About Us
How it all begain:
The idea for selling coupons was inspired to Chip Mitchell by Our Lord Jesus Christ and fit into his long history of entrepreneurial activity. After college he joined Proctor & Gamble as a sales rep. and learned how important coupons were to increasing market share for the products being sold. His history with Vicks Chemical Co. reinforced the concept and after doing research, with The Coupon Council of The Promotion Marketing Association (PMA), who found that 79% of Americans use coupons (while taking 20 minutes or more each week to find them) and $6 billion is paid each year by the Consumer Product Companies (CPC’s) to advertise and distribute them, it became obvious the demand and supply for coupons was an area that could be restructured and patented. In 2002 his first Method Patent was issued by the USPTO and another issued in 2006. More are pending. In addition, six registered Trade Marks are active and protected.
Another familiar method of inspiring consumers to purchase a product or service, is offering a chance to further reward the purchase. A free sweepstakes offering became included in the Method Patents. Many CPC’s as well as retailers like McDonalds® Monopoly® Promotion have had great results utilizing sweepstakes to promote purchases or grow market share while using these promotions. The PMA specializes in both the legal and application services of sweepstakes. Results of applying the patents utilizing familiar printed or electronic advertising materials has sold over 100 million coupons at $1 each while receiving over $10 value/coupon and paying out over $70 million in prize money. This happened in four short years while confining sales to only four states. Obviously, the future of this patented method has an overwhelming probability.
The Abstract for the second patent #7,007,979 entitled “Advertising materials and method for cooperative promotions” issued in March of 2006, states clearly: “...Each coupon entitles its purchaser to a substantial discount on a product. Selected coupons entitle its purchaser to a prize...” Many marketing concepts, having initial gut reactions of negativity, such as: 1) “how can anyone expect to buy a box of paper diapers when they can wash cloth diapers over and over again without repurchasing each time? ” Chip was with P&G when Pampers® were introduced. 2) “Who would buy bottled water when they can get water free from the tap? ” 3) “who would take jars of change to a store and get charged for having a machine count it, when they can get it done free at their bank? ” Coinstar® started in ’92 and had profits of $150,000,000/quarter in 2008. Had any of these concepts been patented as a method, they would not have had competition for the first 20 years. Obviously, this adds to the overwhelming probability of future success!
Most all products sold from vending machines have state retail tax do at the point of sale. However, coupons sold with very few state exceptions, are intangible personal property (discounts) and are exempted from retail tax until redeemed. This helps keep the expenses low and profits unaffected for the retailer.