A16 » MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2014 » THE NEWS-PRESS *

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SOUTHWEST FLORIDA BY THE NUMBERS

Talking shop with Tiffa-ny Buntzman, ownerof To The Moon Bou-

tique in Bonita Springs.What do you sell?I sell primarily brands

from New York, Los Ange-les and Paris. I’m veryconscious of the qualityand the brands I carry. It’sprimarily a clothing bou-tique with everythingfrom T-shirts to dressesthat you can wear to awedding. I sell easy pieceslike maxi dresses andcocktail dresses. We havetailored pieces and alsosome flowery pieces. Ialso sell some jewelry,scarves, accessories andhandmade soaps and can-dles from local artists. Itry to find little specialthings that you’re not go-ing to find anywhere else.I have two private labelsthat I design and producemyself. Uniquely Yours byTiffany is for clients thatwant to work with medirectly to come up with aone-of-a-kind item. TheEternal Gypsy line haseasy pieces in luxuriousfabrics.

How did To The Mooncome about?

My mother used to say,“I love you to the moonand back.” I was born andraised in New York and Iwent to fashion school. Iworked in fashion designand sales. I really have amanufacturing back-ground and learned so

THE ARTFUL SHOPPER

EVELYN LONGATheArtfulShopper@yahoo.com

Try goingTo TheMoon

TO THE MOONBOUTIQUE» Address: 26811 S. Bay Drive# 138 in The Promenade,Bonita Springs » Hours: Open 10 a.m. to 8p.m. Monday to Saturday; 11a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday» Special event: Grand Open-ing on Feb. 19 from from 4 to8 p.m. with wine and gour-met cupcakes» Contact: Call 949-8200 Onthe Web: facebook.com/tothemoonbtq

See ARTFUL » A17

A new wave of marketing inSouthwest Florida has selectrestaurants doubling their salesthanks to text message coupons.

This modern marketingtechnique is a growing fad forlocal restaurants.

“It’s a unique way, the bestway, to get the customer’s atten-tion,” said Justin O’Brien, own-er of two Fort Myers Pita Pits.

Customers are agreeing toreceive SMS message couponsfrom select restaurants. SMSstands for a short message ser-vice, which is the most commontext messaging service.

Through a mobile marketingservice, restaurants purchasean allotted amount of text mes-sages each month to send to reg-istered customers.

“It’s a permission basedform of marketing,” said TerryRobinson, a managing partnerfor Text2VIP.

Text2VIP is one of the largestproviders of text message mar-keting in Lee and Collier coun-

ties. It provides services tomore than 27 local businesses.The company is based in Atlan-tic City, N.J., and has an office inNaples where Robinson works.

It’s important for the busi-ness to identify its audience andto determine if it’s going to be awelcome messenger, explainedDr. Christine Wright-Isak, anassistant professor of market-ing at Florida Gulf Coast Uni-versity with a background inbrand strategy at Y&R.

“Since it’s permission basedmarketing, customers will bemore willing to welcome that in-trusion,” Wright-Isak said.

“It’s definitely growing eachyear,” Robinson said. “Smallbusiness owners are getting ex-posed to this service and they’rerealizing it’s working.”

Elevation Burger in Naplesreported at least a 75 percent in-crease in sales when a blast issent.

“What’s so great is that it’s socheap,” said Matt O’Neill, thegeneral manager at ElevationBurger.

The last blast O’Neill sent out

cost $87 and was sent out to a lit-tle under 3,000 registered cus-tomers.

“The return is incredible,”O’Neill said.

Restaurant owners have theflexibility to send a coupon blastas often and seldom as they like.

O’Neill typically sends outhis blasts on the weekend whenhe believes people are sitting athome. On the other hand, O’Bri-en at Pita Pit favors sending hismessages during the weekwhen business slows down.

“You don’t want to over blastbecause then it becomes annoy-ing,” O’Brien said.

Restaurants such as Pita Pit,Moe’s, Rita’s Italian Ice and Ele-vation Burger typically sendone to three SMS coupons eachmonth using Text2VIP.

Seven Moe’s franchises inSouthwest Florida are usingtext message coupons as a formof marketing.

“It’s been pretty useful,” saidRyan Padowiz, general man-ager for Moe’s in Coconut Point.“It brings in a crowd of peoplewith a return between 25 and 30percent.”

Restaurants aren’t the onlycompanies using this growingmarketing fad.

Off The Hook Comedy Club

in Marco Island uses Text2VIPto send a weekly text offeringpromotions including freetickets and $5 off special en-gagement tickets.

“Our return rate on our pro-motions is very high, but variessignificantly each week be-cause of the unique promo-tions,” said Jennifer Driscoll,marketing director at Off TheHook Comedy Club. “We some-times will only send a week’stext blast to target specific cus-tomers who have seen similarcomedians in the past.”

W.B.N. Marketing based inNorth Naples provides text-marketing services to threesmall businesses in SouthwestFlorida. Those businesses in-clude a paint contracting, resi-dential remodeling and a clean-ing company.

The statistics are also addingup. According to EMarketer, anindependent digital marketingresearch company, 28 percentof people who own a mobile de-vice redeemed a coupon in 2013.Nearly 70 percent of mobilecoupon users will access cou-pons via smartphone.

“If you really want to reachyour customers, a text messageis the best way to do it,” saidRobinson.

THE NEW ECONOMY

Local eateries, including Pita Pit and Burger 21, are purchasing allotted amounts of text advertising messages each month to send to willingcustomers. SARAH COWARD/THE NEWS-PRESS

TEXT MARKETING SELLSCoupon blasts boost business for restaurantssuch as Pita Pit and Elevation Burger

By Aubrie Gerberagerber@news-press.com

“If you really want to reach your customers, a text message is the best way to do it.” TERRY ROBINSON managing partner for Text2VIP