Burci goes into coupon business

Cuponpro, the first Romanian couponing company, plans to invest one million euros in entering and expanding on the market, announced Tudor Fulea, the company”s chief executive. Couponing, a very popular marketing operation in the West, consists of printing and distributing coupons that offer discounts on consumer goods bought from shops participating in the company”s programme, called affiliate stores. Cuponpro is controlled by businessman Cristian Burci, who is known for his investments in the media sector. “The idea of establishing this type of company came from the belief by analysts that the Romanian market is similar to the US market, where the programme has been operational for a number of years and has been very successful,” he said. In the United States, 52.2% of total marketing budgets were based on couponing, Fulea explained. According to estimates by two US couponing companies, Americans used approximately 3.5 billion coupons in 2003 with the total coupon value of 2.95bn dollars (2.29bn euros). Coupons are mainly used by companies wanting to announce product promotions. ZF