Restaurant Branding-Why Branding is Not Permanent and How The Perception Of A Restaurant Brand Can Change Instantly In The Minds of Customers?

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

What is a Brand?

According to Wikipedia, A brand is a name or trademark  connected with a product or producer. So a logo, sign or slogan of a company could be associated with the brand. For eg. name Starbucks and it’s logo is a brand for the coffee.

How is Branding in an age of Social Media different from the Industrial Age?

In an industrial age when access to information was not easy to the consumers then, the only way they had to rely for the quality of the product was by looking to the familiar logo or signs. But today due to the easy access to the information via social media the branding has changed dramitically. No more can a company  rely on the their one time proud logo or sign permanently without satisfying the minds of the most socially aware consumers of today. Branding today is not permanent by nature  and can change over night if they can not satisfy the needs and desire of the consumers.

For example I was a great fan of Sony company. Sony Brand meant best to me as a growing boy. I used to own Sony Walk man, Sony Camera, Sony CD player, Sony Phone. Today as a growing young man I don’t use any of those Sony products. Instead I use Apple’s product. All those service that I require I get them from one single device called iPhone. Apple was smart enough to figure out that converging all those different devices into one would make my life easier and that I would be convinced to choose Apple over Sony. Apple had made accurate prediction and made a right move long before I was their customer. Sony was a great company but could not innovate itself to be great any more in my mind. So Sony has lost that brand image and Apple has won over me for their brand.

Why it is important for brands to remain on top of customers mind and remain positive everytime?

Like Sony brand, just because you were the most admired brand, you can not sit relaxed and feel that your customers are gonna love your brand forever. There is so much competition right now among different brands to be on top of their customers mind. If your restaurant can’t figure out how to be on top of the customer’s mind by engaging them in media like Social Media and making sure that your company is perceived positive then they might leave you at a click of a mouse or touch of a button on their smart pphone. Just like I dumped Sony for Apple they will do it to your brand if you can not satisfy their needs and desire. So please engage with your customers on Social Media to get their feedbacks and be on top of them. Listen to them and provide the product and service as they desire and you will remain positive brand in their mind.

How the marketing field has become  plain for both BIG brand and small independent restaurants?

In the television age the entry to broad casting media marketing for small restaurants was virtually impossible as the cost was so high. Only those BIG brand chain restaurants with huge marketing budgets could buy those prime time slots for tv advertising. But today with the birth of Youtube and Social Media small restaurants can do pretty much the same thing-online video advertising  leveraging Youtube. Infact if you execute it well it could be far effective than those tv advertising because with online video you can target your market segment and also track the results where as you couldn’t do on traditional television

Advantages of Small Restaurants Over Big Brand Restaurants.

Though I have seen Big Brand Restaurant into Social Media, I still feel that small restaurants still have more advantages over BIG brand Restaurants. Social Media has empowered the little guys to even battle huge guys. So why not take advantage that it offers. Right? It becomes more fun to see when little guys despite their size beat up BIG guys and make them cry like a baby. Well you can have that fun if you can understand the advantages you have over those BIG chain restaurants and execute them to your advantage.

Speed

First thing is the speed. Small guys tend to run faster than those BIG fat guys. So as a small  restaurant being small you have the speed that BIG restaurant chains don’t have. Just to make one decision they have lots of redtapes, beauracracies  to go through before any thing gets approved. But as a indpendent restaurant owner you are the one who is making that decision. You don’t have to ask permission for President and then Vice president and VP of Marketing and on and on….   !! If the idea makes sense to you you approve it right away and execute it right then and there.  You could have used a creative idea on the fly and benefited right away. Where else those ideas would have been obselete or moved on to another new marketing strategies by the time the BIG chain restaurants would approve the previous marketing idea.

Passion-

Another advantage you have is the Passion. You as a owner would definitely have more passion and interest in your business than some one who is just working there . You would give your heart and soul to make it happen. You would go extra mile to serve your customers. That means you would be serving yr customers when and wherever the customers required help. It would not be dictated by the clock in and clock out time. You would still be helping those customers in need if required. This is clearly seen by your customers on Facebook or Twitter. That would show a passion to serve yr customers which would make them greatest fan and inturn they would now help you to succeed.

Creativity wins over money.

Though you have less money and less resources than the BIG brands, it doesn’t matter any more. Money is not the issue now in an age of Social Media because the entry cost is zero except your own time. What matters is the creativity. Can you be creative enough to execute the targeted marketing. Now you might argue that they can hire great Social Media Marketing Strategy guy. Well again it is gonna cost a huge chunk of salary to create those creative marketing and may be not with enough passion as yours. So now you with your creativity combined with passion you have a chance to even battle huge company with BIG marketing budgets.

I hope it gives you an idea what advantage you have as a restaurant owner or operator over BIG brand chains.Now it’s time to go and get it. Go get them. And good Luck!

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Chipotle Online Ordering via iPhone-What it means to the future of Fast Casual Restaurant Industry.

