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Pitcher & Piano is keen to shake off the somewhat anonymous image associated with city pubs and get closer to its customers using SMS Melanie May reports
There may be a pub on every corner in the city but it's rare you find one where everybody knows your name quite the way they do in Cheers, even if you're a regular visitor. Yet a friendly local is something many of us crave.
The anonymity so often associated with big pubs is something Pitcher & Piano wants to change, in its chain of bars at least, and it's using SMS to do it.
Last year, it decided it was time for a rethink-both in terms of its bars and the way in which it marketed itself. The first step was a refurbishment of the chain's 27 bars, and some research into its customers. The results provided food for thought for marketing managerTristram Hillier and his staff.
Previously, the consensus had been that certain inner city bars attracted a largely transient customer base of passers-by and people employed in the area, none of whom felt a loyalty or sense of belonging to that particular bar. The research, which included focus groups, showed customers wanted more contact with Pitcher & Piano. "We know for us contact has a high equity," says Hillier. "Customers don't want the faceless experience of going into a bar where they know no one."
This gave the bar chain the kick-start it needed to build a more detailed picture of its customers and what they wanted from its bars, and to act on this.
Identifying customer base
While Hillier is loath to tar all his customers with the same brush profile-wise, he does say: "The bars are all different but to generalise, we're looking at professional people, aged 25 upwards. They're more discerning, professional, and they probably call a few shots."
An existing newsletter, Pitcher Post, and an e-zine called The Rigger Pitcher were already proving successful means of communicating with people, and Hillier came up with the idea of taking these a step further with a text club - an SMS programme designed to build loyalty among regular users of its bars, and drive footfall in the quieter periods during the...