Thursday, April 19, 2012

By the numbers | Deal Chicken and Groupon

Last summer, Gannett launched daily deals site Deal Chicken nationwide, even as red flags emerged that industry leader Groupon was struggling in its race to an initial public offering. That IPO came Nov. 4, when shares of the three-year-old company debuted at $20. Some key numbers:


$31.14
highest GRPN trading price (Nov. 4)


$11.68
lowest GRPN trading price (today)


0
number of times Gannett CEO Gracia Martore mentioned Deal Chicken during her quarterly presentation Monday to Wall Street media stock analysts


0
number of times those analysts asked about Deal Chicken


0
number of times Deal Chicken was mentioned in the quarterly report


0
number of times the board of directors cited Deal Chicken as a factor in how it calculated executive pay last year

44 comments:

  1. Deal Chicken was always a dead duck. What's next that we can fail at?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love these lists, Hopkins. Talk about context! It's my favorite part of your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There is never any clucking deals worh buying at my site but I have bought several groupons.

    ReplyDelete
  4. GRPN market cap: $7.6B
    GCI market cap: $3.2B

    GRPN quarterly revenue growth: +185%
    GCI quarterly revenue growth: -5.1%

    GRPN debt: $0
    GCI debt: $1.76B

    ReplyDelete
  5. I got a buddy at Valpak in Phoenix.
    He says they're CHOKING the Chicken there!

    ReplyDelete
  6. GCI employees: 31,000
    GRPN employees: 11,471

    GCI shares short % of float: 10%
    GRPN shares short % of float: 7%

    In a digital marketplace, neither has very high barriers to entry from competition. In the old days, newspapers had advertising monopolies because buying presses kept others from enjoying the spoils of said monopolies.

    spacecoastdaily.com is a perfect example. How much did the founders have to spend to come up with a pretty compelling website?

    ReplyDelete
  7. You just don't get it. You really, really don't just get it. Oh well, let's not get the lack o da facts in da way of a good story.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The reason that Deal Chicken was not mentioned is because they know that it is a shameless cash grab. Many markets are not accepting Deal Chicken and the sales reps unfortunately become the fall guys. Groupon and Living Social have not had many deals that I would even buy in the past several months.So what does this tell you? Sorry people but the daily deal trend is dying faster than print! What a joke!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The great thing about your post is you have no idea what you are talking a out. I have seen the DC numbers. They are growing. Sorry

      Delete
  9. About two years ago when I got an online Gannett survey testing some names of a deal website, the one that really stood out was Deal Chicken. I thought then, "WTF -- they won't be that stupid, will they?" Ha!

    ReplyDelete
  10. These programs will work if managed properly - enough said.

    ReplyDelete
  11. @ 10:46 - "If managed properly" is the key phrase. The majority of that team is remotely managed. There is no local control of what goes on which means there will be 0 local support. Its a shame because I know the Deal Chicken teams work very hard. 100% cold calling will generate massive churn. I am already seeing it become a chop shop.

    ReplyDelete
  12. And they want to be in charge of advertisers social media.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The social coupon thing is already dying - Groupon is sinking, and you can buy a clone of Groupon's software for $300.

    http://groupon.comclone.com/index.php

    There is no barrier to entry in this market.

    ReplyDelete
  14. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wait a minute. Jack Williams says Deal Chicken now ranks 6th among coupon sites. Is that clucked up information?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope, it's true. And it's growing. Sorry haters. It's actually doing well

      Delete
  16. I give Gannett credit for launching Deal Chicken, but success is in how you manage and Gannett just doesn't do that well. Plus, as always, Gannett played follow-the-leader in this space and has been left to scratch out a living on GroupOn and Living Social's crumbs. Someday, maybe in another life, Gannett will be bold and innovative and well-managed. Right now - not.

    ReplyDelete
  17. GMTI had to lease extra office space to handle the influx of Deal Chicken support personnel.

    Not to mention the money GCI spent on infrastructure....oh wait, they probably just recycled the Moms Like Me webservers......

    ReplyDelete
  18. Gannett should come out with a social media site where friends can contact each other and call it bookface!

