two Tropical Smoothie Café locations in the greater Las Vegas area from February 2007 to April 2011. Mr. Gasparine held several customer relation positions at the Bellagio, a 5 diamond Las Vegas Resort and Casino from November 1998 to June 2007. Mr. Gasparine’s positions included Senior Valet Attendant and Limo driver; catering to the hotels elite clients. From 2003 to 2007, Mr. Gasparine attended the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) completing an Associates degree of Liberals Arts. Additionally, he attended the University of Las Vegas (UNLV) Engineering program.
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