After years of ignoring coupons that offer rebates on daily household products, cash-strapped consumers are showing more of an appetite for these small discounts.

Last year was the first time in 15 years that coupon redemptions didn't decline, research shows. Individual companies have mixed reports on coupon usage, but a broad Unilever NV study in the U.S. found that in the first quarter, the percentage of goods sold via coupon rose from a year earlier.

The weakening economy is now pushing some companies to use coupons as a creative way of promising better "value" to consumers. As consumers eat out less, Kraft Foods Inc., for instance, has created coupons that are intended to make the idea of a brown-bag lunch more financially appetizing. The company has put together coupon booklets with a dollar off on each of six brands that go toward a sandwich: Oscar Mayer deli meats, Kraft cheese slices, mustard, pickles, mayonnaise and Ritz toasted chips.

"Consumers are looking for coping mechanisms," says Lisa Klauser, vice president of consumer and customer solutions, at products company Unilever U.S. "Coupons are one way they are trying to make ends meet, get more bang for the buck."

Campbell Soup Co. is partnering with Kraft Foods for a coming insert that will carry coupons for Kraft cheese singles and Campbell's soup side by side in an effort to promote the idea that consumers can put together a low-cost meal -- made up of a grilled-cheese sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup -- right at home.

A Campbell spokesman said the company is offering a significantly larger number of coupons for its new line of Select Harvest soups. The company is tailoring coupons on other soups to generate the idea that they offer consumers good value at this time of economic stress.

Meanwhile, Kimberly-Clark Corp., among other household- product companies, is trying out a program to allow consumers to use coupons via their cellphones.

The Unilever research, which studied 47,000 consumers across the U.S., found that in the first quarter of 2008, the percentage of product volume sold on coupons across all stores and all categories rose to 7.4%, compared with 7% in the first quarter of 2007. Unilever's research shows that the interest in coupons has been rising over the past two years.

From 1992, coupon redemptions had been showing a steady decline. But marking a reversal and possibly signaling the economic pressure consumers started to face, coupon redemptions in the U.S. ended flat in 2007, the first time in 15 years they didn't decline, says Matthew Tilley, director of marketing for CMS Inc., which acts as a coupon processing agent.