Users of deal collectives co-produce “deals” that yield value beyond what a marketer intends when offering promotions. We develop an understanding of how this unintended value is co-produced through the combined actions of users in deal collectives. Users are drawn to deal collectives by a web of motivations that include subversive shopper feelings, which reflect a desire to outsmart firms and temporarily upend the market power structure. Uncovered transvaluation processes show that deal forums, due to their collective knowledge, creativity, and trust, are more effective than individual consumers at identifying, developing, and vetting opportunities to capture unintended value. We further reveal that unintended value can stem from untargeted promotions, pricing and promotion errors, and by combining or stacking promotions. Strategies for monitoring deal collectives and either discouraging or supporting their activities are offered.

1. From:
Let’s Make a “Deal”
How Deal Collectives Coproduce Unintended
Value from Sales Promotions
Campbell and Schau (2019)

2. From:From:
 174 million consumers planned to shop during Black Friday in
2017 to get good deals.
 But many consumers want more than a deal. They want to get
a deal that they think was unintended by a company, such as
combining multiple coupons to get an item for free.
 This is a very popular activity among some consumers: One
of the largest deal forums in the USA receives over 10 million
visitors a month.
Consumers Love Getting Deals
Campbell and Schau (2019)

3. From:From:
 Subversive shopper feelings: ego-related affect emanating
from a consumer shopping in a manner inconsistent with
established norms or rules
 Secondary motivations
 Smart shopper feelings
 Gamification involved in finding a good deal
 Social benefits from sharing deals with others
What Motivates Deal Forum
Visitors?
Campbell and Schau (2019)

4. From:From:
 Errors in targeting
 Errors in pricing or promotional terms
 Loopholes that allow combining or “stacking” multiple
promotional offers together
Types of Unintended Value Created
Campbell and Schau (2019)

5. From:From:
“The people who are posting deals usually work them
individually, but you'll often see someone post a deal
and then someone post a reply that either improves
the deal, or puts a different spin on it, saying, ‘You
can get the same deal on this other product,’ or retailer,
for the same price. It is really a community effort, in
terms of someone starting off with a deal and then
others building on it.” - Fred (Deal Forum Participant,
37, Male, Software Designer)
Deal Forums Improve Deals
Campbell and Schau (2019)

6. From:From:
“Some of these people find things, and I'm like, ‘How in
God's name do they ever come across that?’ Sometimes
it'll be mistakes or things that ... The website, a fluke in
the website or something where if you hit a certain
combination of key strokes, or you go in and you put it in
your cart, and then you log out, and then you come back
in, and then you can put another coupon on it. … How
those guys find those things … It's just incredible.” –
Devon (Deal Forum Participant, 55, Male, Attorney)
Mistakes are Highly Attractive
Campbell and Schau (2019)

7. From:
Unintendedly Good Deals Often
Inspire Purchase Beyond Need
Campbell and Schau (2019)
Participant’s personal stockpile of
household goods purchased from deals
Participant’s personal stockpile of personal
care products purchased from deals

8. From:From:
Potential for Deal Forums to Benefit Firms
Low High
PotentialforDealForums
toDamageFirms
Low
Deter
(single-use discount codes,
1 code per customer)
Enable
(Break large coupons into smaller
stackable coupons, limit time frame
where coupons overlap)
High
Resist
(create decoy deals, stop
sending promotions to
consumers who abuse
them)
Encourage
(use non-unique discount
codes, distribute multiple
discount codes together)
Monitor
Campbell and Schau (2019)
What Should Companies Do?