National Restaurant Chain Launches New Entrée with Campaign on Mobile, Email, Social Media

A new campaign by Pei Wei Asian Diner, the fast-casual restaurant chain owned by P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, introduced its newest entrée by connecting with customers through Facebook, mobile, Twitter and email, making the new dish one of its best-selling features.

“Pei Wei’s success using multiple interactive channels to drive engagement underscores the tremendous opportunity brands have to connect with consumers in store, via Twitter and Facebook and through email to build life-time customer value.”

Powered by global interactive marketing provider ExactTarget, Pei Wei introduced its new Caramel Chicken entrée with in-store signs and online promotions inviting guests to join the restaurant’s email list via text, web, Twitter or Facebook to receive a buy-one, get-one free coupon, resulting in nearly 20,000 new email subscribers in just two weeks.

“Given the large volume of guests carrying their mobile phones into the restaurants, adding an SMS element to our social media, web and email channels made perfect sense,” said Jason Miller, digital content and community manager for P.F. Chang’s. “Texting doesn’t just allow us to engage with customers while they’re in the restaurant, it enables us to expand our email and social media strategy so we can continue creating relevant and effective customer experiences even after they leave.”

With nearly a third of all new email registrations coming from text, the multi-channel campaign at Pei Wei’s 173 locations posted coupon redemption rates near 20 percent, and was the restaurant’s most successful new email list growth effort to date, Miller said.

“Effective marketing requires brands rapidly embrace the new reality of cross-channel marketing and create opportunities to engage with consumers in real time to deliver true customer value,” said Tim Kopp, ExactTarget chief marketing officer. “Pei Wei’s success using multiple interactive channels to drive engagement underscores the tremendous opportunity brands have to connect with consumers in store, via Twitter and Facebook and through email to build life-time customer value.”

According to the National Restaurant Association, restaurant industry sales are projected to total $604 billion in 2011, equaling 4 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. A 2010 ExactTarget study entitled The Collaborative Future found consumers are more inclined to purchase after subscribing to email messages. Part of the Subscribers, Fans, Followers research series, the study of more than 1,500 U.S. consumers found 27 percent of consumers said they are more likely to purchase from a brand after subscribing to email, and 17 percent of consumers are more likely to purchase after liking a brand on Facebook.

Pei Wei’s cross-channel marketing success follows the launch of the Forrester Consulting study commissioned by ExactTarget that found 48 percent of interactive marketing executives rank understanding customers’ cross-channel interactions as one of the top challenges facing marketing today. Entitled The New Campaign Management Mandate,” the June 2011 study found marketers’ lack of cross-channel insights result in brands interacting through disconnected channels that fail to deliver seamless brand experiences and the real-time, relevant dialog consumers expect. To download the free report, visit www.ExactTarget.com/mandate.

About ExactTarget

ExactTarget is a leading global provider of on-demand email marketing and interactive marketing solutions. The company’s Interactive Marketing Hub technology provides organizations a single solution to connect with customers via email, integrated text messaging, landing pages and social media. Supported by collaborative global services teams, ExactTarget’s technology integrates with more sales and marketing information systems than any other in the industry, including Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Omniture and Webtrends among many others. ExactTarget powers permission-based multichannel communications for thousands of organizations around the world. For more information, visit www.ExactTarget.com.

Contacts

ExactTarget
Charlie McAtee, 317-524-2861
[email protected]