Groupon Now is amazing. Not because it just saved me $5 on a sandwich (which it did), but because for the first time in a long time I have encountered a consumer service that fundamentally changes my shopping behavior. What makes Groupon Now (and services like it) so special? These real-time geo-located deal services transform the social web from a “What are you up to…” sort of place to a  ”I want to…” sort of place. A place where a virtual prompt can link to a real-world desire and enable seamless fulfillment of that desire. Real-time geo-located deals is to Amazon shopping, what Flash mobs are to G+ hangouts. Both are awesome, both have value – but only one is birthed online and comes to full fruition in the real world. This is magical stuff.

By magic I mean that these services can feel like “wish fulfillment” when they work correctly . It is that magic genie in a bottle moment that holds the key to enormous value for companies across the world. As a brand, imagine for a second a person standing up in a crowd and saying “I need your service!” What if, at that very instant, your deal materialized in the hands of that consumer? Isn’t that the ideal consumer experience? Isn’t that the fruition of how a consumer marketplace is supposed to function? Might that not change mass consumer behavior?

All of this praise isn’t designed to juice Groupon’s IPO. What it is designed to do is to solidify in our minds the possibilities. “Great. But what can I do to harness this magic?” you’re saying. Well, it is still early going for these types of services. At the very least there is going to be a major deals shakeout at some point. We may end up with a few dominant players and a bunch of vertical/horizontal specialists or perhaps we’ll see a rebalancing of power as small businesses realize that without their participation to create the inventory of deals then the services cannot exist. Or perhaps some third option that we can’t see yet. The market is fickle.

Keeping these (and surely more) caveats in mind, it is well worth it for brands to experiment with these deals. Some keys to major brand experimentation are:

• Focus on the value created by context. It is important that these offers don’t train counter-productive behaviors into your consumers. Sure, there should be bargains, but the value of the offer should come from the real-time geo-located aspects of the deal and not solely savings potential.
• Don’t lose sight of your target markets. The foot traffic and inventory churn generated by a successful deal can be like a drug to a business. In-store activity, even low value activity, is addictive. Brands want more of it and can lose strategic focus in the flurry of activity that deals generate.
• Integrate. Integrate. Integrate. Whatever you do don’t create a new deals channel that isn’t integrated with the rest of your marketing mix. The last thing you need is one more appendage to your marketing team freestyling while you are trying to bring measurement rigor and focus to the rest of your efforts.

It is rare for marketers to find an opportunity to surprise and delight customers in a completely new way – real-time geo-located deals is one of them. Let’s makes some magic and have some fun.