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| 6 Comments

Online ordering via iPhone at Chipotle-My experience.

The first time that I saw the Chipotle iPhone app was during the second week of January, 2009. Infact I was checking my iPhone to see if any mobile ordering app was available for restaurants. Co-incidently that was the very day, Chipotle Mexican Grill Restaurant had released their iPhone app. I was excited to see the app and decided to download it later on my desktop thinking that it would be easier and faster to download. Later on that day when I tried to download from my computer, I realized that the app was not available on iTune. I found out that Chipotle had taken out the app due to high volume of downloads. May be it was a good strategy to limit the restricted number of downloads that were made availabe to the public. That way they could test their new baby product without frustrating millions other who would have downloaded if it was available. That would include me too.But I was left behind. Finally after testing and perfecting the app for several months now they finally released their app. This time I made sure I downloaded it right away.

During my last blog post about Chipotle iPhone app I had promised that I would test it and write about it. Last Saturday I had a chance to test it. So I just wanted to share my experience. Tired of eating the same  usual stuff from the same restaurant I was hunting for a new concept restaurant. Then I realized why not take this opportunity to try iPhone app for mobile ordering at Chipotle. A friend of mine and I went to Chipotle located at 10800 Alpharetta Hwy, Roswell, Atlanta. My friend got a burrito, salad and a drink. I decided to test the mobile order via iPhone so I just got the drink only. I then took out my iPhone and started to place an order. The ordering process was pretty simple. Every thing was self explainatory. Since I had not signed up yet, it prompted me to sign up before check out. So I did that too. Thought sign up would be long one but I experienced it to be a short one. Very thoughtful of Chipotle especially for people who would just give up because  it was too long sign up process as it often happens on the web. Once I signed up it took me to the payment section where I input my credit card numbers and in few seconds the payment was processed. Then it said that my order was received and that email receipt would be sent to me which I did receive it. Literally it took me may be 2-3 minutes though it was my first time trying to figure it out and place an order at the same time. Next time the ordering process  would be may under a minute.

Experiencing the iPhone mobile ordering at Chipotle by myself, I see that Fast Casual Restaurants are headed to a promising future. But those who accepts the technology and adopts are gonna win. And the rest who are hiding their head in the sand assuming that nothing is changing they will have a hard time in few years to compete with restaurants like Chipotle who have already started using innovative technology to accomodate the needs of their busy corporate customers.

Why Restaurants need to adopt innovative technology to remain relevant in the future?

As soon as the Chipotle iPhone app was released back in January 2009, I checked some of the Apple forums. There were hard core apple loyal fans who were so excited to use the app. They all were raving about it.With more than 40 millions iPhones to be sold by 2009, the chances of iPhone users downloading Chipotle iPhone app also increases. Since every iPhone users have to eat lunch, I am assuming they would have know about Chipotle app by now or if not they will soon as it gets more popular. As customers become accustomed to online ordering via iPhone I’m sure those busy customers working in a corporation at those high tall rise building would not want to waste their time waiting in the line to get their food during the lunch time. Rather they would want to pre order via their iPhone and pickup their food without having to wait in long lines sometimes taking them may be even more than 5-10 minutes.

The imaginary scenario would be like this. It is almost 12 pm lunch time for all companies in US. The customer gets in the lift to go down to drive up to the local restaurant. While in the lift he takes out his iPhone.( Hope their company has set up the strong connectivity in their building other wise he will have to do it while driving) He places his order in less than a minute. He drives up to the local restaurant. Without waiting the long line during the busy lunch hour he goes straight to the iPhone mobile order line. His lunch is ready for a pick up. He shows his email receipts confirmation to the cashier. He gets his food right away. What it takes 2-3 minutes (fastest) if he would have come through a regular line and paid with his credit card, would literally now take him only few seconds to get his food when ordered via iPhone.

With time being scarce during the lunch time who would not want to leverage the innovative technology to cut down the ordering and waiting time and use that time to enjoy the food. I think every one would. At least I would.

I believe restaurants should recognize the importance of accomodating their busy tech savvy customer’s need and attempt to provide the fast service by leveraging technology.If you restaurant won’t then those tech savvy customers are not obligated to be loyal forever. They will switch the restaurant with few clicks on their iPhones.

So I hope all restaurants  whether independentor chains would see this trend as a promising opportunity and adopt innovative technology to remain relevant in the future.

I’d  appreciate if you could share your thoughts about Chipotle’s  app if you have tried the online mobile ordering via iPhone.Even if you haven’t tried it let us know what do you think about  mobile ordering trends and how it would impact the  future of the fast casual restaurants, by dropping some comments below. Thanks!

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Posted in Mobile Marketing, iPhone Marketing

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Starbucks VIA instant taste Challenge Day- Brilliant Marketing Strategy on Social Media by Starbucks.

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| 2 Comments

How Starbucks attracted me into the Sales funnel and finally into their Store persuading me to buy their VIA instant coffee.

