Ever notice how coupons look a lot like Post-Its? It's not really surprising since both serve the same basic function of reminding you to do something at a later point in time. Where coupons are generally bulk printed and Post-Its are personal and handwritten, there are some features inherent in both that I wouldn't mind seeing some crossover.
First off, let me say that my coupon philosophy is basically to not use them. But I make exceptions primarily for pizza and free Chick-Fil-A grub. With pizza, that is essentially how you decide what to order, and it is well-understood that you shouldn't pay full price for a pie anyway because they all offer discounts. And with Chick-Fil-A, they just offer fantastic deals. Usually a free sandwich or 8-piece nuggets. But overall, I find the business of searching and clipping coupons to not be worth the time and effort and a bit like sitting through midnight infomercials.
Aside from personal habits, I admire a couple things about coupons. One, they generally contain a high resolution picture. This makes it 100 times quicker to tell what the coupon is telling you to purchase than if it were spelled out in the same size Times New Roman or scribbled cursive. Second, the coupon generally tells you exactly the value of what you are either purchasing or about to save. Post-Its don't generally contain a baseline monetary value for following up on one what you need to accomplish. And third, coupons expire. Perhaps the best feature. More things in life should have expiration dates, not just antiquated notes. But one better, they should just self-destruct so I don't have to bother reading them and pitching them myself.
With Post-Its, you have a couple favorable points. One, they come in pre-cut, standard sizes. How many times do you get coupons that match the same length and width as it's predecessor? Plus you have to cut them out so even if you do get 2 of the same size the dotted cut line is generally an inch wide so more of a border than a linear entity. Second, and perhaps the best, they are sticky. One problem I have with coupons is where to put them when I'm heading out so that I know to use them. With Post-Its, I can stick one right on the outside of my wallet and I'll see it when I go to purchase something. Unfortunately, all Post-Its are yellow, so all my notes carry the same level of urgency and eye-catchiness. But at least I know they are trusted memos from me-of-the-past and not some advertisement to pick up 3 boxes of Little Debbies when I already have 4 in the cupboard.
I guess there are pros and cons to each, but if one product was to capitalize fully on the pros of each that would have to be Cheez-Its. And all they would really have to do would be punch a few holes in the standard Post-Its and add a little orange to the canary yellow. Then it wouldn't need any text whatsoever, the value would be understood to be infinite, and you could simply bite into it to figure if it was expired.
Either that or start scribbling your to-do list on stale Cheez-Its, licking then sticking them to your fridge. Either adaptation works pretty well.
