The Client: Starting out as a single fast casual restaurant on the University of Texas campus, Texadelphia has expanded over the past 25 years, with 18 locations throughout Texas and Oklahoma. Texans and non-Texans alike flock to Texadelphia to devour the restaurant’s unique take on the Philly Cheesesteak. Mark Turner, owner of 7 of the 8 Texadelphia Austin locations, credits his success to quality ingredients, excellent customer service, and the restaurant’s “cult following.”

The Challenge: As former owner of an ad agency, Mark has always kept Texadelphia at the forefront of marketing and advertising practices. In recent years, he had moved away from traditional forms of advertising and established a substantial online and social media presence. Mark knew he was reaching a large portion of the market, but he was concerned that he was just reaching the same people repeatedly. There were still people in the Austin area who had not tried Texadelphia, or who had been regulars in the past but were coming in far less frequently. After researching Groupon’s marketing approach, Mark decided that a Groupon feature would both draw in new faces and re-energize his customer base.

The Deal: With the goal of raising awareness of the Texadelphia brand, Texadelphia ran a deal on July 4, 2010 offering $15 worth of Texan Cheesesteaks for $7 at their seven Austin locations.

The Results: The response from the public couldn’t have been better. For Mark and his team, anything above 2,000 would have been an incredible amount of Groupons sold. By the end of the day, though, Texadelphia had sold 4,698. Mark said, “I was surprised because it took off and just kept going.” He was especially pleased with the tracking capabilities he had for the feature, which allowed him to measure exactly how much Texadelphia had exploded from an awareness standpoint in Austin. The Groupon customers skewed mainly male between 25-40 years of age—right in line with Texadelphia’s normal clientele. With less than a month remaining before the deal expires, about 3,200 Groupons (68%) have already been redeemed. 25% of Groupons redeemed so far have been from customers new to Texadelphia, while another 25% have been customers that were former Texadelphia regulars who had not purchased from the chain in six months.

The Proof:

• 25% of Groupon customers were new to Texadelphia
• 25% of Groupon customers were former regulars at Texadelphia who had not purchased in the past six months