Price Chopper, Dole Salad Club's Mobile Effort Tests QR Codes

Thanks to a joint effort from the Price Chopper supermarket chain and Dole Food Co., mobile devices are spurring consumers to eat more salad.

 The effort marks the union of two independent marketing pushes at Price Chopper. In September 2010, Dole was planning a mail campaign aimed at active and lapsed members of the chain's loyalty program. The effort was geared toward boosting enrollment in the Dole Salad Mobile Club. At the same time, Price Chopper was considering testing QR codes within its marketing. When scanned by a mobile phone, QR codes serve online content to the phone's screen.

 It was a match made, if not in heaven, than in the produce section. When Price Chopper sent out more than 40,000 postcards on Dole's behalf in November, the messages included both a QR code and a short code for texting.

 The test's results were still being tabulated as of mid-February. While Price Chopper declined to give specific numbers, a representative did say that lapsed loyalty program members redeemed their coupons at higher rates than current ones. Dole is also evaluating which channel—QR code or SMS—consumers used to enroll, and how they behaved on the site once they logged on.

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