This Week in Location Based Marketing – Episode 57: Brightkite takes a break, Hallmark Channel adds QR codes + Eric Koester from Zaarly

Hi Rob and Asif – Thanks for the mention and discussion on ValuText. I helped bring the program to life with my team at Cohn Marketing http://cohnmarketing.com (DDRs Digital Agency). I’ve answered all your questions and few more below. If you have any additional questions, would love to chat with you both or perhaps come on the show to discuss.

Why build a brand and not leverage an existing program? We looked around at the existing ShopAlerts programs and none fit our needs. We not only wanted to serve the big box retailers, but also the 1000s “mom and pop” retail owners at DDRs 500+ shopping centers. Most of the existing programs didn’t do that. 

Why only 27 centers?
We agree with you here, but this is only the first phase. ValuText will be rolling out to all of DDRs portfolio and other shopping center organizations in the near future (another reason we built a separate brand around the program). 

Why compare to Groupon?
Yes, Rob, you’re right. This isn’t a direct comparison to Groupon, but every retailer in the country knows Groupon and they know it costs money to use their service. ValuText doesn’t. It’s completely free for all retailers. We compare ValuText to Groupon to make a point about the price differentiation.

How it works beyond the traditional Placecast model?
We also took a few steps forward past the traditional Placecast model. ValuText not only delivers location-based texts, but also provides more offers using a tiny URL within each message. Smartphone owners can take advantage of that URL and see all the offers available at that location.

Cheers,
Michael