Despairing of reaching teens, and adults, for that matter, advertisers are figuring that what works for parents as a last resort may work them as well.
Text advertising, primarily of the promotional variety is on the rise. The response rate is higher than it is for email. And the immediacy works well for that elusive convergence between mobile and retail.
Marketers are trying all channels, platforms and media in a bid to figure out what the key to monetization may be. Each has its detrimental aspects: social is too personal, email to boring, mobile to hard to read. Texting, however, if the message can be effectively communicated briefly, may be the optimal. It is fast, cheap, popular, does not appear to violate anyone's sense of personal space.
Convenience rules. JL
Christina Binkley reports in the Wall Street Journal:
"Forward 2 ur girls!" urged the text message. Using the text-speak that many teens see as their own secret code, trendy retailer Charlotte Russe was inviting customers to a "Happy Hour"—a late-afternoon sale offering $1 sunglasses for every $30 purchase.
Like many parents who have turned to texting to reach their teens, some youth-oriented fashion brands like Charlotte Russe, Claire's Boutique and Vans are finding that young people are most accessible by text.
Retailers say teens and twentysomethings react to marketing texts with alacrity—and with far higher response rates than to emails.
Some fashion brands are reaching out to this audience with richer content by texting pictures and videos. Shoe brand Vans encourages consumers to sign up for texts that contain discounts and special offers, art and other insider goodies.
One text to Charlotte Russe customers held a video of a handsome young man. "I'll give you the moon," he said with a swoon-worthy smile. "And a $5 shopping pass. Anything to win your heart." The video was shared so widely that the company's database grew 33% in one weekend, says Paul Hollowell, the company's director of marketing. He declines to share the offers' redemption rate, but says he was "extremely pleased."
In general, the retailer says it has been impressed by the way its customers react to text offers—by coming into the store or placing an order online. "Participation rates are dramatically higher for text messaging than email," says Mr. Hollowell.
It isn't just fashion brands that are using texting to reach young customers. Bloomingdale's promotes its wedding registry and brands such as Ralph Lauren's Big Pony line with texts. Fast-food chain Jack in the Box JACK -0.90%sends texts from its mascot, Jack. "Welcome to my Secret Society of Cool People," Jack writes in a welcome text.
Still, texting is a new frontier for youth-oriented retailers. Teen brand Wet Seal doesn't market using texts, says Christine MacGregor, the company's brand director. But she says people at the company are discussing whether it is appropriate to start.
Until recently, marketers viewed texts as merely a chat vehicle for teenagers. Texting is regulated by telecom companies, who require that consumers request the texts, or opt in, before receiving them. Unlike email lists, mobile-phone-number lists cannot legally be sold.
For consumers, that has left texting with an image as a relatively spam-free form of communication. "I get a lot of junk email," says Grace Abruzzo, a 22-year-old physical-therapy student from Mesa, Ariz. She signed up for Charlotte Russe texts about five months ago after a friend told her about them. "With text messages, I can be selective."
People are five times more likely to open a text than an email, says James Citron, the founder and chief executive of Mogreet Inc. The venture-backed company handles the technology end of text marketing for clients including Vans, Jack in the Box and Charlotte Russe.
People respond to texts within one to three minutes, in general, says Mr. Citron, who is 34. Consumers generally open emails only after six to 12 hours, if they open them at all. Teens and young adults also are more likely to forward a marketing text than an email to a friend.
Mr. Citron says five billion people text on mobile phones, while about two billion people use the Internet. Mogreet is currently focused on expanding overseas. "We say text is the world's social network," he says. "Email is turning into a business-to-business communication method."
Response rates are relatively quick—consumers respond to a text within an average 90 seconds, according to the TomiAhonen Almanac 2012, a publication from a mobile media consultant. So retailers and brands often make offers highly specific. Charlotte Russe's Friday Happy Hour alerts are essentially mobile coupons with a self-destructing expiration date: "All corsets $15! Yes, please!" said a recent text with a coupon deal that was available for three hours that Saturday afternoon.
Immediacy was what got Dahvi Cohen, a 13-year-old from Irvine, Calif., to opt in for the brand's texts. She was shopping for jewelry at a local mall in the spring when she spied a sign in the store offering 15% off jewelry if she texted in. "I used the coupon that day," she says.
Parents are beginning to respond to text marketing as well. Heidi Cohen, Dahvi's 41-year-old mother, says she has opted in for texts from arts-and-crafts chain Michaels, Payless Shoes and Jack's Surfboards.
Charlotte Russe began exploring text marketing after research found its customers weren't using email. Girls texted each other while shopping, "one in the waiting room, the other outside it," Mr. Hollowell says. "In fact, even more than talking with her friend, she text-messaged [her]."
The company still uses email, and it says about 10% of the email promotions it sends are opened by the person receiving them. The so-called open rate of its texts approaches 100%, he says. Mr. Citron estimates that about 95% of texts get read.
One challenge, of course, is to get people to opt in for texts. At the top of Charlotte Russe's Web page is one enticement: "BFF us and get 10% off," it says, with a space for consumers to enter their cellphone or email address. (BFF is text-speak for 'best friends forever.') The retailer also places signs in front of its stores asking shoppers to text its "short code," or text address, which spells out "style" on a phone's keyboard.
The brand, like Mogreet, sees a vast frontier of new texting territory: It recently began texting in Spanish.
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