Click herefor the StorefrontBacktalk report.The test features four of the retailer's most popular drinksthe Slurpee frozen carbonated beverage, the Big Gulp fountain drink, fresh-brewed hot coffee and the latest proprietary drink, Iced Coffee. The promotion is limited to one free beverage per day at participating stores. (Click here for previous CSP Daily News coverage.)
Daniel May, the 7-Eleven marketing manager in charge of the trial, told StorefrontBacktalk that the results thus farwhich he would not quantifyhave been good and that the chain is "possibly expanding this [trial], going somewhere else next year," referring to launching a new trial outside of the San Diego area.
The chain has thus far avoided some of the read-rate accuracy problems that have plagued other trials, said the report, pointing to an approach that determines the make, model and carrier of a phone before trying to scan. It then adjusts the scan parameters to be the most effective for that particular device. A lack of scan accuracy would be a "deal-killer," for such trials, said the report.
The chain has outsourced many of the trial's logistics to mobile marketing firm GMR Marketing. T.J. Person, a senior vice president at GMR in charge of the 7-Eleven trial, told StorefrontBacktalk thathis reports indicated 100% accuracy, but it was not clear if an associate who had gotten an accurate read after rescanning the barcode two or three times would have simply said it was an accurate scan.
But if the barcode does not scan, the consumer can simply read the number to the store associate, who can manually enter it at the point of sale, said the report. Or the consumer can hand the phone to the associate, who can copy the coupon info into the system. But it would not take too many manual inputs to undermine the speed of the trial, which will likely be essential for a convenience store chain, the report said.
7-Eleven is also running into ethics issues around mobile marketing, the report said, where chains need to collect phone numbers and email addresses to begin. Many of the consumers being targeted are children, officially as young as 16 and potentially as young as 14. Those youngsters are mixed with a target group of young adults, as old as 24.
Given that the trial does not ask agesomething typically seen with age-restricted beverages, such as beer, but not with Slurpees and Big Gulpsthere is no way to differentiate the phone numbers that come from children as opposed to adults, said the report. StorefrontBacktalk asked: Is a retailer courting perception trouble when it offers free sodas to try and get under-age customers to give up their phone numbers? Without knowing ages, does this force the chain to treat all of the participants with kid gloves? That approach certainly seems safer than assuming they are all adults and risking parental wrath for marketing to a 14 year-old, said the report.
May stressed that this trial was done as a strong opt-in campaign, which should minimize later complaints of unsolicited ads.
Person said that the opt-in covers the company. "When we ask for an opt-in, we assume they're more than 13," he told the website.
According to StorefrontBacktalk, the most interesting technology of the trial involves its capability to improve scan read accuracy by incorporating the size and shape of the phone's screen and whether it will reorient the barcode image. The phone itself reveals most of those details when the consumer clicks on the link to start the redemption process. The mobile browser will telegraph those details. If it says it is merely a generic browser, the software will make appropriate changes, Person said. Without that capability, he added, the variations on the devices could be huge. "It could be an old handset or it could be a brand-new handset," Person said.
Other retailers have pointed to nontech issues as most often interfering with accurate barcode reads, said the report, things such as a dusty or dirty screen or the consumer holding the phone at a bad angle, perhaps causing excessive glare. Person and May both said that the accuracy has been reported to be quite strong thus far. "We have seen no issues with the stores scanning coupons," May told the website.
Dallas-based 7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses some 7,900 7-Eleven stores in North America. Globally, 7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses more than 36,900 stores in 15 countries. During 2008, 7-Eleven stores worldwide generated total sales of more than $53.7 billion.
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