Start-Up Watch COD: ChoozOn helps marketers deliver offers to their brand fans

The web has become one of the primary deal delivery vehicles – so much so that there are hundreds – perhaps thousands – of deal sites and apps presenting offers to consumers. But the complexity of the space has made it more difficult for consumers to find deals for the brands that they want.

Many brands are now including deals and offers in their mix of communications intended to reach existing users. For such brands, a start-up called ChoozOnmay be a valuable marketing tool.

ChoozOn is a community designed to match people to offers for brands and categories that they love. Users join, identify the brands that interest them, and suggest friends to populate offer subcommunities and deal clubs. The site does much of the heavy lifting of surfacing deals for consumers. They scrape the major and minor deal communities as well as identify the store-loyalty-card-linked-offers for which the consumer is eligible. The site then presents these offers to the consumer in a variety of ways.

Users can give permission to brands to tailor offers to their specific interests.
A deal alerts service offers the opportunity for consumers to opt in to receive hot deal alerts as they become available.
A “check first” feature enables people to look for offers just before they embark on a shopping trip.

A second source of offers and information comes from the network of friends that the user has created. These people can share offers and deals they find with one another, so that all can benefit from the best stuff they find.

Here’s their intro vid.

In the past, I have used this space and others to rail against the dealification of all online marketing. Put simply, I am sick and tired of the explosion of deal and offer focused start-ups because such venues often DESTROY brand value by providing universal access to more and larger discounts. We appear to be careening toward a time when consumers won’t buy anything unless there is a deal available.

But I don’t have that kind of negative reaction about this service. I like ChoozOn.

First, it’s primarily geared to helping retailers, where deals have long been the key inducement to incremental shopping visits. “High/Low” retailing is a widely accepting industry strategy, versus EDLP. In my view, ChoozOn isn’t increasing the amount of inventory sold on deal – it’s simply moving the deal communication from ROTO and newspaper to online.

Second, the idea behind ChoozOn is precision. Focus offers on specific audiences. This enables retailers and brands to tailor offers to specific individuals, better meeting their individual needs. While the site is also going to surface that 75% off offer you made on a deal of the day site, well it’s not their fault if you’re an idiot.

Clearly I am not the only marketer that likes what they see here. They’ve signed up almost 1000 retailers, and they are still in Alpha. So clearly they have something going on. And their expressed purpose of making the online deal world “smarter” jibes well with brands using strategy to deliver deals instead of throwing spaghetti at a wall.

In short, ChoozOn appears to be a good way to get tailored offers into more hands, which can make a lot of sense for a store or a brand. It’s helping brands create ongoing relationships with loyal users based upon tailored information and incremental value. And the social component may well help brands identify new consumers anxious for the benefits you can provide them.