Men's Wearhouse chain K&G Fashion Superstore saw a 93 percent rate from a recent SMS couponing program that helped the retailer build an opt-in database of mobile customers more than 80,000-strong.

a SMS program across its 101 stores in February hoping to build a database of mobile customers. The program focuses on driving in-store traffic and sales via SMS coupons that can be redeemed at the point of sale, with participants receiving four messages monthly on events, alerts, coupons and other activities.
"I don't want to create a mobile feed for coupons," said Matt Stringer, senior vice president of marketing at Men's Wearhouse. "I want to build a database and a value proposition for couponing."
This was one of the takeaways from "How Mobile Coupons Drive Revenue and Build a Mobile Database for Men's Wearhouse's K&G Fashion Superstore," a Mobile Marketer webinar yesterday that was sponsored by the Mobile Marketing Association.
Mobile seemed like a good place for the retailer to be as its research showed that K&G's core customer, African-American men ages 25-54, are big mobile phone users.
The retailer decided to initially launch the mobile program as a standalone effort so that it could get to market quickly.
"We don't have any other program that runs at a 93 percent or even a 50 percent redemption rate," Mr. Stringer said.
With the program a success, K&G is now focusing on testing different offers and messages to see how mobile shoppers respond.
Case: K&G Fashion Superstore - 2011