    ReplyDelete
  19. @3:12, They will, in typical Gannett warp-speed. In two years. ... if they're still around.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Bookface HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  21. That's really funny. Bookface. Ha ha ha. LOL. Such wit should be on Colbert. Oh, wait, he's old news now. Point it I have to agree that in my market DC is doing pretty well. I mean, several of the deals are superb. I no longer pay full price for meals, and some of the advertisers get my repeat business because of it. So at least here it's a great deal. I don't know the facts, but I can't help thinking that it will make money one of these days. It doesn't have to make a lot, because anything positive is better than the money losing papers that are going the way of dino. THe other day in a report on CNN Arron Barrett was quoted as saying that these kind of group on sites had revenues in the hundreds of millions, up several thousand percent over the last six months alone. I don't know what that means, other than it says there are dollars to be made. Price line came early but there are new sites popping up in the same space even this year and all are generating revenue, so there is money to be made.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Fuck THe Deal Chicken shit

    ReplyDelete
  23. DoD has jumped the shark. As always, Gannett waited until Fonzi was in the air to get into the game. The days of Gannett innovation are gone.

    ReplyDelete
  24. They should bring back the woman that submitted the business model-idea, through the DIG competition. She was highly educated and a strong innovator in the company. She submitted 18 business ideas to the DIG, and never received a dime. And, then lost her job, last year, due to the politics of idiots. If there should be any issues with the "Deal Chicken" product, that woman would be able to turn it around. They should hire her back.

    ReplyDelete
  25. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  26. 11:26,
    The woman that had created the business model for our "deal site," submitted the idea to the DIG, prior to the release of Groupon. It took a while for the actual product-launch. During the month of Gannett's product launch, Groupon started to loose sales to DealChicken who was better positioned in existing Gannett-Markets. DealChicken has also allowed Gannett to maintain and build upon their sales staff. A much needed accomplishment, in this economy. Who would scoff at a product that is sustaining and creating jobs in this industry and in this economy(?)

    ReplyDelete
  27. Jim,
    something happened to my posting at 1:23... It posted again, within itself. It should read:

    The woman that had created the business model for our "deal site," submitted the idea to the DIG, prior to the release of Groupon. It took a while for the actual product-launch. During the month of Gannett's product launch, Groupon started to loose sales to DealChicken who was better positioned in existing Gannett-Markets. DealChicken has also allowed Gannett to maintain and build upon their sales staff. A much needed accomplishment, in this economy. Who would scoff at a product that is sustaining and creating jobs in this industry and in this economy(?)

    ReplyDelete
  28. Audra was a visionary and they should hire her back. She submitted those ideas in the wake of layoffs, in order to save employee positions. The layoffs seemed to have a profound effect on her, and she started to develop new product ideas to help sustain employees.

    ReplyDelete
  29. The stock market has taken a massive dive, over the last thirty days. The loss of Groupon's stock value, is also relative to the overall nose dive of the stock market. There is a massive panic in regards to our stock market because of high unemployment, high national debt, and social/political instability around the world. Just about every stock has been a virtual yo-yo.

    ReplyDelete
  30. 12:37, if true that this woman lost her job, it fits the Gannett profile perfectly. Decent people are constantly tossed out like garbage. It will accelerate under the ridiculous let's make everyone reapply for their job plan.

    Innovation and ideas that originate below the incompetent and threatened layers of management ate routinely squashed at this company. The big ideas are largely only acceptable when they come from the fresh faces and new 'stars,'

    ReplyDelete
  31. 3:11,
    You are right. They felt threatened by her ability & potential. - So they forced the woman out of the company. It was a horrible thing. There were lower level managers that did unspeakable things to that woman, because they felt she was competition on the corporate ladder.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Deal of the Day playing field is way too crowded for a win at this stage. Plus, advertisers have grown weary and wary of the work and the devaluing of their product. National and local - the field is too crowded. Groupon, Living Social, OpenTable, Rue La La, Half Off.com, Half Off Depot.com - every media outlet in every media market has a deal of the day site - and yet all have the same challenge (and are failing at this challenge) of putting the products before clients that clients actually want versus what they can convince advertisers to put up. Worse - now that their is marketing research to back-up the fact that these clients don't return to purchase other goods and / or services - retailers will continue to shun any new players coming to the playing field. If Gannett wants Deal Chicken to live, Gannett needs to literally manage the project and run the Chicken like a business, not an ancillary "thing" thrown into every market. Savvy "World Class" sales professional (which don't exist at Gannett) need to secure products from retailers that clients want. Relationship Managers for the product need to meet with retailers and share Marketing Research that proves (which it doesn't) that Deal of the Day sites generate more business as opposed to lost leaders that "might" generate more business. Either way - the model is starting to shake out, the research is starting to come in and in the end, it would appear that only the DoD sites that are truly managed will have a shot to survive after a massive consolidation takes place in the years ahead.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Revenue is not profit. Just because we could make a lot of revenue selling MP3 players for a buck each, doesn't mean we should.

