The Effect of Costs of Coupon on Consumer Satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to understand how consumers perceive the costs of couponing by coupon types and to suggest ways in which coupons should be developed to contribute to consumers' welfare. Costs/benefits of coupons as the most close antecedent variable included the following 8 constructs: searching costs, clipping costs, storing costs, extra expenses, substitution costs, pressure of holding, uncomfortable feelings, and regrets. Since it was hypothesized that the cost of couponing differs by coupon type, four coupon-types were examined: homepage coupon, E-mail coupon, DM coupon, and newspaper/magazine coupon. Data for this research were collected through 732 responses to a self-administered survey of consumers who had used all four types of coupons requesting participation from members of Internet survey firm. The conclusions of this research can be summarized as follows: (1) Women preferred off-line coupons but men preferred on-line coupons. In addition, consumers in Seoul were more familiar and satisfied with on-line coupons than consumers in other regions. (2) Among constructs of costs, consumers perceived regrets, pressure of holding, and substitution costs highly. Differently from previous studies, consumers perceived searching costs and clipping costs to be less important than other costs. (3) Storing costs, pressure of holding, and uncomfortable feelings were higher in off-line coupons, whereas clipping costs, extra expenses, and substitution costs were higher in on-line coupons. (4) In general, most constructs of costs in using homepage and newspaper/magazine coupons were higher than those of E-mail and DM coupons. (5) Cost perception was negatively related to coupon satisfaction at coupon, except newspaper/magazine coupon which was the least satisfactory coupon, regardless of costs (6) Consumers were more satisfied with direct-distribution coupons such as E-mail and DM coupons than public-distribution coupons such as homepage and newspaper/magazine coupons.

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