Groupon, the leading e-marketing services company ahead of giants like Google and Facebook, is the fastest growing company ever since Google (2008 –Present). It grew so fast that Groupon went public in 2011 and it was the biggest IPO since Google. The unique idea of providing access to local and global deals via mass emailing evolved into operations in more than 500 markets in 48 countries, promoting more than 1,000 deals a day. And mesmerizingly, this evolution occurred in less than 3 and half years and still evolving. The company has just announced new services under the umbrella of Groupon 2.0 and seems like they are pursuing the similar success stories alongside with what original Groupon has been doing.
The Problem
From …show more content…
Brands such as Google, or Toyota can be names as successful examples, however Groupon is such a unique concept where every engagement of the customer matter at some level. Whether it is redeeming the voucher, or providing a satisfying customer service after the deal, requires qualified staff members. Eventually, if they keep growing this aggressively, especially in different countries with different cultural backbones, the company has a very limited time to not only to invest on qualified staff members but also to adopt their authentic, unique customer experiences.
Besides, the company has been succeeding beyond expectations due to quick adaptations against challenges however, if they get stuck regarding innovative solutions about engagement ways of consumers and deal offering companies, things will eventually be out fashioned quicker than expected. One word to exemplify; Myspace.
Aside for all listed above, most important challenge of Groupon would be losing to itself. Goals for pushing the company forward, investing heavily on advertising and customer services may be the correct recipe but if they don’t have backup solutions, recovery plans (not evacuation), and visionary decision makers, they can be an unpleasant memory for thousands of employees of …show more content…
If new technologies can create more markets with more potential customers who never experienced strategies such as Groupon, then Groupon will have to deal with newer and not dealt problems. If the company doesn’t have a solution by then, they might stumble worse than what’s anticipated.
Two Mutually Exclusive Solutions
Speaking of solutions; there are mainly 2 alternative ways to respond fairly to these problems in general. First one is similar to Google’s strategy. If a new startup or fairly smaller size company comes up with an innovative way, buy the company and keep growing. Don’t try to be necessarily a monopoly but instead, keep the innovations or trends under control so you can monitor the pace of the adoption of not only the marketing world but also consumers as well.
Second one would be continue growing aggressively and accept the fact that internet moguls such as Google, Facebook or Amazon will remain hungry for your services so at some level where they can’t adopt the cutting edge technologies anymore, sell it to highest