Datalogic and RocketBux Introduce Mobile Coupons to the Pacific Northwest with the help of Dari Mart and PepsiCo’s AMP Energy Drink
Overview of Dari Mart
Dari Mart is United States convenience store chain with 44 locations in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Dari Mart supplies milk, ice cream and other dairy products from Lochmead Farms. The joint store-farm operation employs more than 450 people.
Overview AMP Energy Drink
Established in 2001, AMP Energy is an energy drink targeted at the 18-34 year-old male demographic in North America. The product is produced and distributed by PepsiCo under the Mountain Dew soft drink brand and comes in several flavors. The original flavor contains Taurine, vitamin B and Ginseng.
The Challenge
Dari Mart wanted to grow their business and increase sales. PepsiCo and AMP Energy Drink wanted to increase sales and generate interest in new AMP Energy drink flavors. Specifically, AMP’s goal was to increase sales in the 18-34 year old male demographic.
Historically, this demographic is not likely to use traditional printed coupons; therefore, Dari Mart and AMP Energy wanted to find a new way to make the promotion easy, painless and fun. As this demographic is connected through technology, what better way than receiving a coupon on their mobile phone? And if the coupon can arrive instantaneously, it can significantly influence purchasing behavior above and beyond traditional printed coupons.
The Solution
During six weeks in late 2008, cooler cases carrying AMP Energy drinks in Dari Marts across the Pacific Northwest displayed a poster, advertising the promotion. Customers were offered the ability to buy one original flavor AMP Energy Drink and get a second can of a new AMP Energy drink flavor of their choice for free.
Customers “texted” the letters DMAMP to “short code” or address, 20123 into their mobile phone. By the time the customer arrived at the point-of-sale (POS), the branded mobile coupon was already delivered to their mobile phone. The data was encoded in the form of a scannable 1D bar code and when the customer clicked to open the message, the bar code displayed on their mobile phone.
The cashier then pressed a button on Datalogic’s Magellan™ 1400i presentation scanner to read the coupon from the mobile phone’s display screen. The code 128 bar code contained a numeric tracking code, which allowed Dari Mart and AMP Energy to track the number of customer responses to this promotion. Each of the 44 Dari Marts in the Pacific Northwest had two Magellan 1400i presentation scanners at the POS, which could read the mobile coupons.
The mobile solution for this project was designed and implemented by RocketBux, a mobile marketing technology and services provider. Though the user experience was simple – just “click the link”, the process behind the scenes to get a bar code to successfully scan is quite complex. Every mobile phone model has specific requirements to render the bar code correctly, depending upon the number of pixels, display dimensions and mobile phone carrier.
The Results
The promotion ran from November 15 until December 31, 2008. When comparing the results from the same time period last year, Dari Mart discovered that AMP Energy drink sales had a net increase of 56%. They exceeded their goal of increasing sales and generating interest in the AMP Energy drink flavors.
In addition to increasing sales for AMP Energy drinks, the residual“Green” benefits of this technology are hard to resist. Since the coupons were received and generated electronically, paper, printing and transportation expenses were virtually eliminated.
Many companies in Europe and Asia have been using mobile coupon technology for several years. US Retailers are starting to realize the benefits of mobile coupons after initial trials and observing the results in Europe and Asia.
Using mobile coupons have additional benefits: consumers don’t have to remember to take coupons to the store; and, they can be instantly retrieved via text messaging. Many merchants are beginning to offer similar promotions as they understand the efficiencies and expanded marketing capabilities of RocketBux mobile solutions.
Overview of RocketBux
RocketBux, Inc. provides technology that enables merchants and the more than 240 million mobile-equipped consumers to interact. The company’s mobile solutions are seamlessly available via all US wireless carriers without the need to download an application to the phone. The company is based in Bend, Oregon with offices in Palo Alto, CA, Richmond, VA and Eugene, OR.
Customers
Dari Mart Convenience Stores
PepsiCo AMP Energy Drink
Industry
Retail
Sub-Industry
Convenience Stores / Gas Stations
Application
Mobile Marketing
Country
United States
Datalogic Products
Magellan™ 1400i
Datalogic Partner
RocketBux, Inc.