Starbucks VIA Instant coffee was the buzz last week every where from radio to Facebook, Twitter and every possible medias. I have to admit that I am impressed by their social media marketing strategy funneling a potential customer into buying the VIA instant coffee. Despite being a marketing guy and knowing how they were attracting me to their fish net, I was persuaded to finally buy their VIA instant coffee. Now allow me to share the process how they did it to me so it gives you an idea how a brilliant marketing can work. Please feel free to use some of their ideas for a similar product launch of your restaurant.

On Thursday October 1st I heard the buzz about Starbucks VIA instant coffee on the radio. They were talking so highly about it in a local radio that I even made a Facebook update wondering if it was really that good. What I essentially did was viral marketing for them at a push of an update on my Facebook informing all my friends about their new product VIA instant coffee. That is what I call a word of mouse advertising. It was purely on a voluntary basis. No one forced me to do that. I just did it because I like the coffee and I wanted to share with my friends. As this buzz was lingering in my mind, the next day when I opened Facebook, I saw the ads from Starbucks on my right hand side of the screen enticing me to RSVP. Sure enough I did it.

Now it was Saturday morning yesterday. I woke up and the first thing I wanted was a coffee. I would have gone to Dunkin Donuts or other Coffee place that morning. Since Starbucks was successful in engaging my mind with their new coffee product VIA instant coffee right from the middle of the week, I could not forget it and it just automatically prompted my mind to go to Starbucks yesterday morning.

I went to the Starbucks. Saw their promotional displays and also the sample of VIA instant coffee with two flavors- Columbia and Italian. I tried Columbia right away. Later I went to the cashier to buy a regular coffee but never had a desire to really buy the VIA instant coffee. She explained me in more details about the promotion and that I could buy the VIA instant coffee for $1.50 with $1 OFF on the 3 packets Italian flavor instant coffee.On top of that I would get my grande regular freshly brewed coffee for FREE. Now who would not want to take that offer. That is brilliant to me. Here is why? If that offer was not there then I would not have bought the VIA instant coffee. Their main strategy was to hand over the VIA instant coffee to every customers that walked into the store with the same FREE cup of coffee offer. Though they lost their money on that FREE cup of coffee I think they won in a long run. Now just take an example of me. Just because of that offer I got those VIA instant coffee. Now I will be trying that coffee. I might like it. The chances of me telling to my other friends is more as I enjoy the coffee. The chance of me buying more also increased dramatically. See how with one simple strategy Starbucks got me hooked into their sales funnel.

Starbucks Twitter Marketing Strategy

StarbucksVIA taste Challenge tweet

StarbucksVIA taste Challenge tweet

On Friday at 12:59 pm Starbucks tweeted about their Starbucks taste challenge day promotion with a link to their event link on Facebook. With one tweet Starbucks were able to broadcast their event to over 300 thousands followers. It was FREE. Imagine if they had to broadcast the same message on TV, it would cost them couple of thousands if not millions of dollars. Using twitter platform, it enabled Starbucks to inform about it’s VIA instant coffee product launch to potentially to everyone who ever were interested in Starbucks coffee. Once people got that tweet they were further drawn into Facebook to RSVP the  StarbucksVIA taste challenge day event.This is brilliant because when they RSVP the event then it is directing their mind subconsciously to attend that event. I am the perfect example. Saturday morning as I woke up, my subconscious mind told me to go to Starbucks.

Starbucks Facebook Ad

Starbucks Facebook Ad

Starbucks VIA Taste Challenge

I have seen Starbucks as the leader in leveraging the social media to engage it’s customers making a great brand awareness. For this particular VIA instant taste challenge event they used the Facebook to promote and in my opinion they were successful. As of writing this article there were 211, 1184 confirmed guests already and we still have time till tomorrow-Monday 5th October up to 5pm. Starbucks might have bought Facebook ad for couple of spare change out of their coffee sales. That marketing expense would be like a drop out of the ocean. However the impact it had to attract targeted potential customers was huge. That is the power of Facebook targeted ad. Any restaurants can attract their customers based on their geographic location. Your restaurant pay only when the ad gets clicked. I feel it is better than any other ad as it is targeted specific to your own local area within your own city.

I hope you got an idea how Starbucks has leveraged social media like Facebook and Twitter to attract the potential customers and more importantly how to use some of those ideas into your restaurant business. If you also want to add some ideas that I might have left please feel free to add on the comment section. I would appreciate it and also other restaurants who are trying to figure this new social media thing would also be very thankful to you.

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Posted in Blog Marketing, Face Book Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Twitter Marketing, Viral Video Marketing, Youtube Marketing

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7 Key Factors That Can Determine Your Restaurant’s Success On Twitter.

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| 4 Comments

There is no doubt in my mind that Twitter is one of the most powerful marketing tool for restaurants if they can understand it well and harness it’s power to it’s full potential.

