Ferdi Stolzenberg and Martin Roeth, both directors of MobileFOXX Holdings Ltd, launched MobileFOXX, an innovative mobile coupon platform, in Hong Kong last September. They tell RIA that they not only target Hong Kong's market, but how they also have their eyes on the rest of Asia. The duo talk about how mobile coupons work and introduce the feature functions of the German-originated coupon tools.

RIA: How do mobile coupons work?

MF: MobileFOXX works on most 3G smartphones. At present, the MobileFOXX software is available on iTunes, Android, Windows Mobile, java mobiles with a GPS function. We will also be adding Blackberry very soon. When a user logs in to the software on his or her smartphone, it will locate users on a map, and then the logos of MobileFOXX's merchants nearby will be shown on the map. So users can view a shop's information and its offers. Users can also browse the merchants and their offers by categories. They can read all the terms and conditions on their mobile phones, and if they like the offer, they can download the coupon. The coupon will show a barcode, which is unique and cannot be copied. What they have to do to redeem the coupon is just to show their mobile phones to the cashier while they are paying. The user will have to provide information such as their name, gender and age at the time of downloading the application – this information is useful for the merchant's marketing analysis.

RIA: Can you tell us a bit about MobileFOXX's history and its services?

MF: We launched MobileFOXX in Hong Kong in September 2010. The development of MobileFOXX is part of the German coupon tool called Coupies. It was originally created by two software developers from the University of Cologne in Germany. They launched it in 2009 and the application went commercial in 2010 and has already attracted much attention from customers. In Germany, Coupies has many large customers, including KFC. Consumers can download the software on their 3G mobile phones and browse discounts and coupons from nearby shops which are available to them. It is very popular and successful in Germany – about 1 million users have already downloaded the software.

RIA: Can you share some examples of how retailers can use it to launch their marketing campaigns?

MF: Merchants can decide their campaigns' size, or they can set a maximum number of coupons for a campaign, so it can drive the motivation for redeeming coupons. They can also set up campaigns for their existing customers. Our system features allow us to create card-less membership ID for clubs and associations of any kind. Subsequently clubs and associations can create their own unique offers for their members and communicate directly with them. Part of these deals will also allow them to offer a direct link to download our application from their own website. In effect we offer leverage to clubs and associations and other loyalty programme providers to encourage their own members to download our MobileFOXX application from their own website – which includes the system for all coupons which will be available for them to view.

In addition, we also help merchants to come up with new ideas; since offering only discounts is rather dull. You can use MobileFOXX as a marketing tool to launch new products, or to clear old stock. Let's take a bookshop as an example. Instead of a discount, we say that for every book you buy which was published in the last few months we can give you a 15 percent discount for the second book you buy. You can nominate certain book titles for this second book, so you can drive sales for old stock.

Talking Shop is the Retail in Asia section devoted to interviews with brand CEOs and retail industry leaders.