Pier 1 Imports launches 1st Mobile Effort

Pier 1 Imports is partnering with Barnes & Noble for an SMS sweepstakes as part of its efforts to reach a younger demographic.

The retail giant has deployed in-store mobile calls-to-action — signage next to the prize, a Papasan chair — in 100 Barnes & Noble bookstores near college campuses. Consumers who text in receive a text message confirming their registration in the sweepstakes and asking them to opt-in to receive promotional emails from Pier 1 Imports.

“This was our first time utilizing SMS as a channel, and we’re excited to be out there testing it,” said Jeff Haddox, direct marketing analyst at Pier 1 Imports, Ft. Worth, TX. “SMS made perfect sense for our partnership with Barnes & Noble. “The response rate would’ve been much lower without the direct call-to-action that SMS provides,” he said. “The Papasan chair is a tried-and-true Pier 1 product—it’s the ultimate reading chair—so it was the perfect incentive for the text-to-win campaign, and it fit well because it was sitting in a college bookstore.

“We’re reaching a younger demographic than we at Pier 1 haven’t have, and Barnes & Noble is a great partner that is well-versed in reaching that younger demographic .... We have to speak to a younger demographic in a different way,” he said. “We’re trying to engage them and getting them to come in-store, and there are various ways, including the SMS sweepstakes.” “For several years we’ve been trying to focus on a younger demographic, because Pier 1 customers get older and older every year and they aren’t making as many home purchases as college students and recent college grads,” he said. “Barnes & Noble reaches 6 million students, and we’re taken a fully integrated, layered approach.”

SMS is basically a data-capture vehicle, in that Pier 1 is not opting them into to an SMS program, but rather asking them for their email address. “The goal for the SMS initiative is integration with the email campaign, basically creating a trickle campaign on the back-end,” Mr. Haddox said. “Rather than lumping these college students in with our main marketing campaign, we’re segmenting them and treating them differently.

“College-age students are a tough group to communicate with, because they’re always on the go, and they’re not necessarily seeing our typical marketing vehicles such as direct mail and newspaper inserts,” he said. “We do run online banners and search ads, but we felt that a mobile component great way to reach them — better than traditional marketing vehicles.” From Mobile Marketer at http://bit.ly/2C6sM8

For more information contact Andrew at damico@zipstripe.com