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Coupons the Old Fashioned Way

Triangle Business Journal: Coupons the Old Fashioned Way
Premium content from Triangle Business Journal by Amanda Jones Hoyle
Date: Friday, June 3, 2011, 6:00am EDT

APEX – Cheryl McNeil keeps a copy of the Greater Raleigh Citipass coupon book in each of her family’s two cars so she doesn’t miss out on any savings when they go out to eat or go shopping at any of the more than 285 local merchants that advertise in the book.

Not only does she like the savings, McNeil also likes the fact that sales of Citipass books at her children’s school, Sycamore Creek Elementary in Raleigh, helped raise more than $20,000 last year toward the purchase of electronic whiteboards for classrooms.

“It’s a fundraiser where people feel like they are getting something,” says McNeil, vice president of fundraising for Sycamore Creek’s PTA group. “As soon as you use a couple of coupons you have made up the money you spent on the book.”

Last year, Citipass contributed more than $500,000 to the 120 schools, clubs and other not-for-profit groups in the Triangle that signed on to sell the coupon books. Half of the proceeds from the sale of each $25 book is returned to the selling organization, says Holly Armstron of Apex, co-owner of Citipass with her husband, Ryan Armstrong. “It’s a high-profit fundraiser that gives returns because it’s also saving you money,” she says.

For the merchants that advertise in the book, it’s a good way to draw new customers or encourage repeat visits, says Jennifer Wade, co-owner of the Moe’s Southwest Grill restaurants at Crabtree Valley Mall and Triangle Town Center mall in Raleigh and co-op marketing president for Moe’s 15 franchise locations in the Triangle.

While there are competing coupon books in the market, Wade says the Citipass book is the only one in which her Moe’s participates. “I always know when it’s selling season because those coupons come flooding into our stores,” she says. “It’s a book that never gets stale.”

Merchant advertising in both the Raleigh Citipass book and in the Chapel Hill-Durham book is free for the first two coupons in each category. Merchants can upgrade to glossy menu pages for rates that start at $12 or upgrade to premium sponsorships for up to $5,000 a year. Armstrong says she’s choosy about which merchants can advertise in the books. “We try to keep a high standard and don’t just put anybody in there,” she says.

In 2010, nearly 50,000 of the 60,000 Citipass books printed for the Triangle were sold.

Next year, copies of the book will include for the first time a key chain card that customers can scan at participating merchants to take advantage of additional savings throughout the year. Armstrong says that about 60 of her merchants, including the Carolina Hurricanes, have signed on to participate in the “real-time savings” program, in which new deals will be posted throughout the year on the Citipass website. Also, e-mail coupons and text messages will become part of the mix.

Armstrong says she and her husband each year try to add a new feature to the Citipass offerings to keep the book fresh. The Armstrongs published the first Raleigh Citipass book in 2004 after they both decided they wanted to spend more time with their family following the birth of their son. Ryan quit his job first, and Holly followed two years later.

“By owning your own business, you have flexibility to help out at the kids’ schools and things like that, but also by owning your own business as soon as you put the kids to bed, you are working,” she says. “We’re a small company, but we work hard.”