Café Coffee Day experiments with Foursquare

The company intends to use 4sq to build loyalty and get repeat visitors.

Café Coffee Day (CCD), which is already active on prominent social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, is now trying to leverage the location-based social media application/site called Foursquare.com (4sq).

The company has created its presence at Foursquare.com/cafecoffeeday and intends to use it to build loyalty and get repeat visitors. CCD will offer special discounts to 4sq users who visit any CCD outlet and update/announce the same via 4sq.

To earn discounts, the 4sq user - who has downloaded the Foursquare.com application on his smartphone - will be required to log in and open the 4sq application on his smartphone when he visits the CCD outlet. Once opened, the user will see a list of places/locations (including CCD outlets), accessed via the GPS facility of the smartphone.

The user can click on the CCD outlet/location (where the user is present) to get more details such as 'Consumer tips' and 'Mayor' about the outlet. Apart from that, a button titled 'Check-in here' will be shown (on the phone screen), which the user can click to update and publish his location on the social media site.

Upon pressing the check-in button, CCD will serve a message titled 'Special' and provide a mobile coupon (discount) code on the user's phone. The user will be required to show the code to CCD's outlet manager to earn and obtain the discount.

To begin with, special discount offers will be available for users in Bengaluru. "Posters will be put up across CCD outlets to create awareness about usage of 4sq and special offers for 4sq users in Bengaluru," says Vineet Gupta, managing partner, 22feet, the digital agency, which has conceptualised and is managing CCD'S 4sq presence. Later, the 4sq related offers will be extended to all 1,080 CCD outlets in India.

Other than special discount offers, 4sq users can write and submit their tips about the products and services offered by CCD outlets. "On 4sq, we will not only reward fans and followers, but also allow them to update and share tips/information with their friends across networks," says K Ramakrishnan, president, marketing, Café Coffee Day in conversation with afaqs!.

Ramakrishnan adds, "So far, we have used social media as an effective listening and communication tool to interact with our consumers. 4sq, being a location-based social medium, will not only facilitate us to communicate, but also help us to induce action in terms of visits to our cafes."

Some other brands, which have started experimenting with 4sq are Yum Yum Tree (a Delhi-based restaurant), Blue Frog (a Mumbai-based restaurant), Inorbit Mall, and Shoppers Stop.

Yum Yum Tree has created its presence on Foursquare and invites visitors to come to the restaurant and get a free round of draught beer. Blue Frog also offers discounts to 4sq users. Inorbit runs 4sq-based contests across its stores in Mumbai and Hyderabad. It rewards repeat visitors (especially 'Mayors') to its locations with gift vouchers. Shoppers Stop has created an interesting Facebook-Foursquare application called Mayors@ShoppersStop (Apps.facebook.com/mayorsatshoppersstop/mayors.php), which helps a Facebook user to locate Shoppers Stop stores and its 4sq Mayors in various parts of India.

It is important to note that 4sq is still in its nascent stage in India. It is estimated that less than one lakh users are active on 4sq in the country.