How To Clip A Paperless Coupon
By Robert Celaschi

Back in 1995, trying to stretch his income as a salesman in Camarillo, California, Jeff Weinberg clipped a lot of newspaper coupons.  Life would be much easier, he reasoned, if the coupons were loaded in his computer so he could print them out as needed.

He persuaded some of his favorite businesses to let him custom-design some digital coupons and put them on disk.  The businesses could then give the disks to their customers, who could print the coupons at home.

Within two years, Weinberg had 100 businesses signed up and had patented a computer program that let him fit 30 full-color ads on two disks.  Since then he’s relocated to his native Pittsburgh and started FingerTips, a home-based business aimed at steering small businesses away from paper coupons and into the computer age.  For $350 per ad, a local merchant gets a batch of 50 to 100 disks every six months.  The ads also appear for free on the FingerTips Web site, which now features about 72 coupons.

“To me, I see no other direction for print advertising to go in,” Weinberg says.

Disks aren’t cutting-edge technology, but Weinberg says he prefers to use the lowest common denominator.  However, he’s considering CD-ROMs for his next step.

The coupons clearly aren’t for every business.  In Pittsburgh, the staff at the Audio Gallery say their high-end stereo store hasn’t had a single response from its FingerTips coupon, but another local business, Senator'’ Restaurant, reports that about 15 customers a month pick up disks at the restaurant and use the coupons.

Although FingerTips is making some money, Weinberg still needs to work a day job as a Maytag salesman.  He also designs brochures, business cards, and Web pages.  But he’s so confident in the coupons that he’s planning to hire outside salespeople.

“Maybe I can take some of those Val-Pak people and turn them into FingerTips people,” he says, referring to customers who get the blue envelopes full of paper coupons each month from Val-Pak Direct Marketing Systems Inc., a Florida-based division of Cox Communications.

But Val-Pak has already joined the computer age.  It has been offering digital coupons since August 1998 and plans to build the world’s largest database of Internet coupons.  It already has about 30,000, says Cindy Smoot, general manager of Val-Pak of Minnesota in St. Paul.

Other online competitors include H.O.T. Coupons (www.hotcoupons.com), and Get Coupons Online (www.getcouponsonline.com).

Weinberg is thinking ahead.  He’s planning a CD-ROM that will include coupons for Pittsburgh-area restaurants plus menus, video tours, and a feature that will automatically phone, e-mail, or fax the restaurant to make reservations.
 

Jeff Weinberg: 412-551-5728;
Jeffw@fingertips.com; www.fingertips.com