Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

andrewchen.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 175 posts

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#21

Post by steveBK123 »

baq wrote: post #10
steveBK123 wrote: post #2

Anecdotally makes sense. Coupons attract scarcity mindset people. If your product targets more time poor money rich growth mindset people, this is a bad fit. My wife has a friend that did every Groupon known to man. She routinely signs up for gyms that have a 30 day special then quits. She says she wants to get in shape but can’t get over her own scarcity mindset to just pay for a regular gym continuously.

She says she wants to get in shape but actually she likes visiting new gyms. Nothing wrong with that, right?

She is a gym member maybe 1 out of 3 months because she is perpetually rotating through the deal she can get.

The secret to this stuff is boring - persistent, continuous effort. If you can't even maintain a regular gym membership, you will not get that effort in. She's been complaining for over a decade as she continuous this charade.

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#25

Post by gumby »

ghaff wrote: post #5

I sort of expected something more insightful. This general topic was discussed quite a bit when Groupon was a thing. The coupons brought in people who were pretty much only there for the discount, tipped poorly, and generally didn't become repeat customers. They weren't looking for a new place. They were looking for a deal. ADDED: Per another comment, there is probably an angle whereby a free trial is the necessary n…

> I sort of expected something more insightful.

It’s just marketing spam. The legal disclaimer is longer than the content in this self-described “high quality newsletter” (and in Safari reader mode all you get is the disclaimer!”.

Plus you need to enter something that looks like an email to read it — ironically, given the subject, nobody@a16z.com works!

Par for the course for a16z, really.

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#26

Post by dazc »

jstanley wrote: post #11
dazc wrote: post #6

Recent example, a piece of furniture costing over £3k and I can get 10% off if I sign-up to their newsletter. As someone who works in retail marketing, this is a guaranteed way to ensure I don't spend a penny in your store.

Are you saying that if they offer 10% off when you sign up to the newsletter, that will prevent you from buying a product from them at all ? Why?

Because they are throwing money around which means they either have ridiculous margins or are just desperate for cash.

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#27

Post by AlexandrB »

steveBK123 wrote: post #2

Anecdotally makes sense. Coupons attract scarcity mindset people. If your product targets more time poor money rich growth mindset people, this is a bad fit. My wife has a friend that did every Groupon known to man. She routinely signs up for gyms that have a 30 day special then quits. She says she wants to get in shape but can’t get over her own scarcity mindset to just pay for a regular gym continuously.

It's really weird to frame this as a question of "mindset". I certainly had a "scarcity mindset" when I was younger and had no money. Now that I'm older and have some money I have a "growth mindset". But really the main difference is my access to resources.

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#28

Post by dazc »

mrweasel wrote: post #14
dazc wrote: post #6

Recent example, a piece of furniture costing over £3k and I can get 10% off if I sign-up to their newsletter. As someone who works in retail marketing, this is a guaranteed way to ensure I don't spend a penny in your store.

What programs like that tells me is that I can get at least a 10% discount if I talk to one of your sales people. My wife doesn't consider something a discount if it's less than 20%, because "You can always get a 20% discount" (on certain product categories). I did have to deal with a store where I almost couldn't buy something, because I refused to signup for the "customer club program discount card", which gives yo…

Not many genuine businesses have a margin of 20%, especially in retail. If you can get such a discount then it's already been priced-in.

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#29

Post by red_admiral »

The kind of people who ran coupon schemes in the pre-internet days could have told you this.

Back in the day, coupon schemes were things like you had to physically cut out and mail in vouchers from newspapers or magazines, and you got a discount on something like groceries in return. The point of this was market segmentation: you want to get people who (1) otherwise wouldn't buy your product, or at least not as much and (2) without giving it away any cheaper to those who would buy it already. Who goes through the effort to cut out and collect vouchers for a little bit off their weekly shop?

One answer is "poor people". Calling them "much, much worse customers", is a value judgement.

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#30

Post by red_admiral »

forsyth2024 wrote: post #20

For the most part, it doesn’t sound like these “bad” customers are doing anything illegal or in violation of TOS. They’re just exploiting offerings for something they wouldn’t normally spend any money on. To be surprised that they don’t stick around long or spend as much as non-incentivized customers shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone and shouldn’t be seen as some kind of failing. They would not normally have use…

For "bad", read "poor".
Post reply on HN