How small businesses are profiting from Pokémon Go
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How small businesses are profiting from Pokémon Go
The popularity of Nintendo’s new Pokémon Go game has added more than $7 billion to the gaming company’s market value, but it’s also proving valuable for savvy mom and pop businesses.
The game, released last week, requires players to roam the streets, looking for Pokémon creatures and locations called Pokéstops. These locations have hidden items, so players tend to congregate around them. Pokéstops are often landmarks or other public spaces and some of these places are using the status for marketing, like the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden. The nonprofit advertised its abundance of stops while promoting a discount on parking.
Other businesses are tapping into the game’s following to help sales, like this coffee shop in California that offered to drop a “lure” for every 15 drinks purchased. A lure is an in-game item that attracts Pokémon to a location for 30 minutes and costs 100 pokécoins (that’s 99 cents IRL).
Here are a few other ways businesses are trying to profit from Pokémon Go mania:
If a player drops a lure, which could attract other potential customers, this pizza place will give you $4 off your meal.
Then there’s this hotel restaurant offering 10 percent off for players who identify with a Team Mystic, one of the teams you can pledge loyalty to in the game.
This pretzel place is going deep into the Pokémon Go knowledge for a pretzel giveaway.
And, of course, the spawn of on-trend products.
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