Group ON, or more like Group Off

There is no way a student like me would walk away from a deal! Group on is a web site that offers daily deals at different UK locations, wherever you are. I have only discovered this site recently as a friend has recommended it to me, and therefore not fully involved in it yet. Some of the deals are definitely not student orientated “£89 Night Stay for 2 at Best Western Hotel” and some focus around pleasure- seeking, dreams fulfilling experience “£36 Warm Chocolate Mud Back Therapy”. The huge buzz of this site is around the price cut, as it is ridiculously high.

It has a similar process to eBay, but geographically targeting. The thing about this kind of web sites is that you have to snap off the deals, as there is a count down to when they expire.

This generates an excitement in purchase as it attracts you with the added information such as “discount rate”, how much you save, time count down and how many deals have been purchased so far. This is something that makes you act quick, reinforces visits and becomes addictive as the deals made up to be highly worth buying. A clever Marketing strategy of “Recommend to friends” is a word of mouth tactic, which is to me is the main reason organisations advertise deals on this website- in the hope to attract as many local consumers.

The website allows to pursue 100% “Have it now culture”. In this case, consumer daydreaming is pleasurable, it seeks actualisation, where Group On allows them to “have” what they desire.  

This is all promising Marketing, but on the other hand I am not an active user of the website, but once I visited the site; pop ups, Facebook ads, junk mail would appear with the daily promotions in Bournemouth. The idea of crossing that line of privacy has been dissolved and there is a question of control over knowledge about oneself. (Charles Fried, 1968) From a Marketers perspective, I could say, “The more information I know about a consumer, the better profile I could build, and the more effective targeting could be”. However, from a possible client perspective- Group On should back off and focus on the “Recommending friends” tactic and the continuation of offering daydreaming actualisations to active members.