Permission marketing from Zimini

PHOENIX--Most people in the U.S. collect and use coupons. We love bargains. The problem is organizing the coupons. Demo '06 presenter Zimini has what it thinks is a better solution. Consumers download the free Zimini software and enter their profile--what they like, what they eat, their demographic information and so on. On the other side, merchants enter in their offers and promotions, and who they would like to get them. Then the program shows the appropriate offers to the appropriate consumers.

Sounds great, except for the fact the consumers are (rightfully) wary of entering personal information online, and no matter how secure Zimini is, convincing users that their personal information is safe will be a challenge. And while the response percentage on targeted offers will be much higher than it would be for spam or paper coupons, this solution will not replace these other two coupon channels, so it's unlikely to actually cut down on incoming messages to consumers. More importantly, I did not see a management console for merchants--something to help them manage all their coupons and offers, and provide them statistics to help them refine future offers.

Considering the number of coupon consumers, though, this is a great market to go after, and success could come with just a small percentage of market share.

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