In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, full story by clicking here, it looks like many major restaurant chains are developing mobile apps that will piggy-back on the location based capabilities of newest generation smartphones, like the iPhone and google Android phone. The GPS capabilities will allow restaurants to target offers to customers that are near a location with particular offers etc. The biggest issue is getting customers who have these fancy phones to download and adopt the mobile apps for each of their favorite restaurant brands. Assuming enough people install the apps, restaurants like Sonic, Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, and others will be able to target customers based on location. I’m skeptical that this will deliver results at scale given that internet coupons, which are huge in comparison to mobile, still a small fraction of overall coupon marketing. This might be big at some point but in the near-future, it will likely be more sizzle than steak…
