Cell phones can connect shopper, deal

Christina Jenkins, who pens the coupon blog Centsible Savings, doesn't own a Blackberry or an iPhone. So she can't take advantage of a new program at Target where customers can retrieve store coupons with their cell phones and then have a cashier scan a bar code on the phone's screen to get the discount.

However, Jenkins knows the future when she sees it.

"In a few years, everyone is going to have a device like that," she said.

Last week, Target became the first national retail giant to offer a scannable mobile coupon program. A cashier redeems the coupon by taking a hand-held scanner and passing it over the phone's screen.

Cell phone users access the coupons by texting the word "coupons" to 827438 (TARGET). The cell phone user then receives a text with a link to a mobile Web page that contains several offers, all accessible through a single bar code. Among this month's offers are 75 cents off a bag of M&M's, said Target spokeswoman Leah Guimod.

It is a far cry from what Jenkins now does, like going through Sunday newspapers and cutting out coupons, and it is only the latest move in retailers' efforts to follow the constantly changing habits of consumers, who increasingly are using the Internet to shop and save.

Yowza!!, for instance, has been making coupons accessible by cell phone since April, said August Trometer, the company's co-founder.

If someone is in a particular shopping area and has the Yowza!! application on a mobile phone, the shopper can pull up a list of nearby Yowza!! merchants, such as Pier 1 Imports and Sears, and tap individual stores to see what their deals are, Trometer said.

Cellfire is another application that provides digital coupons.

Patrons of grocery store chains such as Kroger and Safeway can download Cellfire's application, which offers manufacturer coupons they can use at neighborhood stores, said Dan Kihanya, vice president of consumer marketing for the company.

The coupons typically are saved to a frequent shopper card provided by the grocery chain, Kihanya said. The customer presents the card at the checkout counter, and when the card is swiped, the discounts from the coupons appear on the receipt, he said.

The significance of Target's latest effort is that it represents the first time a major retail outfit has installed the technology needed to scan coupons from mobile phones at all of its registers.

Kihanya said JC Penney is working with Cellfire, testing the same technology at 16 of its stores in the Houston area. The department store chain wants to make sure it works before spending money installing special image scanners to read two-dimensional bar codes, as Target has done.

The two-dimensional bar code is different from the standard one-dimensional bar code because it has images that look like pixels and boxes rather than up-and-down lines of varying width. The two-dimensional codes can hold much more information, Kihanya said.

The scannable coupon program creates the possibility of a one-on-one relationship with each customer. If, for instance, a customer repeatedly takes advantage of the m&m's coupon, Target could alert that customer whenever the candy goes on sale, or even offer a private discount.

"We haven't expanded it to be personalized," said Guimod, of Target. "The offers are the same for everyone."

The store, though, is studying customization, Guimod said.

Such personalized service, analysts say, represents the future of advertising: ads tailor-made for each shopper.

"This is one of the first steps in establishing a long-lasting, permission-based set of engagements with the consumer through and with their mobile phone," said Michael Becker, North America managing director for the Mobile Marketing Association.

However, someone who might not mind getting custom-designed offers on his or her desktop might have a problem getting them - or getting them too frequently - on their cell phone.

That leaves companies such as Target trying to strike a balance between catering to a customer's purchasing habits and respecting their privacy. The key for a company is to make sure it has a customer's permission before it foists coupons on them through their cell phones.

"The quickest way to introduce a speed bump would be to push the consumer's boundaries," Kihanya said. "The phone is different even from the Internet. It's such a personal device."

There is no doubt that applications or programs associated with using the mobile phone to access promotions or coupons are going to continue to grow in popularity.

"If it's free or it pays for itself and it's not too hard to figure out, it's sort of a no-brainer," Kihanya said. "It's not a fad; it's here for good."

Jenkins, of Centsible Savings, agrees. "It's the way the coupon is coming into the 21st century," she said. "I don't have an iPhone, but I won't say in five years I won't have one."