FAQs:
1. What does "Keycode" mean?
The term “key code” is a direct marketing term that has been used by sophisticated marketers for decades to refer to the alpha-numeric codes or barcodes they would assign to specific ad campaigns in order to track sales back to a specific list, delivery channel, or creative design. For tracking purposes key codes were usually linked to special promotional offers that needed to be recorded during a sale. Key codes are still used today to help companies identify which advertising campaigns are working best and producing the most cost-effective sales.
We adopted the term key code, modified it into one word “keycode”, and trademarked it to create a brand name for our company and for our unique form of customizable retail offers. Over the last 5 years the term “keycode” has become so popular that it is virtually synonymous with other savings words like “coupon”, “deal code”, “promo code”, “discount”, and “offer”.
Today millions of people search for “keycodes” instead of coupons to help them save money in-store and online whenever they need to shop.
2. What does Keycode.com do?
For shoppers, Keycode.com is like finding free money. We accumulate and categorize the best available retail offers on and off the Internet each day in order to help people shop better and more informed than ever before. Shoppers can use our service anonymously to make custom Keycodes to save money whenever they like. You may also find Keycode shopping rewards on hundreds of other websites.
For retailers, Keycode.com is the largest pay-for-sale marketing network for brick-and-mortar retail incentives. Keycode was the first company to use future purchase values to improve sales for retailers through custom shopping incentives. The company invented an automated method for customizing promotional offers for buyers "on demand" based on their future purchase value and nothing more. Through our patent-pending method, we discover exactly how much people are thinking about spending in order to customize rewards that effectively increase individual transaction amounts by 45%-110% or more for our clients.
Today, Keycode is one of the most cost-effective retail advertising options available to effectively and consistently:
- acquire and retain customers
- increase average transaction amounts
- decrease advertising costs
- grow market share
> Advertising Information
> Contact Sales
3. How do Keycodes work?
Keycodes are simple promotional savings codes that represent a savings incentive or discount to retailers. To use a Keycode simply enter in a spending value, review the promotional offer presented, print it out, and bring it into the store of your choosing. As long as you have selected enough items to qualify for the discount printed on the Keycode page, the cashier will be able to scan the barcode next to the offer presented or manually enter the actual code to authorize the savings through the store’s point-of-sales (POS) system.
You can produce Keycodes at hundreds of major shopping sites and savings portals online by clicking on special interactive ads featuring Keycode technology. Keycodes are created and distributed "on demand" by the shoppers themselves based on their immediate need to shop. Retailers honoring Keycode discounts can log in to online management consoles to change, add, or delete their Keycodes at any time to best meet their seasonal marketing objectives.
Keycodes are currently accepted at over 9,000 retail locations in the U.S. and used by millions of shoppers every year.
4. Why do shoppers need to enter a spending value?
Keycode shoppers need to enter a shopping value because the value of their custom offer is determined in real time by the value of their next transaction. Since Keycode's service is fast, free, valuable and completely anonymous; there is truly nothing to lose by supplying this information. Shopping values help make sure the that the best discounts our merchants offer go to the people who are planning to spend the most money. The system has to work for both sellers and buyers or else no one would be able to save.
5. Why is "future value" so important to the business of retail marketing?
We have proven that future purchase values can be used to systematically increase individual transaction amounts by 45%-110%. This discovery represented a major break-through in retail marketing and was the basis for the filing of our marketing method patent in late 1999.
Keycode.com represents the automation of a value-based reward system that helps buyers and sellers both save money. Keycode's discount reward strategy uses a sound economic equation to maximize consumer savings value and retailer profitability through increases in individual purchase volume.
Because our system determines how much each individual buyer is planning to spend before presenting a Keycode savings offer, we can customize the most appealing combination of offers to A.) secure the sale and B.) reward increased spending. Effectively and consistently increasing order size, Keycode allows retailers to move greater amounts of inventory with fewer individual transactions requiring less company resources.
No matter how much someone is planning to spend in your store today, they can generally be influenced to spend significantly more than they were intending by offering a reasonable volume based reward at the perfect moment.
Through Keycode we have found that custom incentives can persuade people to spend on average 45% more than they were planning with a little as a 5% discount. We have also found that we can persuade people to spend 50%-75% more than they were planning by offering as little as a 10% discount. We also know that offering a 20%, 25%, or 30% discount in the right way at the perfect moment can double or triple the amount someone actually spends in store no matter how much they were intending to purchase prior to receiving the offer.
Keycode's service revolves exclusively around customer supplied purchase data because the entered values signal immediate buying activity and quantify important differences in individual buyer values. If you are challenged to "sell more" through your advertising and marketing initiatives, deriving and responding to existing and potential customer value should be your primary concern. Information such as age, gender, special interests, or even past purchasing history becomes virtually insignificant when you can know when, where, and how much people are planning to spend in real time.
