After going to a restaurant yesterday at the end they gave out these lucky red envelopes as usually businesses give these away in the spirit of lunar new years and often just have candy inside versus money when you get it from relatives. In this case, apparently it was a voucher to get something for free at the next visit. With that said, it did mention how you needed to spend a minim of $25 to get the deal which isn’t exactly cheap overall.
It did make me think how this can be a low-cost way to try and get repeat business as it nudges people to potentially go back again if they were thinking of trying more items. I know a lot of people just hate the idea of wasting free coupons to the point where they will go out of their way to try and find a reason to use it. Example, they just met up with a colleague and with this coupon they suggest they go there.
I know for myself, the minimum purchase makes it a bit of a turnoff such as how you at first think the business is super generous due to the holidays but then this makes it more apparent that it is all business. Either, probably not a bad marketing strategy if you run a restaurant.