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Ordering Pizza Hut From Your Facebook
Page? It's on the Way
Fast-Food Chains Experiment With
Takeout/Delivery Services Via Social Networks and IPhone
Applications
Emily
Bryson York
Advertising Age
November 10, 2008
CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- A number of fast-food chains are
reaching across the digital divide to get young
consumers to order via Facebook or their iPhones. And
they're building valuable databases of their customers
in the process.
Pizza Hut, which recently crossed the $1 billion
benchmark in online sales, is launching a Facebook
application that allows fans to place orders without
leaving their profiles. Although online ordering isn't
new -- the chain has offered it in some form since 2001
-- Bob Kraut, VP-marketing communications at Pizza Hut,
said the bulk of that $1 billion in sales has come in
the past 18 months. The chain is also launching
text-ordering capabilities and e-gift cards, which can
be purchased, exchanged and redeemed online.
Pizza Hut's not alone: A number of the nation's biggest
fast-food chains are beginning to embrace text and
iPhone ordering capabilities, at least as tests. Already
for the three months ending in August, food marketers
sent almost 1.4 million text-message ads, up 37% from
the same period last year, according to ComScore's
M:Metrics data. Consumers seem to want the offers: of
all the ad categories using SMS marketing, restaurants
had the highest response rates, with 15.5% of consumers
responding to the ads.
Subway spokesman Les Winograd said some of the chain's
franchisees have begun to offer ordering via text and
iPhone apps. The chain has an unusually open policy that
lets individual franchisees experiment with their
businesses.
"Some of that is stuff that they're doing on their own,
but they share information," Mr. Winograd said. "We're
constantly encouraging franchisees to think out of the
box and try something new. You never know, it might take
off." (He said adding turkey to the menu was a
franchisee experiment in the chain's early days.)
Lessons learned
McDonald's experimented with text-message ordering in
Chicago last summer, with signs encouraging consumers to
text in their late-night orders. Spokeswoman Danya Proud
said there were "some very good learnings from this
campaign about how to execute future viral campaigns."
Chipotle is developing an iPhone-ordering application to
complement its existing web- and fax-ordering platforms.
The chain also lets consumers pay online, place group
orders and save ordering information for return visits.
While shifting consumer behavior may be behind the move
toward mobile ordering, it's also lucrative. According
to Mr. Kraut, online buyers spend more. "It's a little
more upscale demographic, and a lot of people use
credit," he said.
To attract those customers, Pizza Hut is launching a
promotion with eMusic.com that gives customers 75 free
downloads in exchange for buying a pizza online. The
chain is hoping to boost awareness of its online
ordering, up its cool factor and build its customer
database.
Younger consumers
Mr. Kraut said the chain uses its database for targeted,
sometimes monthly promotions, as well as market
research. He declined to disclose the size of the
database or how much it's grown this year.
"We're seeing that our customers are getting younger and
younger," said Mr. Kraut, adding that the eMusic
promotion is a way to bring "people in from other source
and offering them something extra." Pizza Hut has done a
variety of online promotions this year, including a
partnership with Rockstar Games and its Midnight Club
Los Angeles driving game.
Package-food companies aren't sitting on the sidelines
either. Kraft chief marketer Mary Beth West said the
company has created an iPhone application for consumers
to download recipes and shopping lists in the grocery
store.
"Even in the current economy, people don't have any more
time than they had before," Ms. West said. "They're
trying to get dinner on the table, and this is going to
help them do that."
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