Over the last couple of months I have started to see the trends in the restaurant industry getting into the bandwagon of Twitter. Just few days ago Chik-Fil-A , Atlanta based Chicken Sandwich chain also joined Twitter. Every day there are so many restaurants joining Twitter. Two days ago I was introduced to a new restaurant who had just joined the twitter and I was the first or second follower of that restaurant. All this show me that indeed restaurants have begun realizing the importance of Twitter in their marketing effort. It is good thing that they are getting into it. That is the first part of the equation. However there is another part where most of the restaurants are missing the boats. May be because they have not understood the concept of Twitter well, they have not been able to execute it well and harness it’s power that could be mightier than television, radio or newspaper. So I will try my best to breakdown the Twitter Success concept in to 7 factors that might be able to help you see Twitter with different eyes than regular folks out there and execute it well to your advantage.

7 Key Factors To Your Restaurant Twitter Success:

  1. Sharing
  2. Caring
  3. Retweeting
  4. Be Yourself
  5. Be Positive
  6. Touch Of a Humour
  7. Surprise them

Sharing -

Twitter was born originally with an idea of sharing your daily updates in your life. Even on Twitter update page it says “What are you doing?” ( Earlier Version) People share simple things like ” I ate cereals and milk.” There is nothing wrong in that if a person is sharing it with his or her friends though I still believe it should be more interesting than that or at least it should be expressed in a style so that it doesn’t appear plain and boring. However as a restaurant  one should think what customers are interested in. You have to share something relevant that is useful to them and that would help them in their life. Some restaurants keep promoting just the coupons or deals. Nothing wrong in sharing your restaurant’s products. But it is not what you share but how you share makes a different and make more attractive to the followers and be interested in it. Let’s say you have a buritto to promote. Don’t just say we have the best buritto in the town. Come and Enjoy! Because that is too generic and every restaurants say the same. The follower would be saying, ” Yeah right! and all those tech savvy followers would be laughing at that updates. Give them a reason why it is good and how it could make their life easier. Now the same product you could promote it by saying like ” Try our rediculously yummy, big fat buritto that will fill your tummy at less.” Not messy as Burger, u will enjoy it without dripping that red ketchup on your new shirt even while on the wheels”. I’m just giving you an example. See how the same thing is turned into catchy yet funny with a powerful relevant and useful information for potential customers. One of the targetted customers would be students or any one who would like to have good lunch or dinner at reasonably low budget and secondly the other would be drive thru customers who would like to enjoy their food without messing up their clothes while driving and eating at the same time.

Caring -

Twitter is about connecting with the like minded people and then caring for each other and helping each other in need.When one of your follower make a remarks-good or bad you have to respond. That shows that you as a owner or manager do care about your customers. If it is a good remark that they make on Twitter then thank them for such a great compliment. If the update was about service complain then you could acknowledge it right away and be by their side as soon as possible to resolve the problem. Now if you solve the guest’s problem then he or she would be so happy that the next tweet would be about how efficient you were in solving the issue. Your restaurant had a great chance of turning the same negative buzz into positive and gaining more fans out of even nearly negative publicity just because you were able to find out quickly through Twitter and resolve it.

Retweeting-

When ever you find interesting articles relevant to your customers then please retweet it acknowledging that person who originally made the twitter update. Also don’t forget to thank any one who retweet your twitter updates.Whenever you find some followers making an updates talking highly about your restaurant and the delicious food, then retweet that along with your thanks.

Be Yourself-

Presenting yourself on Twitter while Branding your your restaurant can be little confusing in the begining. Truth of the matter is that you have to create your own style and give an authentic voice to your restaurant brand. If it is a fast casual restaurant then you should present yourself casually as you would be talking to your friends. Sometimes making jokes and uplifting the spirits at times when they are little down.You should be natural while engaging with your followers. You have to use your best judgement while communicating with your followers on twitter.

Be Positive-

Try and stay positive all the time on Twitter. Though sometimes it is hard, you should make every attempt to be positive on Twitter and never be negative. People flock to Twitter because it is a place full of fun and positive people. Though sometimes you can find few people that are negative. When you are positive that is reflected on the twitter updates and your followers can sense it. That produces positive twitter updates which will attract other interested followers to you. No one one wants to be around negative people. Lets face it. Even if some one happens to be near them, they will try and run away from that person. So please don’t be that person. On the other hand you might have to deal with that kind of negative people once in a while. If that does happen, please take it easy. Respect them for whatever their comments might be and try to make a quick exit from that conversation without letting it get worst and yet leaving a positive impression about your self.

