Marketing Design for All

The Coupon

Not everyone thinks the same way.  I know what you’re thinking, STOP IT.

In my pursuit of life observations I had one thrust upon me this past week.  Ok, it wasn’t so much thrust as it was observed by me as a witness to a teller at McDonald’s struggling with a hole punch.

My first thought was “Bad coupon Design”  who thought this thing up that put the location for the whole punches where a hole punch couldn’t reach it.

It wasn’t until a couple of days later while thinking about this post in the shower, Yeah, I think in the shower, it has caused many a nick of the razor and I have to make a note not to think so much and pay attention to the sharp object in my hand.  Geez, yes I shave in the shower, no I don’t use shaving cream, it is for economy.  I’ll explain later.

It was during that moment of pain it struck me, this wasn’t so much a case of bad design as a designer making an assumption about those using the coupons.

The designer assumed consumers would use the free one at the top first.  This would expose the punches for the coupon above and below.

But what if the consumer (this would be me) started at the bottom and got the first card punched all the way and used it for the free one.  This now removed left the top one and the one in the middle.  This caused the issue with the hole punch.

It was my intention to use the last two coupons are “Free” coffee.  This way I paid for 4 drank the 5th free, paid for 4 more and drank 5th and 6th free.

If the designer had put the coffee cups at the bottom making the middle coupon identical to the middle coupon it wouldn’t matter how the consumer used the coupons.  The hole punch could reach all locations.  The way it is if the consumer doesn’t tear off and use the top coupon there is no way for a standard hole punch to be able to reach all locations on the middle card.

And the Point ?

Think about it!