Case Study-Restaurants

 SMS case study – Carrabba’s Italian Grill

1. By Giselle Tsirulnik

   September 2, 2010

   Carrabba’s SMS campaign

   Name and city and state of marketer
   Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Tampa, FL

   Campaign/program name
   SMS Text Campaign test

   Duration
   Four week campaign

   Common short code and keywords used
   Consumers were asked to text the keyword AMICI to short code 8672. Carrabba’s customer appreciation group is called the Amici Club so this program was an extension of that.

   Objective 
   The first objective was to expand Carrabba’s Orlando test to the Tampa market so the brand could promote to multiple customer touch points at a time of the day when consumers are most likely to be influenced.

   Additionally, Carrabba’s wanted to further engage customers and learn more about their interests while deepening brand awareness and technological advances.

   Carrabba’s hoped to achieve a 5 percent redemption rate.

   Target audience
   The target audience was men and women ages 25-54

   Strategy
   Each participating Carrabba’s location had the ability to grow their own database and select specific business touch points where they wanted to grow their sales.

   Each SMS campaign was positioned to promote the different ways customers can experience Carrabba’s through SMS. 

   Early dining (4-6), Late dining (8-10), Carside Carryout, Sunday lunch, and Happy Hour are a sampling of different campaigns that were used.

   Call to action
   Calls to action varied among each campaign that was used.  Different offers were used to resonate with the customer and encourage repeat visits and increased traffic to restaurants.

   Tactics
   Each restaurant selected 3-4 campaigns that were meaningful to them where they wanted to grow their business. 

   Once complete, those campaigns were deployed out to their respective databases along with engagement texts. 

   This mix provided an opportunity to provide offers to customers to drive sales as well as engage and keep top-of-mind with customers.

   Results
   There were 443 participants, accounting for a 35 percent redemption rate.

   What next
   Next, Carrabba’s will expand the test nationwide to create a greater presence in this category. 

   This will launch through Carrabba’s customer appreciation group, Amici Club.  The same mix will be used as this test through providing offers and engagement texts.

   Lessons learned
   It is far easier for Carrabba’s restaurants to execute the SMS campaign by having only one redemption and tracking device that is synced with the POS system.

   Executive’s name, title and company for response attribution
   Jamie Miller, brand marketing manager at Carrabba’s Italian Grill

   “The SMS campaign allowed us to increase customer traffic to our restaurants in a manner that allowed for growth in specific segment sales that were exclusive to each restaurant.”

   Senior Editor Giselle Tsirulnik covers advertising, messaging, legal/privacy and database/CRM. Reach her at giselle@mobilemarketer.com.