Touch of a Humour-

Life in a corporate or physical world is generally boring. People like to come to Twitter to meet with cool people.So one of the key factor to be successful in Twitter is to add that dash of a humour with your twitter updates. It is like a garnish on a main dish. It enhances the flavour of the entree. It does pretty much the same thing except it does it for the tweets. It makes the Twitter updates more exciting and fun. Some of the cool guys that you can follow with a dash of a humour are Joel Comm @joelcomm , CEO of Zappos @zappos and restaurant @PopeyesChicken

Surprise them-

Twitter is one of the cool tool that lets you go into the mind of your customers. Never in the history any other tools has enabled this. Even before lunch or dinner you have an access to your customers’ mind for what they are going to have provided they make those updates. So that means when your customers are making an updates about your restaurant you have a chance to connect with them. If you feel that the customer was so awesome while updating  her tweets, may be you could surprise  with their favourite dish or dessert mentioned on Twitter. The customer would be surprised and now your restaurant have a chance of connecting with the customer in a deeper level. Every now and then you could surprise your followers with one lucky winner for Free Lunch or what ever you may find appropriate. This will create a buzz among the followers to follow your restaurant as the surprise prizes create excitements.

The above guidelines are the basics for the Success for your restaurant on Twitter. However there are other so many that you will learn as you begin the journey of Twitter along the way. If you know some other key factors for successful twitter strategy please feel free to add more on the comment section. Learning is a life long process. So I hope you would keep your eyes and mind open to the most powerful tool-Twitter and continue your learning process about Twitter and most importanlty learn to connect with your followers who could be a life long customers.

Do you think twitter is a great marketing tool for restaurants?  Are they using Twitter effectively to attract followers and convert them into customers? Please share your thoughts.

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How Restaurant P.F. Chang’s uses Twitter to Be Awesome?

Posted on July 15, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| 2 Comments

Few days back I was going through my twitter updates and saw an update from Brian Clark at @copyblogger about restaurant P.F. Chang’s. The update was a link to a video that explains how the restaurant was able to connect with it’s customer via Twitter and had a chance to be awesome. I watched the video and liked it for the fact that it is a true twitter success story about a restaurant. I thought it would be cool to share with you as it acts as a case study of how restaurants like P.F. Chang’s across the country are using Twitter to connect with their customers in a deeper level and be a remarkable.

Kelly from P.F Chang’s explains in the video that despite the coastal distance apart how they were able to connect with their customer only because of Twitter. Twitter has made it possible to have an access to their customer’s mind on a real time basis. As this customer a young woman was making an update talking highly about the Chicken lettuce Wrap, the other young lady at Scottsdale, Arizona P. F Chang’s’ headquarter was able to see it on a real time. Thrilled with the compliment about P.F. Chang’s and it’s Chicken Lettuce Wrap, she called the franchise restaurant which was on the other side of the coast. Now after knowing about this greatest fan of the restaurant, the franchisee went ahead and served her favorite Chicken Lettuce Wrap and the dessert on the house. Obviously it was a BIG surprise as she never expected it and never knew that some one from P.F. Chang’s was following her particular update on a real time while she was in the same restaurant. Now this is going beyond the average level of service. I call it being awesome. In their own restaurant term they call it “Trigger with the Guest”.

To be successful first of all your restaurant has to be remarkable and do awesome thing like P.F. Chang’s to your customers. You have to use twitter as a tool to achieve it. You have to WOW your customer and blow their mind with exceptional service that their eyes are not accustomed to and that their mind has never imagined of. Twitter has made it possible. All you have to do is use it to it’s full potential.Literally it has empowered restaurant owners to go into the mind of their customers and see what they are thinking about on a real time. It could be that they are thinking about their favorite salad or dessert like she did it while at restaurant P.F. Chang’s. It could be that some customers from a different state or even different country is updating on Twitter and looking for Italian restaurant in San Francisco lets say for example. When you have that kind of real time information you could directly connect with that particular customer and help him or her with the information and possibly persuade to dine in your restaurant. You have a huge advantage to get the customers right away. The only trick is that you have to be ready to get updated on Twitter and respond to any queries that might pop up on Twitter and gain your customers on the fly.

The affect of being remarkable and providing awesome service to your customers is the BUZZ that spreads so fast on Twitter. It is a viral marketing. It can spread so far and wide in a matter of few clicks on computers or few touches on  mobile phones. The fact that this story was so awesome I am writing about it. No body forced me but I just felt it was cool and felt like sharing with everyone. It is voluntary. See this is the power of being awesome. It spreads itself without having to force someone to do it. Unlike advertising on tv, radio or newspaper doesn’t work because most of them are boring and not at all awesome.It feels as if you are forced to listen or watch or read. No wonder people flip the channel on the tv or radio as soon as there is some kind of forced advertising. It doesn’t work any more. Did you notice how Kelly herself was so excited about the news that she herself came on to the video to tell about it to the whole world. She even told to her dad. In turn the CEO talked about the P.F Chang’s Twitter Success story in his business meeting with about 200 people. I also retweeted it. There were others who  retweeted the same awesome updates. Can you imagine now  how much buzz it might have created among his dad’s business circle and also in twitter universe.

