Papa, What's Next? Text! Papa John's Pizza First with Text Ordering Option
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 15, 2007--In the late 1960s, consumers reveled at the idea of picking up the phone and having a pizza delivered to their door. Decades later, in 2001, Papa John's made ordering pizza even more convenient with the introduction of online ordering at www.papajohns.com. Today, Papa John's is leading the entire quick-service restaurant industry across yet another technology threshold as the first national pizza chain to offer text message ordering.
Sound too good to be true? This is nothing to LOL about.
"Just a few years ago, e-mail was a revolutionary way to keep in touch with friends and family, and Papa John's responded in-kind with online ordering," said Jim Ensign, vice president, marketing communications for Papa John's International, Inc. "Now, more than 48 percent of mobile phone owners use text messaging to communicate with their friends and family every day. And just as we did with online ordering, Papa John's is proud to take the ease of text message communication one step further with our convenient text message ordering option."
The introduction of Papa John's text ordering comes just before one of the three busiest pizza delivery days of the year, the night before Thanksgiving. And with 74% of Americans age 18-34, using their mobile phones for more than chatting, busy college students cramming for finals can now discreetly order a late-night snack without violating their library's "no talking" policy.
BTW, text message ordering with Papa John's will put a :) on anyone's face with this simple four-step process:
1. Customers first register online at www.papajohns.com and save their favorite orders, delivery and payment preferences with the Papa John's "Favorites Wizard."
2. Once registered online, the Papa John's consumer can simply text FAV1, FAV2, etc. to 4PAPA (47272).
3. Papa John's then sends a text message detailing the order and requesting confirmation from the consumer.
4. The consumer presses Y1 to confirm the order for FAV1 or N1 to change the order. Once confirmed, the closest Papa John's restaurant processes the order.
Earlier today, hundreds of busy holiday shoppers at the Mall of America in Minneapolis watched as Papa John's pitted the World's Fastest Talker, Fran Capo, against LG National Texting Champion Morgan Pozgar, to determine what was faster - ordering a Papa John's pizza the old-fashioned way via phone or ordering via text message.
Amid much suspense, 13-year-old Pozgar was all thumbs, emerging victorious and leaving the fast-talking Capo in her text message dust. Mall of America shoppers then learned firsthand how to text message their order to Papa John's and ten lucky people were randomly selected to win a enV by LG - designed specifically for multimedia messaging with a QWERTY keyboard and large internal screen - from LG Mobile Phones.
"Text ordering a Papa John's pizza was really easy," said Pozgar. "I think even my mom could handle it."
Capo, meanwhile, accepted her defeat in stride.
"For the first time ever, I am speechless," said Capo. "Who would have ever thought that ordering a pizza could be done with just a few keystrokes? I may be the World's Fastest Talker, but when it comes to technology, Papa John's is obviously winning the race."
Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, Papa John's International, Inc. (NASDAQ: PZZA) is the world's third largest pizza company. For eight years running, consumers have rated Papa John's No. 1 in customer satisfaction among all national pizza chains in the highly regarded American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). For more information about the company or to order pizza online, visit Papa John's at www.papajohns.com.
For more information on LG Mobile Phones, please visit: www.LGusa.com.
CONTACT: Papa John's International, Inc.
Tish Muldoon, 502-671-9488
Papa John's Director, Media Relations
tish_muldoon@papajohns.com
or
Fleishman-Hillard
Doug Terfehr, 314-550-0934
doug.terfehr@fleishman.com
SOURCE: Papa John's International, Inc.