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| OOP: ~$20 |
The discourse community I plan on studying for this upcoming
paper is Victoria’s Secret coupon community. Many of you are probably pretty
confused and thinking, “What is that?” or “Does this really exist?” One month
ago, I would have had the exact same thoughts. In the past few weeks, however,
this community has played a huge part in my daily life. #couponislife
Just kidding. I do not think I am that addicted yet.
Like I mentioned, I became a member of this discourse
community not too long ago. My interest started because of a promotion Victoria
Secret was doing called the Secret Reward Card (SRC) in which you could mail in
an entry or make a purchase of $10 or more to receive a card worth $10-$500 that
you revealed on March 28th. You would think that because I am a
marketing major, I would know better than to fall for these marketing schemes.
But nope, they got me real good. Within one month, I made 10 orders on the
website and visited the store at least two or three times a week to accumulate
20 something SRCs. This is coming from the girl who probably shopped at
Victoria Secret once or twice a year because she got free panty coupons or a
birthday reward. I wasn’t about that $10.50+ panty life, or was I willing to
pay $30 for a tank.
And this is exactly why I am so interested in the Victoria’s
Secret coupon community. The community is all about helping each other find the
best deal possible to maximize your dollar. This is our goal. You actually end
up getting a great deal, or items that are practically free. To give you an
example, even with the amount of things I’ve gotten from Victoria’s Secret, I’ve
only spent around $100. Some of the items I’ve gotten include 20 something
panties ($10.50-$12.50 retail), two free tote bags ($50 and $85), and five bras
which includes a Bombshell bra that retails for $60 alone. In total, I think I
accumulated around $500+ worth of items and counting because I still have SRCs
coming.
The main ways this community communicates is through Facebook
and Instagram. We post deals every time they show up because they are often
time limited, and post pictures of the items including the total out of pocket (OOP)
spent after coupons. Pictures speak much more than words in this community
because they allow us to see the exact items purchased, coupons used, and OOP so
that we could mimic the deal someone did if we wanted to. It is also our way of
congratulating each other on a great deal.
I have been analyzing the community over the past few weeks
on Facebook and Instagram. Something that intrigues me and that I would really
like to figure out is how some people are able to accumulate so many Angel
Rewards (AR) and birthday rewards (HB). HB codes are given to people during
their birthday month so it only happens once a year, and yet some people on
Instagram have tens of them that they sell to others. I follow some of these
people (who happen to have thousands of followers from the community) and would
really like to interview them to find out how they do it, but I feel like they
would probably keep the “how” a secret. Since that will probably be the case, I
have some active members of the Facebook group I am in that I would also like
to interview. Some of the questions I want to ask are, “How has VS couponing
affected your life?” and “How much would you say you have spent total at VS,
and how much do you think you have saved?”
Something I’ll also like to note is how learning about the definition
of a discourse community has changed the way I think of one now. I’ve very wary
of the lexi we use and our methods of communication. When I first became a
member, I had no idea what SRC or OOP meant but I learned on my own as I became
more involved in the community. It is easy for me to tell when someone is new
to the community by the way they write or spell out Angel Rewards instead of simply
calling it AR. I am looking forward to learning more about this discourse
community so I can be a pro VS couponer.
