Two separate news stories about the iPhone popped up last night. The first from PC World announces that Apple’s App Store just posted the 100,000th app for the iPhone. That’s a breathtaking amount of software options for a phone, though as the article is quick to point out, perhaps that number indicates they’ve taken this far beyond need.
More informative however, was this second story about Pizza Hut’s iPhone app. The headline is how that pizza chain generated over one million dollars in sales off of this app by making it easy to use, and offering 20% off every order coming through it. This ongoing discount is a perfect example of a value add–why should I put your branded app on my phone? Oh, because you give me real value for doing so. Maybe that’s why their app has been downloaded over a million times.
In similar fashion, both Papa John’s and Domino’s are rolling out mobile ordering sites as well and claim large incremental boosts to their sales volume. And really, doesn’t that make intuitive sense? I won’t buy a car via mobile, but making pizza delivery simpler is a real benefit.
And doing it for 20% off is a positively killer app.
By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79
Confession time. On certain production nights in LA…when everyone else was doing fancy eating things…I was in my hotel room, watching bad TV, eating Papa Johns in bed (cozy in my Shutters robe, of course). I loved that I could order it online, pay and leave a tip without one bit of human interaction.
Beckoning pizza, talk-free, from my iphone? An anti-socialite’s dream. It was nice knowing you, world.