So the key for your restaurant to be successful using Twitter is to be awesome first of all. Then using Twitter to it’s full potential and spreading the word about your restaurant and the products. So if you try to learn at least something from P.F. Chang’s'  twitter success story and implement the strategies, your restaurant would be far ahead than so many that are still trying to figure out how to use Twitter.

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Why Blogging Is Vital To Your Success In Restaurant Marketing?

Posted on June 21, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| 4 Comments

Blogging has definitely become one of the most powerful marketing tool for small businesses like restaurants. If blogging done properly, it can be powerful than tv, radio, newspapers, yellowpages all combined. Content is the king with the blogs. As a restaurant owners one has to think about their customers first. While creating contents for the blog one has to recognise what customers wants to read that would be valuable  and yet interesting enough to them with some some humour injected in them if possible. Don’t be boring. Most of the corporate blogs fail because there is no passion in the writings. Their corporate style of writing doesn’t resonate with their fun loving casual customers who likes casual conversations.

If it seems confusing and you would like to see the examples of other restaurant blogs, I would highly encourage you to do that first. May be even before you start a blog for your own restaurant,  it would be a great idea to follow couple of restaurant blogs. One that you could check out is kogibbq. The other ones are  Tyson chicken, Dairy Queen. Just by observing and engaging with the bloggers you learn a lot.

The key thing to remember is that you have to be ready to engage with your customers in a two way communication channels format. Join the converstation by replying back to your customers comments, answering your customers questions. That is how you build relationship and trust gradually. It is better if you yourself can do the blogging. If you are writing your content, opinions, expertise then it coming straight from you. So there is originality and authenticity. However if you are very busy then you could hire someone from your own company who is natural at blogging. If you don’t find some one in your company then it might be a good idea to look into a pool of your own customers. Who knows,there might be great fans with a passion for your restaurant’s products and service.

5 Reasons Why Blogging is Important to your success in Restaurant Marketing.

  1. Easily indexed by major search engines.
  2. Helps understand your customers problems.
  3. Helps in sharing valuable and interesting information relevant to your customers.
  4. Acts as a complete guide about your service or product and not as direct advertising.
  5. Is a great platform to create your own fan base tribe.

Easily indexed by Major Search Engines- One of the main reasons you want to blog is that it helps your restaurants to be found by major search engines like Google, Yahoo and many more on the internet. Now since this is a natural organic search results found by your prospective customers these are all free traffics that cost not a single dime to you. That means virtually the marketing expense is zero. Can you imagine when you don’t have to spend those thousands of dollars on tvs, radios, newspapapers and yellowpages. All that money now becomes a profit that you could put into your pocket instead of handing it over to those tv executives.

Helps understand your customers problems-When you write contents about your products, service or some useful information for your customers, then they have a chance to express their own opinion- good or bad and also problems of their concern. Once communication is made transparent through a blog, it is easier to understand customers real problem and solve it instantly rather than having to live in the darkness of unkown and building mistrust.

Helps in sharing valuable and interesting information relevant to your customers-Since blog is a medium of broadcasting, it helps you to share valuable information and yet interesting to your customers.The biggest mistake that one should not make that is worth repeating is not to be boring. Don’t present yourself as structured corporate officer. Rather be very casual, informal as you would talk to your friends and hopefully with humour you would be able to make your customers’ days.

Acts as a complete guide about your service or product and not as direct advertising-Blog essentially acts as a ccomplete guide for your restaurant. It will provide all the information regarding menu, services, contact information, directions, opening closing hours to all imaginable informations to prospective customers. So instead of acting like direct advertising that we see on the television or newspapers that says like ” hey come to our restaurant. We have the best steak.” It displays what products or service can your restaurant provide to customers in non threatening environment at their control of time.

Is a great platform to create your own fan base tribe-I have seen so many Facebook fan pages of several restaurants that has several thousands of loyal fans. Blogs acts as a spring board to create loyal followers on to your blogs and turn them into loyal fans that you could continue building and nurturing your relationship. Possibly later you could take them even to Facebook via the Blog. So that means any one who would visit your blog would have a chance to join your Facebook Fanpage and become a fan. This would make conversations more dynamic as the social viral effect would be be compounding.

Looking at all the above benefits of blogging, if your restaurant doesn’t have a blog presence on the internet, hope it encourages you to start building one. If your restaurant does have a blog, I hope you can still take some ideas  and take your restaurant blog marketing to the next advanced level.

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Where Are Social Networking Sites Heading? How Can Your Restaurants Take Advantage Of Business Branding Opportunities Facebook Offers.

Posted on May 20, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

When you look at the history of social networking sites, since 2004 there has been a tremendous growth in social networking sites. It boggles my mind to see how many new sites pop up every day revolving around the idea of social media. To name few dominant ones are Myspace, Facebook and Linked in. The interesting thing to note during this same time is that how some of them have declined while the others are rapidly growing to be an integral part of our modern social medium of communication. What I am talking about here is Myspace vs Facebook. Though Myspace was born before Facebook, it has declined it’s popularity and in a way become old school. While Facebook which came later in the scene of social media adopted a twist on Myspace social networking site model by also implementing the business aspect.I believe that has given a huge boost to Facebook popularity.

