Ez Texting SMS Marketing News

SFGate's Tech Chronicle reports on Google's innovative attempt to disrupt yet another market:

The Mountain View Internet colossus said it will send out window decals to more than 100,000 U.S. restaurants, shops and hangouts that have proven popular on Google's search engine and map service. The stickers will proclaim the businesses a "Favorite Place on Google," helping to lure customers in much the way "Zagat Rated" signs or framed newspaper reviews have done for years.

But Google being Google, there's a technology twist.

Each decal will include a unique bar code that consumers can scan with the cameras on their mobile device -- like iPhones or Android-based handsets -- to find reviews and coupons or eventually submit their own feedback.

Users may have to download a so-called QR-Code reader application for this to work.

Google explained in a blog post: "This launch is part of our overall effort -- online and offline -- to provide you with the best local business results whenever you're trying to figure out where to go, whether it's a trendy Cuban restaurant in Philly, a comics shop in LA or a hip hotel in NYC."

And just how do you qualify for this program? By adding verified data to Google's small business listings, which helps Google enhance the quality of a notoriously difficult to cleanse set of data:

The company said that business owners who want to be identified as a "Favorite Place" must unlock their local business listing at its business center. They can't pay for the privilege of receiving a coveted sticker, but can improve their odds by ensuring the information about the business is accurate and adding content like photos, videos, menus and coupons, Google said.

Read more at SF Chronicle.

Taco Bell has been telling us to think outside the bun for years. It now seems that they have applied that same thinking to their mobile marketing strategy:

Taco Bell's marketing team did their research before they launched the app:

And there's even more to this soon-to-be-very-successful campaign: "The app also has a store locator link that helps find the nearest Taco Bell."

Great campaign all around!

Read more @ Mobile Marketer.

Ad Age has a great mobile marketing success story:

Read more @ Ad Age.

Wired has an interesting article about a new service called FarmsReach, which hopes to connect small farmers with restaurant chefs. While the locavore movement has recently taken off, seeing it spread on a wide scale is unlikely, due to the uncertainties of bypassing a traditional food distributer like Sysco:

The current distribution of edibles works the way it does, though, because it’s brutally effective at reliably delivering low-cost food all over the country. Sysco, the dominant $13 billion American food distributor, works and restaurants know that.

“The big problem in small agriculture is supply chain resiliency,” Croll said. “Chefs order from Sysco because they know, no matter what, they’ll get their orders or there is an account rep they can strangle.”

Enter FarmsReach:

Read the entire, interesting article @ Wired, or head over to Ez Texting to read about how Let's Eat, relies on text messaging to streamline the production and delivery of prepared meals to Atlanta-area consumers.