Ninefold PrintA coupon is one of the few printed pieces with a measurable result. Somebody either redeems it or they do not, which makes it unusually easy to justify and unusually unforgiving when the production is wrong.
Most coupon problems are production problems, and they surface at the till.
Unique codes mean variable data
If every coupon carries the same code, you learn how many were redeemed and nothing else. Unique codes let you tell which batch, which location or which channel produced the redemption, and they let you shut down a code that leaks.
Unique codes mean variable data printing: each piece is different, so the press has to change the image every impression. That is native to digital and not practical on conventional offset, which prints the same plate every time.
The practical consequences:
- The job will run digitally, or offset with a digital overprint pass for the codes
- You supply the code list as a data file, and the format matters
- Proofing has to include checking that the data merged correctly, not just that the design is right
A merge that silently shifts by one row produces an entire run of coupons where the printed code does not match the record. That is worth a specific check on the proof.
Barcodes and QR codes have to scan
A barcode is not a graphic. It has minimum sizes, and it needs a quiet zone, clear space either side, or the scanner cannot find it.
Things that stop them scanning:
- Printed too small, or scaled non-proportionally
- Insufficient contrast. Dark on light works; light on dark often does not
- Printed over a pattern or a photograph
- Placed across a fold or too near a trim edge
- Reproduced from a low resolution image rather than supplied as vector
Test scan a physical proof with an actual phone and an actual scanner before the run. Not a PDF on screen: the printed piece, at final size, on the final stock.
Stock, because coupons get handled
A coupon is folded, carried in a pocket or a wallet, handed over and often kept by the retailer. Light text stock goes soft and tears at the fold.
Considerations:
- Enough weight to survive handling without being stiff
- Uncoated if anything gets written on it, which matters if staff mark it at redemption
- Coated if it needs to look premium or resist moisture
- If it tears off a larger piece, the perforation needs specifying: tear-off strength is a real variable, and too strong is as bad as too weak
More on weights and finishes in paper and board without the jargon.
Formats and what each one needs
Tear-off from a larger piece. A flyer, statement or menu with a perforated coupon. Needs the perforation specified and the coupon designed to work once separated, which means the code, the terms and the expiry all live on the tear-off, not on the part that gets thrown away.
On-pack. Printed onto or inside packaging, or applied as a label or tag. Cheap, because it rides along with a piece you are printing anyway, but it locks the offer to the production run of the pack.
Loose card. A standalone card, often heavier stock, sometimes with foil or spot gloss to make it feel like it has value. This is where finishing genuinely changes redemption behavior, because a card that feels substantial gets kept.
In-store take-one. Needs a stand or a holder, and the print has to work when only the top third is visible.
Terms, expiry and the small print
The legal copy is not decoration. An expiry date, a per-customer limit, exclusions and the redemption mechanism all belong on the piece, in a size somebody can actually read.
Two production points: build the small print into the layout from the start rather than squeezing it in at proof stage, and if it needs review, get that done before print rather than after. A legal change after the run is a reprint, not an edit.
The redemption path is the real test
Before printing anything, walk the whole path. Somebody receives the coupon, brings it in, hands it over, and a member of staff does something with it. Does the till accept the code? Does the barcode scan on their scanner? Does the staff member know what to do? Does the coupon get kept, and if so, who counts them?
Coupons fail at the till far more often than they fail in the mail. That is not a printing problem, but it is the thing that decides whether the print was worth doing, and it is cheaper to discover with ten test pieces than with fifty thousand.
Before the run
- Test scan a printed proof with real hardware
- Check the data merge on the proof, against the record
- Confirm the expiry date and terms are final and approved
- Run a physical piece through the redemption process end to end
- Decide who is counting redemptions and how
If getting a coupon produced correctly is one more thing on a list that is already long, that is worth a conversation.