The History Of Coupons & Voucher Codes
Voucher Codes and Promo Codes has now become the most popular, quickest and easiest way to save money whilst shopping on the internet. Before the recession hit in 2008, those most likely to recall common use of Coupons are Baby Boomers or Gen Xers. Perhaps you have a childhood recollection of mum sitting at the kitchen table snipping vouchers out of the newspaper or off the cereal box and organising them into a caddy. Whilst these days are not quite over, coupons were most definitely on their way to becoming extinct until two things happened: the internet and the recession. The demand for discounts led us to launch our website which offers a huge range of discount voucher codes.
You might wonder how the coupon started out and became such a common way to market new products. It probably won’t surprise you to hear that it came from the company that had the power to change the colour of Santa Claus… Coca Cola. If one company can create the image we have of Santa Claus through its advertising, just think what it could do to the coupon.
Back in 1887 Coca-Cola managed to get the world hooked on coupon. A businessman called Asa Candler created a handwritten coupon offering customers a free glass of Coca-Cola in an attempt to stir up interest in the product.
In the 19 years between 1894 and 1913, it is estimated that one American in every nine had received a free glass of Coca-Cola, totalling a whopping 8,500,000 freebies. Little did Candler know at the time that this would revolutionise the marketing industry and become an invaluable tool.
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In the early 1900’s discount coupons started to become available on a huge range of consumer-packaged goods, in newspapers, magazines, and through the mail. The Great Depression was of course a helping hand in the life of a coupon as families looked to save every penny possible. Whilst the usage of coupons peaked in 1992 at 7.9 billion, over the next decade or so it started to head on a downhill spiral to a typical 2.6 billion coupon redemptions per year.
Just as the difficult economic period before World War II was named the Great Depression, the 2008 economic downturn is the Great Recession. This change in the economy meant banks were no longer lending to us, quite the opposite in fact, and our wages were being squeezed from just about every angle. This marked a serious comeback for the discount coupon.
Search for money-saving bargains with voucher codes from a variety of merchants, from small independent traders right through top fashion brands.
In the search to cut the cost of running the household and get better value for money, people that rarely used discount vouchers and coupons before, now started snipping their way through the newspaper. One major difference between the height of the coupon in the 20th century and the 21st century is the internet.
The Internet has completely changed our way of life since its introduction, and has enabled manufacturers and retailers to produce digital vouchers and coupons and distribute them to the masses. Online discount coupons and voucher codes could be sent via email and as advertisements on websites.
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The general attitude towards online coupon campaigns is completely different to that of physical coupons. Those who would turn their nose up at the thought of popping into the shop with a scrunched up scrap of paper to get 20p their next purchase of washing powder will quite happily shop online and enter voucher codes at the virtual checkout.
A survey by Halifax Home Insurance has found that the UK is now a nation of bargain hunters with 20% of us refusing to buy things at the marked price. We are more likely to search for vouchers codes on meals, with over half of us looking to save money on eating out in restaurants and getting takeaways.
Grab a bargain on your next evening out by searching through our expansive database of online voucher codes.
Social media has also played a major part in the revival of the coupon as it is now seen as an online social activity to find and share these discounts with friends – a far cry from the embarrassed shopper discreetly handing over a paper coupon.
This boom in the use of voucher codes and discount coupons has seen the introduction of a number of specialised referral websites. One of the first in the UK was myvouchercodes.co.uk which launched in 2006 by its parent company Markco Media and helped established the new market. Others soon followed, discountvouchers.co.uk hit the web at the end of 2008, and the following year came one of the most successful online deal sites so far Groupon, and perhaps most importantly in 2012 we arrived myfavouritevouchercodes.co.uk.
The so-called “freeconomy” is absolutely booming at the moment, with millions of us saving thousands of pounds every single year by getting great discounts with voucher codes. For incredible savings on your next purchase head on over to My Favourite Voucher Codes today.
By Anna Scott
21st February 2012