Entrepreneur Aims Computerized Coupons at High-End Market
By Leo Smith
 

Jeffrey Weinberg of Camarillo is a longtime coupon collector. So he knows how coupons can accumulate, get misplaced or cause a clutter.
   Looking to alleviate such potential problems, last year Weinberg entered the coupon business himself. He solicited coupons/ads from Ventura County businesses but, instead of printing them on paper, put them on computer disks to be installed in IBM-compatible personal computers.
   In July, Weinberg introduced a three-disk set of his Finger Tips digital coupons, promoting businesses in the Conejo Valley. He recently compiled a similar set for the Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo area. Finger Tips sets are available free at the advertising businesses.
   "The best thing about Finger Tips is the coupons don't go away," Weinberg said. "You no longer have to use them right now. You can use them six months from now and you can use them as often as you want."
   Instead of clipping them, consumers print out the full-screen coupons when needed. Businesses pay $400 to have their ads on 2000 sets of disks for six months. For no additional cost, the coupons also show up on Weinberg's Internet site.
   Weinberg's first Finger Tips consists of 38 Conejo Valley businesses, including Westlake Independent Honda and Acura Repair, Brett's Tropical Fish in Thousand Oaks and Action Screenprinting in Thousand Oaks. His 30-business west county edition features Steve Thomas BMW in Camarillo, Spinnaker Seafood Broiler in Ventura and Eva's Limousine Service in Ventura.
   "For the most part, I try to sell to very high-end businesses," Weinberg said. "I try to sell to businesses like travel agents, computer stores, Internet providers, things that upper-middle-class people go for, because that's who has the computers and that's who has the money to buy things. Not all of the ads are focused in that direction, but that is the goal."
   The idea was enough to lure Bill Riggs, owner of Carmen Plaza Travel in Camarillo. He's using the FingerTips coupons to test the waters of high-tech advertising.
   "It's getting to the point where everything is going on the Internet. I though this was a good way to start," Riggs said. "Over the years, people have liked to use coupons, whether it's for10 cents off at the drugstore or $50 off on a cruise. I've always had a pretty good response from them, so I thought I'd see how this would work."
   Riggs hopes computer users scrolling through other coupons will stumble across his. In the first two months of advertising, he said, a couple of responses. He said he'd ultimately like to get the same response from computer advertising as he gets from his direct mail approach.
   "We get back about 10 percent response from our mailing. Many of them are already clients, but we get a lot of new people too," Riggs said. "I hope to get three, four or five calls a week (through Finger Tips). If I saw that, I would jump into a more sophisticated and widespread type of thing."
   "Although the coupon world may be turning more and more high-tech, there's still plenty of demand for paper coupons, say those who produce them.
   "I think it's going to be a long time before we are in a paperless society and every single person is on the Internet," said Stephanie Avalon, owner of the publication Coupons & More of Ventura. "At least until the near future, there is going to be a place for paper coupons".
   "I think that the average consumer is still looking in newspapers and direct mail for offers, though I do think that will change as more and more people have personal computers in their home," Avalon said.
   Avalon distributes 30,000 copies of her tabloid in Ventura. Separately owned Coupons & More publications in Oxnard, Camarillo and Simi Valley have circulations of 24,000 to 30,000 in their region.
   Ventura County, Avalon said, can support such wide circulation. "Coupons have gotten big around here as the economy has declined. Ventura County has become a big coupon-clipping community."
   "As the economy has slumped, local businesses also have come to rely more on coupons, Avalon said.
   "There was a time when a merchant could put out a pretty as that said, ' Here we are,' Avalon said. "That doesn't work anymore. A merchant has to give an incentive, an offer."
   Whether that offer is best presented on paper or computer remains to be seen.
   "With new technologies coming out, I think that couponing will always be a viable way for businesses to get to their local clientele, said Michael Levine, who distributes 33,000 copies of his Ventura Community Values coupon magazine, with separate versions for east and west Ventura.
   "It's hard to say 20 years from now what is going to be happening," he said. "Maybe I'll be doing the same thing, only through some other medium."