Many printable coupon fans noticed its quiet re-launch a couple of weeks ago, but a new printable coupon site that was test-launched last year, has now announced its official debut. And the site follows a couple of recent industry trends – one good for brands, and one not quite as good for couponers.
Product Movers The Coupon Book is an online version of the Product Movers coupon inserts that you may have seen inside, or shrink-wrapped on the outside, of “leading women’s magazines” like Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Every Day With Rachael Ray and others.
Owner Synergistic Marketing ran a test of the site in August 2013, featuring a digital “coupon book” similar to the printed version, that you could page through to print up to 28 different coupons. The supply of coupons wasn’t updated or replenished, though, and the site eventually went dormant. “The Coupon Book is in test at this point with plans to roll out full scale in 2014,” Synergistic spokesperson Karen Koslow told Coupons in the News at the time.
And now that time has come.
“We tested The Coupon Book last year and got very encouraging consumer responses and superior coupon redemption results,” Koslow said in a statement announcing this month’s re-launch. “We’re excited to bring our unique expertise in delivering brand messaging and purchase incentives to high-value consumers into the digital space.”
The new version of The Coupon Book contains printable coupon offers from 15 brands, including Skippy peanut butter, Marie Callender’s pies and household products like Pledge, Glade and Soft Scrub. New editions of the digital book will be published each month, and users are invited to submit their email address to be notified when the new monthly coupons go live.
The website has a similar look and feel to SmartSource’s Digital Edition, which launched on the Find&Save website back in June. Instead of displaying a long list of offers like you’ll see on sites like Coupons.com or other traditional printable coupon sites, each of these newer sites feature pages that look similar to what you’d see on a printed coupon insert – full-page ads that include a brand message along with a coupon that you click on to “clip”.
And that’s a trend that more new printable coupon sites are following. Last month, printable coupon provider RevTrax launched SaveInStore, a site that gives each participating brand its own page to display its coupons, product images and messages “without the offer commoditization prevalent in most deal-seeker sites.”
Those glossy coupon inserts you get in newspapers and magazines are really advertisements, after all, with coupons attached. On most printable coupon sites, though, brands can’t advertise to you – they can only offer you their coupons, take ’em or leave ’em.
Much like SaveInStore and the SmartSource Digital Edition, The Coupon Book “goes beyond the industry-standard ‘gallery of online coupons,’ offering brands the opportunity to incorporate extensive messaging and engagement with the digital delivery of purchase incentives,” Synergistic said in announcing the Product Movers site’s official launch.
That’s one industry trend that could bring more brands on board these new printable coupon sites. The other apparent industry trend that The Coupon Book is following, is one that caused a lot of consternation on the Kellogg’s Family Rewards website recently.
“The coupons are to be printed only once per household,” reads the FAQ on The Coupon Book website. “We do allow a user two tries, though, in case your first attempt to print fails.”
That’s the same argument that Kellogg made, as it tried to explain that even though it allowed users two prints of each reward coupon they ordered, the coupons weren’t really meant to be printed twice. “Our instructions have always indicated one print per coupon, but we allowed a second print for KFR members who had a technical difficulty,” rewards club members were told recently. “Unfortunately, some KFR members took advantage of this additional print to double their reward.”
Couponers accustomed to most printable coupon sites allowing them two prints per coupon, without chastising them for it, didn’t take too kindly to that. Kellogg ultimately changed its system to allow just one print per coupon, clamping down on those who “took advantage” of the program by printing two.
So fair warning, then, as you print from The Coupon Book site. Just as brands want to mimic the printed page by offering you full-page ads along with their coupons, they also apparently want to offer just one coupon each – just as you’d get from a printed coupon insert. But with new coupons coming monthly, together with offers from the other new coupon sites that debuted this year, it all adds up to plenty of new offers that we didn’t have this time last year. And that’s something printable coupons fans will surely want to “take advantage” of.
