Advertising: Staying Connected with Electronic Marketing

The Palm Management Corporation is embracing nearly all forms of electronic marketing to extend the reach and relevancy of its luxury-steakhouse concept.

By David Farkas, Senior Editor -- Chain Leader, 10/1/2006

Like all good marketers, Randy Goldman is both curious and cautious about new technology. Take mobile marketing, for instance. “It’s new and growing,” offers the director of national and neighborhood marketing for the Palm Management Corporation, “but I haven’t heard enough about it. I’d be wary about contacting people through mobile phones.”

E-mail, Web sites and blogs are a different story. The Washington, D.C.-based company, which operates 29 luxury steakhouses, is eagerly contacting people via all three electronic media to boost awareness.

Last September, for example, The Palm in New York City hosted “Miracle on Ice,” a 25th-anniversary celebration featuring the 1980 Olympic Hockey Team and ESPN’s Woody Paige. Using a public-relations agency, Goldman dispatched news of the event to hockey bloggers, who duly posted the information and linked to The Palm’s site.

“We’ve done a lot to extend our reach using fan sites and blogs. They are always looking for content,” says Goldman, adding news of wine dinners and whiskey tastings are similarly dispatched to beverage enthusiasts with Web sites.

The chain’s loyalty program, the 837 Club, named for the address of the first Palm restaurant, is a database containing information on its 300,000 members. Although Goldman mines it extensively, he’s also tapping into other databases.

Last spring, for instance, he partnered with a group of golf courses to promote Father’s Day, which coincided with the Palm’s lobster-feast promotion. The deal gave Goldman access to the golf-course owners’ databases, more than doubling the chain’s e-mail addresses.

Today, Goldman envisions using a new point-of-sale system to drive an e-mail holiday incentive program. The centerpiece is an e-mail certificate worth $20. Technology can now verify the coupon in real time.

The chain tested a similar program during the first three months of 2006, increasing covers by about 5 percent in the first month. Says Goldman: “That is a good January.”