When Pei Wei Asian Diner introduced the Caramel Chicken entrée, the Chinese food chain took advantage of the occasion to beef up its email database. Pei Wei, which is owned by P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, worked with email provider ExactTarget to create a multichannel campaign centered on email to help spread the word.
The effort included in-store signage, online ads and social media messages that invited consumers to sign up for Pei Wei’s email list for a buy-one, get-one free offer. To get the offer, consumers were asked to text their email address to a shortcode.
“Email is being seen as viable again because of smartphones,” says Jason Miller, digital content and community manager at P.F. Chang’s. “Emails now have even more immediate impact, and with large lists, restaurants can drive a lot of information and traffic quickly.” The campaign led to 20,000 new email subscribers in two weeks. In addition, the restaurant saw 20% redemption rates.
In this tough economy, restaurant marketing departments are facing challenging times, says Eric Giandelone, director of research at food data analysis firm Mintel Group. “With high unemployment and a slow economy, restaurants are using lots of email offers to motivate people to eat out.”
Giandelone says that email is a cost-effective way to send these offers. “It’s a lot cheaper than direct mail or TV,” he says. “But restaurants have to make sure that price promotions are strong enough to get people into their restaurants, and that they can afford them with increasing commodity costs.”
Although email is cost-efficient, Giandelone warns that restaurants should not over-send offers. “Email marketing is a great tool to send offers, but if it is done too much, it promotes a culture of consumers who expect deep discounting,” says Giandelone.
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