Management

Creating Entrepreneur in Value in Network Environment

T1000927

Nottingham Trent University

Creating Entrepreneur in Value in Network Environment

Introduction

The business management report is based on an innovative idea which summarises a business plan for a company. The business idea is concerned with promotion and issuing and selling of coupons for different restaurants in Nottingham before expanding across the UK and globally.

Premise of Business Idea

Ever since recession has struck the economy of United Kingdom it has changed the mindset of the British consumer. Consumers have now become more budget conscious. Consumer behaviour has become inclined towards the concept of discount coupons. Today the concept of digital coupons represents a vast portion of the entire coupon market. The concept of digital coupons has opened new horizons and opportunities for the marketers who have a mission (Hart, 2007, pp.120).

Traditionally consumers used to read Sunday newspapers which was a vital source via which for years has enabled coupon business to display their coupon adverts. Now consumers read newspapers via their mobile devices. This internet oriented generation will not waste time snipping coupons of the newspaper. This consumer habit stimulated the marketers into exploring the online world and providing the service of e-coupons. E-coupons are flexible by nature and effective in enticing the online consumers. Advantages of digital coupons are that they offer maximum personalization, convenience along with protection against fraud. Secondly it aids in providing opportunities for socializing. The annual compounded industry growth rate is said to be 57 percent till the year of 2013 (Kurtz, pp.34, 2009). Figure 1 shows the couponing trend in United Kingdom which clearly shows that the couponing businesses have a lot of potential.

Fig 1: Degree of Coupon Usage in United Kingdom

Competitors Analysis

There are currently three active players that offer coupons on a large scale to a large customer base. Worldwide there are still more sellers but locally the major players are:

Groupon: Groupon is a website that is offering discounted gift certificates which has the feature of being usable for the local and the national level companies. Groupon is currently serving 500 markets and a total of 44 countries. Groupon has also introduced its application for Smartphone users and tablet users catering to the e-consumers. By sending more than 2 million daily newsletters and having more than 19 thousand followers on facebook. Groupon, is currently the largest player in the market.

Woot: Woot is an American-based Internet retailer. Woot provides discounted products to its target market on the basis of “One day, One Deal” offer. The deals only last for one day. Woot deals with all kinds and types of products such as wine, household goods, computer hardware and children items etc.

LuckyDay: It operates in the United Kingdom and primarily offers promotions and discounts in and around. It provides discounts on all items be it product or services. It caters to variety of products as well.

Weaknesses of the Competitors

The weaknesses of the competitors can be classified in to two categories

Limited time of availability of desirable offers

Absence of communication amidst the online ...