Mobile driving sales and affinity at QSR

The Pesky PIN problem:

Mobile PIN usage in quick ser­vice restau­rants (QSRs) as a way of dri­ving sales is as old as mobile mar­ket­ing  - suc­cess­ful pro­mo­tions hit the street ten years back in the UK. The chal­lenge has always been pro­vid­ing a sim­ple mech­a­nism to print a proof of pur­chase PIN.

http://www.pizzamarketplace.com/article/139582/How-Coca-Cola-s-mobile-credit-campaign-could-change-QSR

Coca-Cola’s mobile PIN solu­tion is easy: They have an exist­ing mech­a­nism for PIN pro­vi­sion­ing under cap. Now, some QSRs have run mobile PIN on prod­ucts by stick­er­ing or putting codes on wrap­pers and cups. When SUBWAY ran a “text the PIN” hockey-related pro­mo­tion five years ago, national sales rose by 15 points over a sim­i­lar period the pre­vi­ous year. How­ever, fran­chisees don’t like to sticker.

How­ever, insert­ing proof-of-purchase PINs in-product to run a pro­mo­tion is a logis­ti­cal chal­lenge, espe­cially for a fran­chised chain. There­fore, the mar­ket needs to work on a way of tak­ing PIN pro­vi­sion­ing pain off the table. There are only two options and they are both at retail point of sale:

1. Auto­mated EPP (Elec­tronic Proof of Purchase)

EPP can be used to trig­ger a credit event off a shopper’s loy­alty card based on pur­chase behav­ior. If there is an exist­ing mobile opt-in, SMS can be sent to shop­per advis­ing them of the credit reward after a sin­gle pur­chase or based on a group of prod­uct bought. The retailer can allow for “good” break­age by request­ing the shopper’s respond to the SMS for a credit to be triggered.

2. Dynamic PIN-on-RECEIPT

Like­wise, a mobile PIN can be printed on the receipt based on pur­chase behav­ior. This is a more opti­mal chan­nel as there is nat­ural break­age as well as the oppor­tu­nity to cap­ture mobile opt-in. As long as the retailer has an always-on PIN reward at the bot­tom of the receipt based on end cap call-to-action, this chan­nel can be effec­tively used for air­bonus, mSur­veys, gen­eral mPro­mo­tions and of course mCRM activation.

Impor­tantly, the solu­tion does not slow down the aisle or require the retail clerk or fran­chisee to do any­thing beyond business-as-usual. Fraud is unlikely (unless the clerk pock­ets the receipt) and we are enter­ing into a mobile rela­tion­ship with every par­tic­i­pat­ing shopper.

Whether the man­u­fac­turer or the retailer do the work, the reward for all par­ties in the value chain is too great to be ignored. Every­one wins: Car­rier, ser­vice provider, man­u­fac­turer, retailer, and, of course, the consumer.

http://www.pizzamarketplace.com/article/139582/How-Coca-Cola-s-mobile-credit-campaign-could-change-QSR