Loopt Tries a Groupon in Reverse • Hacker News Board

Re: Loopt Tries a Groupon in Reverse

#51

Post by dguaraglia » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 1:07 AM UTC

bugsy wrote: post #48

As described, that's just way too complicated. It also fails completely as advertising since the people have to start out wanting to eat or shop at the place.

You are missing the point: if it helps you fill tables with customers, it is good advertising regardless of the customers being new or not. Also, how is an offer based on what you know people want worse than one published to the general public in, say, a newspaper ad?

Re: Loopt Tries a Groupon in Reverse

#52

Post by BrandonM » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 2:38 AM UTC

Have any of these customer-generation people actually run a brick-and-mortar business themselves? How does anyone expect a business model to be sustainable in the long term when it relies on companies selling their goods at a quarter of their typical price?

A business wants a reliable stream of customers, with predictable peaks in activity. When a startup addresses that at a price that businesses can actually bear, then I'll believe the company is going somewhere.

Re: Loopt Tries a Groupon in Reverse

#53

Post by bugsy » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 4:36 AM UTC

dguaraglia wrote: post #51

bugsy wrote: post #48

As described, that's just way too complicated. It also fails completely as advertising since the people have to start out wanting to eat or shop at the place.

You are missing the point: if it helps you fill tables with customers, it is good advertising regardless of the customers being new or not. Also, how is an offer based on what you know people want worse than one published to the general public in, say, a newspaper ad?

Customers proposing that a store they know about and already wish to shop at lower their prices is not the same thing as "advertising". To call this advertising as you just did is a misnomer.

Re: Loopt Tries a Groupon in Reverse

#54

Post by thwarted » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 6:30 AM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #45

patio11 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of mine has a company in Japan which pretty much solved this. Solution: big digital billboard in mall which aggregates tweets from mall merchants. If nobody is getting their hair cut, they tweet "$5 off for next person at Cheap Cuts" from cell phone. Merchants/mall apparently think it is a gift from God.

Solution: big digital billboard in mall which aggregates tweets from mall merchants. A virtual billboard in the form of a smartphone app might be preferable in different kinds of public spaces. It might also be a good adjunct to the digital billboard.

If twitter added geo-location specific streaming search results, they'd have this.

Re: Loopt Tries a Groupon in Reverse

#55

Post by rmc » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 8:53 AM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #45

patio11 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of mine has a company in Japan which pretty much solved this. Solution: big digital billboard in mall which aggregates tweets from mall merchants. If nobody is getting their hair cut, they tweet "$5 off for next person at Cheap Cuts" from cell phone. Merchants/mall apparently think it is a gift from God.

Solution: big digital billboard in mall which aggregates tweets from mall merchants. A virtual billboard in the form of a smartphone app might be preferable in different kinds of public spaces. It might also be a good adjunct to the digital billboard.

A virtual billboard in the form of a smartphone app might be preferable in different kinds of public spaces.

(Potential) customers need to (a) know about the app and (b) care enough to install it and (c) care enough to check it at the right time. However a big physical billboard has none of these problems. Potential customers are much more likely to see your message.