Fareway Offers Meat Department Text Couponing

ROSEANNE HARPER

BOONE, Iowa — Fareway Stores here recently got a taste of the effectiveness of instant marketing, and sold a lot of Tyson premium pork.

What's more, the independent will soon be taking text-couponing, which it launched at Tyson's suggestion, on to other fresh products, especially in the meat department, officials told SN.

Right now, the company is looking to use the method for a new promotion as grilling season gets underway.

It all started in January with a promo involving text coupons that was so successful that the company decided to continue it through February, and Fareway officials began looking for more ways to apply the method.

“The idea is to target market to a particular audience, and it works,” said Jeff Stearns, vice president of sales and marketing at 99-unit Fareway Stores.

“Things are going to be changing all over, and we want to at least have target marketing down,” he said.

In the promotion, Fareway and Tyson encouraged customers to participate by giving them a chance to win a $200 gift certificate to Fareway Stores and $50 worth of Tyson's Chairman's Reserve Premium Pork in a random drawing.

“We advertised the contest on the Web and Facebook, door signs and easels at the meat case, and in our ad circular. And our associates, too, told customers how easy it was,” Stearns said.

Customers were instructed to punch a particular code into their mobile phones, at which time they were told they could receive a coupon good for $3 off on a purchase of $10 or more of Tyson Chairman's Reserve Premium Pork.

Anybody who requested the coupon via text was automatically entered into the random drawing. They could also enter the contest through the Fareway website.

The effort resulted in thousands of texts which were doubled through forwarding and multiple use, according to an earlier statement from Tyson Fresh Meats.

Stearns told SN he was pleased with the results.

“We were happy with the [coupon] redemption. It gave us a better return on our marketing [dollars],” he said.