Taco Bueno takes mobile coupon program national

By Mickey Alam Khan

May 6, 2008

Beefing up mobile efforts

Mexican fast-food chain Taco Bueno expanded its mobile coupon campaign nationwide after the claimed success of a test.

The company was buoyed by the response to mobile coupons at 80 Taco Bueno stores in Dallas, TX. Cellfire Inc. is providing the mobile coupons. 

“Consumers continue to demonstrate a high degree of interest in using mobile coupons to save money when they’re dining out,” said Brent Dusing, CEO of Cellfire, San Jose, CA, in a statement.

The Cellfire mobile coupons will now be accepted at more than 180 Taco Bueno locations in Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Taco Bueno will offer coupons to Cellfire subscribers to buy a Beef Muchaco or Chicken Potato Burrito for 99 cents each.

Consumers can subscribe to Cellfire’s mobile coupon service to get the Taco Bueno discounts at Cellfire.com. They can also text BUENO to 22888.

Cellfire’s service is application-based and not text. The company’s technology lets consumers with Web-enabled phones to use discounts based on their geography.

Once in the database, Cellfire users are given a unique redemption code that is shown at the time of a transaction. Consumers click on the coupon they want and show it to the cashier for redemption.

Fast-food chains such as Subway (see story) and McDonald’s Corp. (see story) are already using mobile coupons to entice consumers to restaurants and for sampling new product releases.