Linkedin is also another social networking site focused on business professionals.But it only attracts the business people here. Facebook where as takes personal only approach of Myspace and professional only approach of Linkedin and combines the both and make it one in Facebook. That is what it makes Facebook more dynamic than Myspace or Linkedin. Though they have their own strengths in their own right, what I find it problem to us as a restaurant business owners is that it doesn’t serve a purpose of participating and engaging with the customers. It is like having only young customers in Myspace and restaurant business in Linkedin. So when customers and business are in separate social networking site how on earth are we going to communicate with our customers and engage with them, most probably inform and entertain them to win their loyalty and encourage them to visit our restaurants. Facebook takes this opportunity of filling the vacum that was created by this two social networking sites. Now since Facebook allows a business like your restaurant to create Fan page or Groups in Facebook, you can virtually communicate two ways with your customers, also who have become fans of your restaurant. Business and customers have come to a single social networking platform Facebook. Now only then it makes your restaurant and customer relationship a business sense.

Facebook has definitely been a blessing for small businesses like small independent restaurants. It offers an opportunity to small restaurants to even compete with big chain restaurants. No more can a chain restaurants sit on a heap of extra cash they have and laugh at small restaurants which they have been doing in the pretelevision age. The days of fighting the battle of marketing on the televisions are over. In fact if you are smart enough to execute the Facebook marketing with  targeted advertising, despite being a small independent restaurant and with a less marketing budget,Facebook now levels the battle field plain for you to even win the Goliath.

Facebook by any means is not a magic.It is not something you turn it on and it works wonders automatically. Obviously work and patience is required. You have to have a strong presence. Engage with the fans. Entertain them. This is how you build a relationship and create your loyal fans.

But if you don’t have a patience to wait too long and you are willing to pay money for targeted traffic then there is a service offered by Facebook called Facebook Ad. Basically it allows you to advertise your restaurant to a targeted group of people lets say people residing only in your town or city. Facebook with it’s algorithm it will display those ads to only people that you have targetted specifically. That way you have a more chance of your marketing money worth well spent. It is not like shot gun approach on televisions, radio or newspaper. Facebook Ad  hits right on the target and produces astounding results that is unheard of. Sometimes it might lead you to scratch the head and make you think why one would spent so much on other traditional medium of marketing that doesn’t work any more. This is even better than pay per click advertising on Google because Facebook already has a data of a people living in your area that you are targeting. That means the advertising of your restaurant would not be thrown at the face of a random people like the tv does to annoy them. Rather with it’s unique algorithm it would learn about your customers social profile and only would display the ad on his face. This time you are sure that the customer is more likely to respond because it is more relevant.It is not like the ad from a tv or radio where you see or hear an ad about a restaurant that is located on the other side of the town or city and there is no way you would be driving that distance just to have your dinner.

The main advantage of Facebook Ad to your restaurant is targetted advertising.You can virtually laser target the customers with in your town or city with their targeted advertising and attract to your restaurant.This is how Facebook Ad brings a value proposition to all small businesses including your restaurants.

Hope all of the small independent restaurants see the opportunity that Facebook offers and take advantage of it.

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Lessons That Restaurants Can Learn From KFC Free Chicken Promotion.

Posted on May 19, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

Free Chicken  Promotion is most probably the great marketing promotion  that restaurants like  KFC can do if executed well. If not done with cautious planning then it can turn out to be a marketing disaster as it did to Kentucky Fried Chicken. This was definitely not the first time that a restaurant has done this kind of Free Food promotion. Denny’s breakfast restaurant had done it’s FREE breakfast promotions that they advertised during the  Superbowl.

When I was checking my twitter updates I saw KFC as a trending topic.Having a keen interest in the topic of restaurants, I rushed to check what was all this buzz about on Twitter. To my amazement, it was KFC’s Free Chicken promotion announced by non other than most influential Oprah.  Well I was excited for the fact that at least there were restaurants doing a bold promotions on new social medias like Twitter. But later that day and following few days after I started to see the  skeleton of that FREE marketing promotion. It started to bother me especially when I saw the above video of KFC’s President apologizing in front of the video.You do great marketing promotion to create buzz from the customers and not to have President of a company apologize for how bad it went. I also saw the twitter updates and most of them started with “sorry” and “apology”. I started to think how hard that job had been for the PR person who was handling the KFC twitter account.

I don’t agree with the millions that Denny’s spent during the Superbowl just to announce Free Breakfast. I think if you are giving Free breakfast one doesn’t have to spend millions. It could have been advertised with out spending that kind of money. They could have contacted with few hand full of food bloggers and given them  the Free Breakfast coupons with limited numbers of downloads. Denny’s would have saved those I don’t know how many millions of dollars. Additionally it would have been more effective than the Superbowl Ad. The most important thing would be to facilitate the restaurants to track the number of downloads. The sophisticated software would even allow to distribute the coupons at certain town or city and also the numbers of coupons that would be able to be downloaded by the customers.

