The Official blog of Dark Matter, Inc.

Why this is important: This is great example of how mobile and social come together in the QSR space to build loyalty programs. The quasi Groupon approach to rewards creates “pull” marketing for the brand.

From QSR March 8, 2011

California Tortilla launched a special Facebook promotion to reward loyal fans while also attracting new fans. From now through March 8, anyone who ‘likes’ California Tortilla on the social networking site will be rewarded with a special coupon, the value of which will be contingent upon how many people like California Tortilla. The coupon will be posted on and valid only on March 9.

“This is the latest example of how California Tortilla tries to engage our current fans and attract new ones,” says Stacey Kane, director of marketing for California Tortilla. “Caltort fans have been going wild for the promotion by campaigning and posting all over Facebook and Twitter. It has been so much fun to watch the numbers climb. We look forward to giving back to our entire fan base on March 9.”

The page reached 13,000 “likes” in less than eight hours of launching the promotion, which means that everyone who likes the page will be entitled to download at least a coupon for free Chips and Queso. If the page reaches 15,000 likes, the coupon will be upgraded to one free taco and finally, if the page hits 25,000 fans, then fans will receive a free burrito.

Seven intriguing facts from our look back at 2010 in digital retailing:

1. Facebook surpassed each of the top three web properties Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft based on time spent. Facebook now accounts for 12.3% of all time being spent online, up from 7.2% in 2009.
2. Communication among younger audiences is shifting from web-based email to instant messaging, social networking and mobile. In fact, the 12-17 year old age group is spending 59% LESS TIME on web-based email.
3. Flash sale sites (Gilt.com, Hautelook.com, Ideeli.com, RueLaLa.com, and OneKingsLane.com) gained traction in 2010. Gilt Groupe closed in on one million visitors at the end of 2010, up 52% from one year ago.
4. Group-buying sites increased in popularity in 2010. Groupon saw visitation grow 712% to 10.7 million visitors. LivingSocial was up 438% to 5.7 million visitors.
5. Social networking drove growth in display ad impressions. Facebook alone served more than 1 trillion display ads in 2010.
6. There are significant demographic differences between people who visit retail sites on a PC versus their mobile phones. Mobile retail users are male and younger, in the 18-34 year old segment.
7. Retail e-commerce was up 10% in 2010 over 2009 reaching $142 billion. Consumer electronics, computer hardware, and books & magazines were the fastest growing e-commerce categories in 2010.

by Sarah Van Hierseele, 5 hours ago

At the grocery store, Mom accesses her shopper loyalty account and loads her coupons directly on her smartphone. After buying her groceries, she checks the calendar on her phone and decides she has time to pick up a last-minute holiday gift. She locates a big-box retailer and navigates there using the smartphone’s GPS.

Before making her purchase, she checks competitors’ prices to ensure that she’s getting the best value. On her way back to the car, she receives a text message from her favorite boutique letting her know that they’re having an exclusive sale and decides that moms deserve to treat themselves every now and then. She quickly spreads word on Facebook so all of her friends can treat themselves, too.

Is Mom getting your message on her smartphone?

These practical, real-world applications represent the tip of the iceberg for smartphone holiday shopping potential. People are increasingly turning to mobile solutions during holiday shopping, and mothers, a key demographic, are rarely targeted specifically.

Far from a fad, savvy smartphone shopping is a growing trend. More and more, moms are augmenting their shopping experience — a recent Millennial Media report indicated that in 2010 32% of moms own a smartphone versus 20% in 2009. Likewise, 32% of moms reported using their mobile Internet at least once a week in 2010 versus 20% in 2009. Both instances show an increase of 60% in usage by moms, and these numbers will continue to climb this holiday season and into 2011.

Moms are often the household’s key decision maker. Once slow to adopt new technologies, they have been quick to embrace smartphones. During the holiday season, mothers are increasingly utilizing their mobile devices — locating stores, researching products, comparing prices, seeking out special offers and coupons, checking product availability, streaming multi-media, playing games or simply killing time in line checking Facebook and Twitter. Every one of these activities represents a chance for brands to reach out and grab the attention of these influencers.

It’s not too late

Even if your brand hasn’t made targeting moms a part of your long-term strategy, there are some simple guidelines you can follow that will help you begin engaging with moms faster than you can say “Kris Kringle”:

• The more, the merrier: Effective holiday shopping applications, mobile websites and mobile ad campaigns need to be accessible by a variety of smartphone platforms — iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, etc., to reach the largest audience.

• Not too flashy: It’s important that all landing pages or microsites are designed to be mobile-phone friendly. Too often, existing websites are difficult to browse via phone and any Flash elements will not work.

• What’s the deal?: The best mobile initiatives clearly state their offer: savings, convenience, and special deals.

• It’s good to share: Mobile apps should make social sharing easy. Something as simple as a mom sharing a link on Facebook can increase your exposure exponentially.

• Keep it simple: Effective applications should make a mom’s life easier. To this end, user experience should be clean with an emphasis on simplicity and convenience. The holidays are stressful enough. Any tool moms can use to reduce this stress will create buzz and be widely shared.