6. Can Keycode Rewards hurt my store brand value?
No. We have found that incremental volume based rewards actually enhance brand value by positively reinforcing increased buying activity. Store brands are generally enhanced whenever shoppers willfully decide to buy more that they were planning.
There is a big difference between "Rewarding Increased Customer Spending" and "Price Dropping".
There is no question about it, offering discounts on average levels of spending or as a means to move old inventory can work to erode your store brand. Rewarding your most valuable customers, however, for spending significantly more than they were intending before they walk into your store actually works to significantly raise your brand value. With Keycode, the more your best shoppers spend, the more they save (whether or not they are first time customers). This marketing tactic develops an equitable "spend more, save more" retail relationship where both buyer and seller mutually benefit from an increase in spending.
Additionally, our research has shown that volume purchase rewards are not perceived as "discounting measures" in the minds of shoppers. The primary reason for this perception is that when retailers reward people for spending large amounts of money, they understand that not everyone will benefit from the promotion - only those who spend the most. The perception in most consumers' minds is not one of experiencing a discount, but rather, it is one of realizing a positive volume based reward for purchasing more than the average customer. Keycode is like a continuous VIP rewards program that "thanks" your best customers each time they decide to spend more than they were planning.
7. Do Keycodes present fraud or security concerns?
No. Unlike manufacturer's coupons that reimburse retailers for discounting the price of specific products, Keycode rewards by themselves carry $0 cash value. Print out 1,000 Keycodes on your printer, and all you have managed to do is waste a lot of paper and ink. A thousand printed Keycode certificates are meaningless unless the user is prepared to spend a great deal of money. This fact alone eliminates the motivation to mass copy or fraudulently duplicate Keycode rewards.
Are there forgery or value alteration concerns? No. Since Keycodes can only be verified through an authorized point of sale (POS) system, it is impossible for someone to alter the value, expiration dates, or conditions of the discount codes unless they have access to and can alter your store's internal POS system. If someone attempts to change any part of the code that is printed, it will not be recognized as valid during checkout. If someone alters the value of the discount printed on the certificate in any way with an otherwise valid code, the POS system will only authorize the correct and original discount amount associated with the original code. The values are determined by your POS system and its recognition of a valid code and not by dollar amount printed on the Keycode certificate.
It is important to realize that Keycode rewards are not coupons. They are discount codes representing a short-term deal between a buyer and a seller where the more someone spends the more they can save. In order for anyone to realize any benefit at all with a Keycode, they have to spend a significant amount of money first. There is no provision for tangible monetary benefits without a purchase through the Keycode program. Attempting to produce a fraudulent Keycode can only serve to waste a person's time, paper, and ink, and it can also result in a criminal forgery prosecution.
> More information on Keycodes and Fraud
8. Who started Keycode and why?
Keycode's founder, Kurt Lohse, set out to develop a free service that gave shoppers the ability to create and print custom promotional ads for local stores whenever they were ready to use them. The basic concept was exciting because it had the potential to reduce the amount of trash that reaches our landfills every year while providing shoppers and retailers alike with a new way to save money.
Keycode.com also presented a sound business opportunity. Since people who are planning to buy are 99% more likely to actually buy than the typical "mass audience", Keycode's active shopping community would become very valuable to any company interested in selling just about anything.
Keycode has evolved into the largest and most successful performance-based marketing service for national brick-and-mortar retailers. The company's unique focus is in generating consistent increases in sales for our clients, providing the best savings opportunities for shoppers, and improving our communities and the environment.
> View Executive Bios
9. Why Is Keycode Focused More On Physical Stores Than E-Commerce?
Some people are curious to know why we are using the Internet to promote brick-and-mortar retail stores.
The reason is quite simple:
Number of people in the U.S.: |
238,000,000 |
Number of people in the U.S. currently using the Internet: |
138,300,000 |
(55%) |
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|
|
Amount Spent ONLINE In 2004 on U.S. Retail Purchases: |
$83,000,000,000 |
(1.5%) |
Amount Spent IN-STORE In 2004 on U.S. Retail Purchases: |
$3,800,000,000,000 |
* (98%) |
*(Give or take a few hundred billion) |
|
|
Over half of the population of the U.S. uses the Internet, and 98.8% of all U.S. retail sales are still made in stores. The Internet did not change where people shopped by any great degree - but the Internet did change how people shop and how people acquire pre-shopping information.
Here is what we deduced from the statistics:
- A lot of people are using the Internet to help them shop.
- Most of those people prefer shopping in stores.
- Keycode should help people on the Internet shop in stores… better.
And there you have it.
Q: Why Keycode?
A: Because The Internet Needed To Help People Shop In-Stores Better
Keycode.com – Your Key to Making and Saving Money.
