90% of students use mobile to hunt out deals, coupons

One in five college students in the U.S. are addicted to mobile deals, according to new research conducted by Study Breaks and Campus2Careers, with the majority of students overall using their mobile devices to look for deals and coupons.

by Helen Leggatt

Students rely heavily on their mobile devices to socialize and communicate. Ninety-one percent use their mobile to check and compose email and 68% "check in" with social media through their device.

The vast majority (87%) have their mobile with them at all times.

Increasingly, students are using their mobiles to seek out money-saving deals and coupons. According to the Study Breaks and Campus2Careers survey of 689 U.S. college students, 51% use their mobile device to "always" (20%) or "often" (31%) seek out deals and coupons. Just 10% said they "never" did so.

"What this all means is that, like it or not, mobile devices are an extension of college students--a practical limb--and it's crucial that businesses take advantage of this," says Study Breaks in a recent announcement. "To do this, a business should develop mobile marketing tactics and a mobile site to increase interactivity and reach potential college students at any time via the one form of media that they never put down: their mobile device."

Other key findings from the survey include:

-40% prefer mobile-optimized sites;
-91% use their mobile to check/compose email;
-93% use their mobile to search for business information;
-32% use their mobile for visiting business websites, while 68% use their laptops;
-46% use their mobile to scan QR codes in a print ad;
-53% read magazines on their mobile devices.

Tags: coupons, mobile consumer, mobile marketing, mobile website, student marketing, survey