Even as little as a decade ago, it would have been difficult to anticipate today’s smartphone culture. Phones carry people’s lives inside them. Beyond contact lists and a means to reach out to family and friends, smartphones provide consumers with an ever-present window into the digital world. For busy, multi-tasking moms, the smartphone functions as a primary tool for keeping her life in order. Companies that can help her will be embraced; all others will be marked as spam.

by Steve Smith, Yesterday, 4:31 PM

“What do you want for Christmas?”

“To see my daughter every once in a while?”

“Sorry — you know I am working a lot.”

And what doesn’t fit in the weekly flurries of text exchanges with my daughter is that she is also taking very seriously turning 18 and relegating Dad to “as needed” communications for now (I trust). She would like to think otherwise, but this has been her pattern since she could walk. She used to hang way back from me in shopping malls to exert her independence — and then panic suddenly if she lost sight of me as I let her keep her distance. Passersby used to think she was an abandoned child, and I would have to scurry back and retrieve her whenever an adult starter circling out of concern. But this was just an “independence dance” she learned early on. Now if I neglect to answer her SMS in an hour, I get a “WTF Dad did you turn your phone off?” Stay away…. Hey, where did you go?

She has discovered what I like to call SMS PRM: Parental Relationship Management via mobile messaging. That tether-like tie a text message allows a modern kid (sorry — “adult” child) may be maddening to the parent, but it is the very model of CRM for brands:  keep your distance, don’t smother, check in to show you care, let them come to you.

Consumers may be more willing to engage in a productive mobile relationship with their favorite brands than they or the brands are aware. According to the latest iteration of Hipcricket’s annual Mobile Marketing Survey, only 9% of consumers recall that their favorite brands have marketed to them via mobile. And yet 35% of them say they would be interested in participating in something like a mobile loyalty program that included promotions and information. And among those who have joined a mobile loyalty program, 90% felt they had gotten value from those programs.

Well, the sample is small, especially once you get down to the 9% who have joined a mobile club of some sort. But I would add that personally, the experience of subscribing to brands like Urban Outfitters, Paramount Pictures, Famous Footwear, etc. have been a bit like my daughter’s current SMS relationship with her Dad: a tether-like connection that is helpful without being overbearing. In fact, I actually miss a mobile club that Borders Books used to run because it delivered the company’s regular member discounts directly to my phone.

But according to Hipcricket, which of course specializes in mobile CRM for major brands like Arby’s, there is an enormous untapped opportunity in these mobile programs. This survey found that 84% of mobile customers have not yet participated in a mobile loyalty program, even though actual interest in such programs is much higher than that. Someone in the marketing loop is not getting the message out there to users that their brands are waiting for customer to sign up, or the brands themselves are just not ready to offer and maintain real mobile CRM.

The term “relationship’” is bandied about so often now in marketing parlance that I am not sure it is taken seriously enough as a word and a concept. But whenever I consider the mobile CRM program I use, the natural terminology is highly personal. Almost all of the programs I have elected to keep on my phone are polite enough to leave me alone most of the time. Even the brands that are only tangentially interesting to me, get to stay on my phone because they are not so much of a bother anyway. The brands I have excised are almost always the ones that sent me just one message too many too often, even if the messages were relevant.

I imagine there is a low threshold among mobile subscribers for pulling the trap door on marketers’ clubs and sending the universal “stop command.” The safeguard against cancellation is to ensure that value is delivered with every message. I found Paramount and Famous Footwear are modestly effective in this regard. Paramount generally is offering more than a trailer and a notice of the weekend opener. It will offer a free download and a direct link to tickets. Famous Footwear not only notifies me of deals, but then offers an additional discount for using a mobile code.

But I think some of these marketers are still missing the point of mobile by not offering me more. Letting a brand onto your phone and giving it the permission to contact you on the same channel your daughter uses to communicate with you is a new and different level of intimacy – one that should be acknowledged, through both polite restraint of messaging and special rewards for mobile subscribers. The customers are looking for this added value, I think. The Hipcricket survey found that 38% of respondents are at least somewhat interested in receiving mobile coupons, and that is up substantially from the 18% last year.

Lack of opportunity is no real excuse for brands not to try engaging users in ongoing mobile relationships. This study also found 53% of mobile customers had used their phones to access a retailer’s Web site, and 30% interacted with a brand in some way via their cell phone. Somewhere in these exchanges, marketers should be offering to be of help to that user on an ongoing basis through an SMS sign-up. Using mobile media to touch customers without giving them the opportunity to stick with you is like leaving a voice mail without your return number or clocking caller ID. And mobile Web usage is skyrocketing. Hipcricket also found that 70% of mobile users are now accessing the mobile Web at least once a day, up from 21% a year ago.

The challenge is no longer getting users accustomed to the data channel on a mobile platform. The challenge is knowing how to talk to them.

It has to be a damn sight easier than learning how to talk to a stubbornly independent 18-year-old who wants to stay only so much in touch — but never out of touch. But CRM on mobile may actually look a lot like that kind of relationship.