7-Eleven Tests Mobile as a Marketing Channel

Web-enabled phones can access a scannable bar code; for others, salespeople will enter codes manually.

Quick-service retailer 7-Eleven is testing the mobile-marketing waters with a San Diego promotion designed to see how many of its customers will text in for a free Slurpee or Big Gulp.

The trial, which will run through the end of this year, uses radio, outdoor and mobile ads in both English and Spanish to encourage shoppers to send a text message (“FAST” or “RAPIDO”) to a mobile short code they’ve seen or heard.

In response, they’ll get a text message telling them which of 7-Eleven’s four best-selling drinks they’ve won for free: a Slurpee or Big Gulp, a fresh coffee or the chain’s latest rollout, Iced Coffee.

To claim their drink at the 200 participating 7-Eleven outlets in the San Diego market, smartphones users can click through the message to a mobile Web page displaying a bar code which can then be scanned into the system by the sales associate. Users who have feature phones without Web access can present their response message containing a numeric code, which the sales associated can enter manually at the cash register.

The offers are only good for the free beverage listed in the mobile coupon, and users can text to receive only one offer a day. Message recipients are also able to opt in to receive further mobile communications from 7-Eleven.

“7-Eleven appeals to customers who are busy and on the go,” vice president and chief marketing officer Rita Bargerhuff said in a statement. “Our marketing programs try to reach them where they are. Mobile marketing is the next step to reach our target customers—the millennials who don’t go anywhere without their mobile phones.”

GMR marketing owns the mobile couponing platform being deployed in the test, which is also being promoted with in-store signs.