Have you ever stopped to wonder just how many coupons are being sent around the globe every year? The figure for the UK alone is in excess of 5 billion a year! That is a lot of paper and there is currently little measure of how they are being redeemed and how many are ineffective and not hitting the right target at the right time. Not to mention that delays of a few days to a few weeks to get them out can mean it happens too late. So imagine the power of being able to target specific users, on the move via their mobile phone and make them an offer for a specific product or service.

With the ever-increasing popularity of mobile phones that seem to be carried everywhere all the time it is an extremely attractive proposition. Imagine you have a large amount of stock that is about to go out of season or is close to a sell by date, paper coupons and posting would be too slow and even doing something via e-mail will not necessarily be fast enough either. However if you can reach the user via the mobile you may well see a far higher success rate and get the immediacy of response you require.

Imagine the opportunity to send an offer to a whole lot of potential customers for a theatre that evening that still had tickets left for a performance. Or perhaps there is a sudden heat wave and you want to let everyone know you have a special deal on a particular drink and attract them to your store. You may not want to make it a general offer but a more special offer to a specific set of clients. The system sends them a coupon but this time it is via SMS text messaging direct to their mobile phone.

The recipient can then turn up at your store (or theatre) and present their mobile phone with the barcode displayed on the screen to the checkout operator who will scan the barcode and it will apply the offer in just the same way a traditional paper coupon would. The barcode can also be linked directly to the user via an ID barcode and user code so the direct success of each offer can be measured.

The system is already installed with a number of clients including Virgin and Jacksons a northern-based grocery retailer and many others are in the early stages of implementation. The system was also trailed in The Gadget Shop with a very high level of success.

The system is designed and developed by a company called M-bar-go who can be found on the web at www.m-bar-go.com who have been involve in this market place of direct marketing and the use of technology fro many years now.

So why does this get a mention on the PDT web site?

When the project started some years ago there were a lot of concerns over the readability of the barcodes being sent and at the time there was a limited amount of tests done into this area. However there are few people in the UK who really know about barcodes and scanning technology and this is where PDT Ltd comes in.

Jon Critoph has over 22 years of experience in the Barcode and Auto ID industry where he has had both technical and sales roles and has a specialisation in the field of barcodes, scanners and printers. Jon was invited into M-Bar-Go by Matthew McGuinness the Chief Technical Officer to provide valuable skills to go and look at the various ranges of scanners available from many different manufacturers along with a whole wide range of mobile phone with different screen technology employed to see how wide a population of phones could actual support the project. The work culminated in the production of a report on the findings for the team at M-Bar-Go.

If you need a barcode expert please give Jon a call and he will be happy to impart his vast knowledge on the subject. He can be contacted on either 01568 770812 or e-mail.