BENECOL PARTNERS WITH COUPONSTAR TO
INCREASE CROSS CATEGORY PURCHASING

3rd June 2008

Leading health food specialist targets existing customers with consumer-printable-coupons

Leading functional food specialist, Benecol has partnered with Couponstar, the digital marketing and promotions agency, to integrate consumer-printed coupons into its online marketing campaigns, as part of a drive to increase consumer awareness and cross-brand consumption.

Through Couponstar’s innovative CouponSOLO™ platform which is powered by the secure, industry-leading printable coupon technology that underlies all of Couponstar’s offerings, Benecol is able to offer consumers a range of 12 coupons on products spanning the entire Benecol product range.

Renowned for being the only range of foods to contain Plant Stanol Ester, a unique cholesterol lowering ingredient, Benecol has always prided itself on being a pioneer within the categories it operates. However, despite stable market share in the cholesterol lowering foods sector, Benecol had a desire to increase awareness of the depth of products within the Benecol range. Seeing a significant flux of consumers moving to the Internet to find information on cholesterol and the associated products, Benecol decided to invest in online marketing technology to continue to expand its customer base and maintain its position at the forefront of the market.

As Bailey Jakobi, Associate Marketing Manager at McNeil Nutritionals explains, “To-date health foods have been a notable absentee from the online market place. However, by offering our customers tangible rewards as part of our marketing efforts we have completely transformed our success online. In this particular instance we highlighted the availability of the coupons and an associated free prize draw on-pack and directed people to either the website or a free-phone number. We were pleasantly surprised by the number of consumers who chose to go online to receive their coupons and would not hesitate to do so again in future campaigns.”

Jakobi continues “With easy access to a wide range of money-saving offers it is significantly easier to engage with consumers, motivate them to return to your site, and encourage long-term relationships with your brand.”

As the market leader in the consumer-printable coupon industry, Couponstar’s technology is unique in providing organisations with a proven solution to securely and efficiently issue personalised and trackable coupons via the internet, critically bridging the gap between online marketing and influencing consumers’ offline purchasing behaviour. And, with typical redemption rates of 25% plus – significantly higher than industry averages Couponstar can help brands cost effectively acquire new customers and drive in-store sales.

Following this initial campaign which is predominantly focused on CouponSOLO™ with a supplementary promotion through Couponstar's affiliate network CouponNET™, Benecol is keen to develop further programmes with Couponstar. As Jakobi concludes, “Working with Couponstar has been a delight; the process has been exactly as they outlined and at every stage they have exceeded our expectations. We feel that we made a very important and positive move by doing business with Couponstar, they have delivered significant ‘added-value’ to our business, and we look forward to developing our relationship as we continue to move into the world of online marketing.”

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For further information, please contact:
Lisa Williams/Kieran Kent
The itpr Partnership
t. +44 (0)1932 57 88 00
www.itpr.co.uk
lisaw@itpr.co.uk