I'm amazed at how my son and daughter communicate with their friends. Between Facebook and texting it's almost as if they have found a way to interact without ever having to make a direct connection. It's definately a new language and for better or worse, a new style of building relationships.
When I saw last week that Papa John's had introduced a new service to take pizza orders by text, I knew exactly why and marveled at how tuned in they were. There are few audiences for pizza's that are better at any time of the day than college students. Certainly they've never had trouble figuring out how to get one in the past. But, by being able to text for one guess what happens?
Papa John's has built an authentic connection to a core buyer persona.
People love it when companies act in ways that show they 'understand me'. And today that means communicating through mediums and styles that your target buyers use. By adding a simple distribution option like texting, Papa John's will no doubt resonate more with the college crowd. Imagine the scenarios that will get created. "Hey, anybody want a pizza? Watch this!" The first in class to find this out will proudly whip out their cool new iPhone and text an order in. Congratulations all around when it shows up in 30 minutes. Most importantly, word of mouth is started and Papa John's has an in. We found in our research that a real key to a tuned in company was that they had a high percentage of their business coming through referrals (some as high as 80%). What a great way to start that process. Building authentic connections like this is one of the most powerful things you can do to grow your business faster.
I wonder when a beer distributor will catch on to this?
