• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, December 23, 2009

Even when they succeed, innovative digital marketing strategies still face a number of old-fashioned obstacles, including haggling between various stakeholders over how to divide up the pie. A good example is the recent disclosure, first reported in Ad Age, that the Kroger supermarket chain and consumer packaged-goods giant Procter & Gamble Co. are dissolving their electronic coupon partnership program, which allowed members of Kroger's loyalty program to download digital coupons to their loyalty accounts from the P&G Web site.

The issue wasn't revenue, per se, but rather Web site traffic.

Rather than redirect shoppers to P&G's site "eSaver" Web site, where they could find e-coupons for Kroger stores, Kroger wanted shoppers to be able to perform this task on its Web site, which also let loyalty program members compile shopping lists.

In addition to allowing consumers to view competing offers, this would give Kroger more opportunities to present users with advertising and promotions in general, as well as more access to more data concerning shopper preferences and online behavior.

According to the report, in a typical month (November), almost one-quarter of the traffic to PGeSaver.com was redirected there from Kroger.com, while P&G's various sites only accounted for 3.9% of traffic in the opposite direction.

P&G balked at this demand, but Kroger is standing its ground, having reached similar deals with other coupon partners, including mobile marketing service Cellfire.

In March 2008, Kroger announced the launch of a test campaign for mobile e-coupons using Cellfire's technology for managing shopping lists on mobile devices, with online and mobile interfaces linked to the Kroger Web site.

Most big supermarket chains now have an e-coupon program, and there have been some experiments combining coupon marketing with different forms of digital advertising.

ShopRite tested a new customer loyalty program last year designed in partnership with MediaCart Holdings and Microsoft, tracking individual purchases and delivering discounts via MediaCart, which installs small computers with digital displays in shopping carts.

Earlier this year, Tom Thumb and Randall's -- both owned by Safeway -- announced an experimental program in cooperation with Cellfire and packaged-goods manufacturers General Mills, Unilever and Kimberly-Clark to offer shoppers 21 coupons for goods like pre-packaged tossed salad and kids' cereal.