With New Gift Card Program, Spectra Group Serves Up Personalized Marketing

Western Canada-based restaurant and foodservice provider, Spectra Group recently implemented its successful electronic gift card program entitled "S-Card" using Ernex's Gift technology. By enhancing the S-Card program with Ernex's real-time Promotional Tool Kit, Spectra has evolved the now ubiquitous gift card program with personalized marketing initiatives aimed at enhancing the customer experience and driving incremental sales.

	"Ernex's Gift Card Program has been a great sales generator for Spectra Group and consumer acceptance has been terrific. We are now planning specific tactical real-time promotions using Ernex's technology to cross-market the three Spectra Group restaurant concepts and we anticipate even higher customer frequency and spending on the S-Card." Paul Blackwell, Information Systems Spectra Group

The S-Card is proving to be an excellent way of building a customer database due to Spectra's cardholder registration system. A customer with an S-Card can register his or her contact information along with the card number that not only allows a lost or stolen gift card to be replaced with the customer, but also allows Spectra Group to perform more sophisticated real-time marketing programs. At the same time Spectra allows a customer to check off an "opt-in" box - to be notified of special promotional offers and events.

An example of one such promotion is a "kick-back" offer for every new S-card that is activated or reloaded. Depending on the value that is activated or reloaded, Spectra is offering customers free sandwiches or specialty coffees on a return visit. Ernex's Custom Messaging promotion recognizes all activation and reload transactions during the campaign period and prints the unique reward message directly on the customer's receipt - in real-time, at the point-of-sale.

Other Ernex promotions that can be used in conjunction with standard gift card programs include Custom Coupons that can be tracked and validated upon redemption; and Swipe 'N Win sweepstakes to add customer excitement to the program.