This story tells you how important coupons are ..
Now the company’s chief executive, Terry J. Lundgren, one of the brightest stars in American retailing, is pleading mea culpa — and backtracking. Macy’s pledges to issue plenty of coupons for the holiday shopping season.
It’s a lesson that other companies have also learned the hard way. Since the first coupon was issued for the Coca-Cola Company in 1894, companies have occasionally tried to take them away — and suffered. Cuts by the Ruby Tuesday chain in 2004 hurt sales. Procter & Gamble’s effort in 1996 led to boycotts.
Even in this era of Internet shopping, it seems, Americans are wedded to a low-tech form of marketing: the dotted-line clip-out coupon.
For years, Karen Gundling, 41, a communications consultant in Parma, Ohio, relied on 20-percent-off coupons from Kaufmann’s in Cleveland to buy shoes. Then Macy’s took over. “Now that Macy’s doesn’t do coupons, I don’t buy shoes there,” Ms. Gundling said.
Mr. Lundgren said that abruptly curtailing discounts like coupons was Macy’s biggest misstep, contributing to four consecutive months of falling store sales this spring. Macy’s stock has dropped more than 40 percent since it bought the May stores. Mr. Lundgren said his plan “will take longer than we had planned or expected,” adding that “the strategy is crystal clear, and I know we are on the right track.”
Despite their dowdy image, coupons remain a huge business. In 2006, companies issued 279 billion of them, or roughly 1,000 per person, up 13 percent in four years, according to NCH Marketing Services in Deerfield, Ill.
