Crested Butte Locals Launch New Couponing Product for Resort Communities
Resort town businesses in Breckenridge and throughout Summit County, Vail and the Vail Valley now have the opportunity to join the growing wave of virtual coupon promotion. Trippons.com, a Colorado-based company, has chosen the areas communities to introduce a program that uses mobile Smartphones to bring together consumers, businesses and local discounts. The program officially launched Friday, May 6.
Restaurants, shops, lodging and services in Vail, Eagle County, Breckenridge and Summit County can sign up with trippons.com and promote their own unique discounts that will be passed on to customers through the http://www.trippons.com/ mobile website.
Businesses can tailor the discount to their needs and change the discount offer as often as they want. Consumers can instantly access the deal, flash the coupon and save money at their favorite restaurants, boutiques and other businesses. The simple-to-use mobile website was tested in Colorado for 45 days this past winter. Merchants that are already included on the Breckenridge site include the Columbia Store, Blue Sage Spa, Valleygirl Boutique, Breckenridge Outfitters, Breckenridge Recreation Center, and Beaver Run. Unlike Groupon or Social Living that are email based coupon promotions, trippons.com allows business owners to set any discount they want that meets their needs. Consumers with iPhones, Androids, BlackBerrys or any phone that can access a mobile website can tap into the discount and use it at local businesses.
“If you walk down the street of any resort town, I guarantee you will see people of all ages engaged with their iPhone or Android,” stated Trippons.com president Kent Myers. “Our goal is to tap into that technology to market local businesses and provide a savings for people living and visiting resort communities.”
T
rippons.com wa s developed by a group of local businesspeople that have lived and worked in Colorado resort towns.
“We knew to be successful the idea had to be simple for both the business and the consumer and we think we have accomplished that,” said Myers. Myers is a former Senior Vice President of Vail Resort. “We don’t want to require a business give away their product like Groupon, but we want them to have a conduit into the latest technology to market their business. Trippons.com uniquely provides that opportunity.”
Jennifer Goldstein, Membership Director at the Breckenridge Resort Chamber, said “This is an exciting and innovative new product for our members to be able to use. It will be a great way to promote their business specials to our guests and locals too.”
The concept was tested in Crested Butte, Colorado last winter and it was found that residents as well as visitors took advantage of the concept.
Beyond Breckenridge and Vail, Trippons is being offered throughout Crested Butte and Whitefish MT and is launching in 25 other resort communities including Grand County CO, Steamboat CO, Glenwood Springs CO, Aspen CO, Destin FL, Jackson Hole WY, Monterey CA, Myrtle Beach SC, Wisconsin Dells WI, Sedona AZ, Mammoth Lakes CA, Vermont and New Hampshire to name a few.
If your business is interested in becoming a member of trippons.com, contact [email protected].
Customers should look for the unique window signs displayed in participating businesses or just go to the mobile site on your phone at www.trippons.com.
Media Relations Contact
Mark Reaman
(970) 275-4020
FAST FACTS ABOUT SMARTPHONES:
95 million Smartphones will be sold in 2011 in The United States.
According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 83 percent of people own cell phones or Smartphones and 35 percent of people have gone on the Internet with their phones.
Nielson reports that 31% of U.S. mobile phone owners have a Smartphone as of December 2010, and expects Smartphone ownership to exceed 50% by the end of this year.
Recent updates on the Smartphone sales charts estimate that 491.9 million units will be sold worldwide by 2012, compared to 2008 sales of 139.3 million. The Personal Computer market is expected to expand to about 443.1 million units from 290.8 million in the same time frame. “Cell phones have evolved tremendously over the past decade, more precisely since 2007. They no longer serve the sole purpose of basic communication… they have evolved to Smartphone… and they have a plan,” comments Mathew Collier of www.rothmanresearch.com.
The worldwide mobile phone market grew 19.8% year over year in the first quarter of 2011 (1Q11) fueled by high smartphone growth, especially in emerging markets, and gains made by market challengers. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped 371.8 million units in 1Q11 compared to 310.5 million units in the first quarter of 2010. IDC expects almost all of the worldwide mobile phone market’s growth to be driven by smartphones throughout the forecast, which goes to 2015.
The iPhone, Blackberry, Droid and Smartphones in general dominate the buzz in the mobile market, but only 21% of American wireless subscribers are using a Smartphone as of the fourth quarter 2009 compared to 19% in Q3 2009 and 14% at the end of 2008. We are just at the beginning of a new wireless era where Smartphones will become the standard device consumers will use to connect to friends, the internet and the world at large.
The share of Smartphones as a proportion of overall device sales has increased to 29% for phone purchasers in the last six months and 45% of respondents to a Nielsen survey indicated that their next device would be a Smartphone. If we combine these intentional data points with falling prices and increasing capabilities of these devices along with an explosion of applications for devices, we are seeing the beginning of a groundswell. This increase will be so rapid, that by the end of 2011, Nielsen expects more Smartphones in the U.S. market than feature phones.
In the U.S., people are just waking up to the possibilities presented by having the Internet in your pocket. Credit Apple and the iPhone for the surge in interest on the part of Americans, said Jonathan Goldberg, senior analyst with Deustche Bank.
Three things in particular are driving Smartphone growth and interest among regular people: the increasing amount of time they spend online on things like social-networking sites, the impatience of having to wait until they get back to their home or coffee shop to get online to check messages or update their status, and the desire to look good while doing all that, he said.
