Here is a deal to bring home to mom and dad. College students that are looking to go on to grad school to become a teacher, National Louis University will offer would-be teachers a Groupon Deal for nearly 60% off tuition of an entry-level graduate teaching course. The deal, set to go live Tuesday, will discount the cost for the three-credit introductory course from $2,232 to $950. The offer is open to as many as 25 buyers, who must possess an undergraduate degree to participate. Students will need to complete another 33 credits at full price to earn a graduate degree. Now I know what most of you are saying, “what the fudge is a National Louis University, I damn sure never seen them play on ESPN.” But that’s really not the point here. What makes this deal interesting is that it opens up an entirely new potential platform for Group Buying Deals, college tuition, as well as a huge financial discount for students looking to attend grad schools. The purpose of this deal is for prospective teachers to get a taste for the work load and what they will entail by embarking on a graduate degreee, without spending a boatload of cash.
With this unique expansion of the Group Buying model, it got me thinking of other things that I would like to see receive the Groupon treatment…
Anything Apple
Not that Apple needs to discount anything, but it would be awesome to see the iPads, iPhones, iPods, & Mac laptops get discounted if you and your friends bought them at a certain time. Even if they did this with old models it could still be cool. Here’s my thought, as you expand into more and more apple products, and you recruit friends to do the same, you receive discounts as you move forward. So if you have owned three types of iPods, two versions of iPhones, both iPads, and a Macbook Pro, your next apple product should receive a substantial discount. It would build brand loyalism with Apple even further, and increase the rate of expansion of the brand.
Gas
Nothing deserves a discount more than gas. If it was up to me anyone who comes to a Blitz and Beatz event from out of town or a different campus would receive a group buying opportunity to get discounted gas. I’m gonna write a strongly worded letter to Groupon to see if I can get this one passed.
Expensive Yankee Tickets
The most disturbing sight is seeing those crazy expensive Yankee tickets in the front rows have nobody sitting in them. Groupon should have an instant deals alert, and only offer it to true Yankee fans. They can determine the Yankee fans by tracking how often people talk about the Yankees on their various social networks. It’s like Yankee Klout.
Sports Betting
This concept is off the cuff, but hear me out. Let’s say you use Sportsbook.com (free plug) like myself. I think something that would be cool is that if you can get 5 other people to bet on the same game as you, it would lower your spread by 2 pts. Every 5 people that you get to bet on your game lowers the spread for the entire group by an additional two points. This would be beneficial to Sportsbook as it would increase people recruiting their friends to bet, it would make sports betting a more social activity, and it would give the people making the bets a better opportunity to win money; which they will ultimately lose back to Sportsbook at one time or another anyways.