    We've wasted a prodigious amount of capital on duplicative sales staffing and technology, and we've devalued our core brands' public reputation by plastering that godawful yellow and purple childish logo on everything.

    That money spent on strengthening our products with a future would have lasting impact. Instead, we invested on the tail end of a dying trend. Perhaps we can partner with the buggy-whip people next?

    ReplyDelete
  34. Huh. We don't need revenue? Huh? Revenue is down two billion (insert Cincy photo word) ing dollars and we don't need revenue. With revenue comes enonomy of scape and profit. Good example? Price line. They make nothing but have huge revenue from travel deals. Even a couple nets of dollar revenue becomes millions pennies at a time. Don't believe me? Food stores make a couple cents per dollar of revenue. A couple cents. And that totals to millions of profit. Get real.

    ReplyDelete
  35. I think one of the major problems is the lack of "rep adoption". Yes, they have many other products to sell, but these are the people who have the relationships (or should) and also receive all of the inbound leads. If Gannett was really serious of pushing DealChicken (which is still a god awful name and the general concensus is that its a joke) they would REQUIRE that sales reps whether local or regional sell it out in the field. Not as a "bonus" but actually a serious part of the advertising mix.

    From what I hear, businesses for the most part are very savvy now with the daily deal market since it is beyond flooded.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Another issue is that all of the deal sites (including DealChicken) are quickly losing their local feel. Sales across all deal sites are down. People I talk to simply just delete all of the emails they get in their inbox. The fad is going away unless Gannett innovates and doesnt keep copying LivingSocial's strategy by the book.

    ReplyDelete
  37. I completely agree with the above poster talking about the "childish colors that devalue core products". The brand sucks and any advertiser who has a respectable business going for him/herself does not want to associate themselves with a website called DealChicken?!?!?! I saw on DealChicken that they put "brought to you by XYZ paper" in every market. Thats because the name/brand DealChicken simply can't stand on its own. If I were a business owner, I would choose LivingSocial over any other DoD website in a heartbeat. Just because we're Gannett doesnt mean we know a damn thing about the deals. And it appears as if we do not with our failed attempt at a "cutesy" web design. Fail!

    ReplyDelete
  38. The product is making money regardless of it's competition and logo design/colors. The colors do allow for high-visibility, and I think the chicken is adorable. I wish they would sell some childrens' wear with the dealChicken icon.

    ReplyDelete
  39. This deal is amazing:

    http://www.dealchicken.com/washington-dc/10873?hint=popular

    I can't believe that I missed this deal. It was totally worth buying! And, 17,529 people purchased it. That was $701,160.00 in sales for the advertiser.

    ReplyDelete
  40. That was also a deal ran for a direct competitor. I wonder how many local restaurant deals suffered over the past few months since we gave our subscribers $400 worth to spend on restaurant.com. Dopes!

    ReplyDelete
  41. Having bad luck with deal chicken and there affliates vacations75 no one to contact about questions or problems and forms to fill out that add another 15 days to making a not gauranteed reswervation.. 2nd time with them both times a flopp never ever ever again i do not recommend yu work with them or purchase from either company especially vacations75 travel deals are never that great we should have known

    ReplyDelete
  42. do not order anything from deal chicken the orders all messed up, they aren't what they say, and there is no way to contact them. they do not contact you back even after you have paid for deal. i've done 3 deals and they have all been screwed up!! you would thinnk i would learn, well this is the last one
    gd

    ReplyDelete

Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.