The influence of discounts and deals on today’s customers
Living in the UAE can be expensive.
While there have been steps towards making things more affordable, such as decreased rent and lower average room rates in hotels, going out in the city can be heavy on your wallet.
Value for money is more important than ever which begs the question: is price the only thing that really matters?
Are people still willing to pay full price for an experience? If so, is there a particular scenario where price is less important?
How much do discounts and deals really influence someone’s spending decision?
Is it dependent on age or nationality?
My curiosity got the best of me and while I had my own assumptions of what the answers would be, I put it out to the public.
I ran a small survey that 30 people participated in to hopefully to create some clarity.
Disclaimer: While this is nowhere near a reliable sample size of people living in the UAE, it’s certainly an interesting indication.
The Influence of Discounts and Deals
I guess the most important question would be how important discounts or deals are when it comes to booking a hotel or choosing a restaurant to dine at.
The results are somewhat expected.
Hotels
69% of participants stated that discounts and deals were important when booking a hotel, with 32% of those stating that it was “extremely important”.
Of those who said it was extremely important, 67% of them were aged between 25–34 and 50% originated from Africa.
Restaurants
When it came to restaurants, people found discounts and deals even more important, 79% of them to be precise. For 32% of them, it was “extremely important”.
Of those 32% of people, 83% were aged between 25–34 and originated from Europe.
It looks like discounts and deals are super important to the millennial spenders, meaning that their perception of value is heavily influenced by price.
Most of the comments mentioned that getting a deal was enticing, it made them feel good and less guilty about spending money.
They said they also needed discounts in order to have fun — especially when it comes to restaurants.
However, there were a number of comments that said value for money and quality was more important than price, and that they were willing to pay a fair price for a premium experience.
The Influence of Different Scenarios
Are there some scenarios where discounts and deals are more important than others?
Perhaps a serial dater relies on discounts when it comes to wooing his latest conquest. Or a young family needs discounts in order to make it affordable for them to go out.
I asked the question, and this is what I found.
The top two scenarios where discounts and deals were the most important was when there was a big group of people and when it came to brunch.
The two scenarios where discounts and deals were the least important was when it came to work events or going out with kids.
Surprised? I guess not.
Things can be super expensive when there is a large group of people so it makes sense that a discount would be appealing and brunch, well that can be an expensive day out when restaurants are charging AED 500+.
I guess when it comes to kids (under 12 that is), it’s less important as the city is super attractive with many options where kids eat for free or receive a heavily discounted price.
Plus, do they really eat that much?
The Most Influential Channels
We are lucky in that there are now a plethora of apps and channels that offer all sorts of discounts and deals in the UAE.
But which channels are people using the most?
I guess it’s not surprising to find out that the most influential source of discounts is The Entertainer, with 58% of participants stating that this is their go-to app.
However, it may be surprising that 21% of participants said that it was actually recommendations from their friends that they relied on when it came to finding the best deals.
We should never underestimate the power of word of mouth.
15% of participants also mentioned that they used discounts offered by their credit cards, such as Emirates Platinum.
So what are the key takeaways?
Perhaps you’ve reached this point in the article and are thinking, “Ok, so what now?”
Now it’s up to. Are you going to take action based on what you’ve read or just carry on with business as usual?
Here are my top three takeaways that will hopefully spur action:
- Millennials are heavily influenced by discounts and deals — it’s a big part of their value perception.
- Big groups of people need a discount or deal in order to justify their going out — it influences where they go.
- The Entertainer is life.
Competition is steep in the UAE and the message is clear — people are influenced by discounts and deals. Especially when it comes to eating out.
So what are you going to do about it?
Originally published at https://www.magnify-co.com on December 17, 2019.
