Before mega-campaigns for marketing, social media harnessing, MLMs, and other types of highly elaborate strategies, marketing was mostly about advertisements and samples. Naturally, psychology and other whistles have always influenced the ‘art’ of creating an image for the product or service that must sell.
Coupons are a very interesting middle ground that feels somewhat fascinating.
First of all, it feels a bit anachronistic for it to still exist and thrive nowadays, but, surprisingly, it still does really well in all kinds of areas. Second of all, it’s a multipurpose principle that can infiltrate all kinds of media and have a certain level of importance within marketing strategies.
However, as you might know if you’re either familiar or at least aware of this phenomenon, we are talking about a situation in which coupons have become digital for many years already. Moreover, they have their own specialized branches, venturing off into different markets and meeting various objectives of their own.
We will look into the reality of these different branches by assessing coupon-style vouchers and the concept of bonus codes, as employed by sectors like the online gambling industry. Given that this piece is all about bringing forth a more consumer-savvy perspective that can help you navigate upsides and pitfalls, we hope to bring something interesting to the table!
Definitions for Each of Them
Let’s first address the idea of the coupon. This is a promotional incentive that you used to receive a physical gift, usually a paper cut-out or a standalone object that you could use for various applications within a shopping context. Nowadays, it’s simply the idea of an activator that you can use for a certain one-time benefit within a consumer context.
The voucher is a branch of the coupon principle that is all about a discount. While a coupon is, generally, a broader term that can apply to more types of benefits, a voucher gives you the ability to exercise a discount when making a purchase from the same (or an associated) retailer, either as a percentage or a fixed sum that is deducted from the initial price.
A bonus code is something that we find in fewer applications, but which is popular in the context of online gambling. As such, we’re mostly talking about casino bonus codes. They work very simply: they are sequences of numbers and/or letters that create a formula that the user must input in order to receive a certain incentive within a certain casino.
United in Coupon Rules
As advantages that consumers can use in order to have a better experience and receive a better deal in whatever endeavor they are in, both bonus codes and regular vouchers have a certain level of gravitas in their respective fields. As a study on the consumer use of price promotions suggests, consumer behavior tends to gravitate towards such promotional aspects.
One thing to note is that both these applications need to respect a certain set of rules. The language and statements must be true, and the definition of terms must be in accordance with the definitions of concepts like ‘free’ and ‘limited.’
For example, honesty in marketing practices for any promotional voucher/bonus code must abide by the rules of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations in the UK, or Section 5 of the FTC Act in the USA. If we’re talking about gambling, there must also be clear compliance with applicable gambling laws.
Another key point in this sense is the idea of being very transparent about the details of the promotion. Expiration date, any costs involved, eligibility rules, and the application of the voucher/bonus code must be accessible to any consumer without any hidden or ambiguous language.
Moreover, we need to mention that trap costs must never be part of any promotion like this, especially if the advertisement process claims that the coupon provides some type of advantage for free!
Divided into Application
As far as the application goes, the simple divide that we can make is where you tend to find them. While they need to respect very similar, if not the same set of rules, vouchers and bonus codes require a certain level of knowledge about the market they inhabit.
For this reason, we would like to let you know, or remind you, where these two are different when it comes to how you can apply them:
- Vouchers tend to be for shopping platforms, especially if we’re talking about them in the digital sense. These online shops provide vouchers in the form of codes that you can receive as a first-time user of their app/site (a data-collection method), as a seasonal deal, or as a loyalty or consumption threshold. Naturally, these vouchers tend to be percentage-based discounts that you can use on their platform.
- Bonus codes, especially those in the gambling sense, are boosters that give you online casino credit in some way. They can be for free or upon depositing (spending a certain amount of money), giving you either bonus money that you can use as casino chips on that particular platform. They are direct, in-house currencies that take the form of money but only have an application within that online casino.
Proper Usage
When it comes to proper usage, this idea is all about safeguarding your interests as a consumer/client. Like any other e-commerce or iGaming sector that you’ll find yourself in, individual submarkets have their own standouts and rotten apples, which require you to be as perceptive and cautious as you can be.
For the sake of brevity, here are a few cardinal rules that we believe you should incorporate into your behavior if you want to make the most out of these theoretical advantages:
- Use these coupons only at legitimate vendors or casinos. There are plenty of scams on the internet, and their ability to mask their ill-intentioned ways is only rising. If a site, casino, or shopping platform is outside the realm of mainstream brands that you know to be safe, you’d better do your research and ask yourself if they’re worth the risk.
- Always abide by the platform’s rules. Both online casinos and e-commerce platforms have very strict rules, even if casinos tend to be a bit more frisky about them. Please think about the rules that you need to respect in order to use your vouchers/bonus codes as well as possible.
- Try to pick up advantages that you can use immediately. The truth is that hoarding them may cause you to forget about them. And, in the case of online gambling, you can only use one at a time anyway. Pick something that you know will help you or get you closer to a purchase that you actually want.
Conclusion
As the conclusion that you need to hear from this type of article, we would like to ask you to keep one more piece of advice in mind: be careful with your spending!
It’s easy to turn to compulsive buying, especially if you have both money and vouchers, but try to keep your consumption in check for the sake of your financial stability. If you’re an enjoyer of online gambling, don’t forget to gamble responsibly!