Without the tracking mechanism built which is virtually impossible on tv broadcast, it was chaos in some way. It was overwhelming and some of the customers who had to wait too long or could not even get into the restaurant were now angry at the restaurant. So thought the promotion was to create the buzz, it had negative counter effect. I think this is more harmful than the money they wasted in the drain during the Superbowl. They might be able to earn back the money they lost during the Superbowl. But the trust they lost due to the broken promise that they could not keep up with their customers could possibly be never earned back.

The same thing happened with KFC Free Chicken promotion too-overwhelming and chaos. They went on and announced with the help of one of the most influential figure in media-Oprah. In a way people were listening to Oprah than KFC. I am wondering how Oprah felt with all the situation and if she would be willing to do this kind of risky announcement later in the future. I bet she would be very careful with restaurant promotions she would agree to announce. Oprah, definitely would not want to risk the leverage of her trust with her viewers and admirers.

KFC’s idea is brilliant. But the way it was executed and how the chaos was handled is certainly not encouraging one. In fact it did more harm than the buzz that they initially wanted to create out of this promotion. Internet is powerful medium. It either works for you if executed well or it works against you if not planned well and things don’t go your way. So the key is to be very careful before you do this kind of mass scale Free Food marketing promotion and have a careful plannings and control mechanism built before rolling any promotions.

I know that KFC had a website where they were allowing customers to download the coupons to redeem it for Free Chicken at one of their restaurants. Later I also heard that they had taken down the coupons just to control the chaos. They couldn’t handle the overwhelming rush of hungry customers which were more than the amounts of chicken that they had in their restaurants. Some of them even had to close their restaurants just because they could not keep up with the demands.

I am not sure if their Free Chicken Coupons distribution had a control mechanism built with special coupon tracking software. With the havoc that went on, it seems they didn’t have it or they couldn’t execute it well enough. Other wise people wouldn’t be talking the negative thing about the free chicken promotion.I believe restaurants have to come up with a mechanism where they should have a control over the Free Food down loadable coupons. They should be able to distribute evenly to all parts of the area where their restaurants are located. With the help of sophisticated software they could assign certain numbers of coupons to certain town or city even dissecting it to zip codes. That way you would know for sure that you would send only that amount of traffic to the restaurant where the staffs would be able to handle the crowds and the customers who got the coupons would be happy to be seated on time and enjoy the breakfast rather than complaining for the chaos.

This is a big lesson for any restaurant to rethink before they do Free Food Promotion. It is a good marketing promotion if you can control it by limiting the number of coupons that you can let your customers download based on the capacity of your restaurant in that particular area.

Should you have other ideas how KFC could have done better, please share your thoughts too. It would be beneficial to all restaurants including Kentucky Fried Chicken should they decide for free food promotions in the future.

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4 Tips On Facebook Marketing That Can Be Effective For Your Restaurant Business.

Posted on May 18, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| 4 Comments

Facebook is a platform that you as a restaurant owner should use it as a networking tool to build a tribe of your own that would become your customers and eventually your loyal fan.Some of the restaurants might think that just creating a Fan page on Facebook is enough. Well that is just a start. There are other things that a restaurant has to do in order to be successful in promoting your restaurant on Facebook. Below are the 4 tips on how your restaurant can use Facebook to market your restaurant.

  1. Create a brilliant Fan page
  2. Reach out
  3. Get Active
  4. Join Groups and create events

Create a brilliant Fan page -As a restaurant business you now have an opportunity to create a Fan page and attract unlimited number of fans and create an unique brand. Some of the the singers and actors have  millions of fans on Facebook. So as a restaurant you can do the same if you choose to do so. But the key is to create rich contents that your customers would like to read. Share some relevant information that your customers would eagerly want to hear from you. It may be about healthy food, or how to remain healthy while eating good food. Add some good quality photos of your delicious food. May be make an announcement of a happy hour or a surprise wine session at your restaurant. Another important thing is to create your own branding image. It must be original and reflect what your restaurant represents. If it is casual restaurant then make it visible with the updates, the photos or videos that you share with your customers.

Reach out- Just creating a Fan page on Facebook is not enough. You have to find a creative way to attract the potential dining customers to your Fan page. Like Gary Vaynerchuk says, you have to hustle to bring those hungry customers first to your Fan page and later to your restaurant. So how do we do this? Well the most effective way first is to identify the key influential people that are related to your food industry. It could be food blogger, or healthy eating group on Facebook. You have to be creative enough to make friends by networking with them. I promise your marketing effort will be much easier leveraging their influential powers to may be thousands and millions of people at one click of a mouse. Alternatively you can also start engaging with potential customers within your town or city by engaging with ongoing updates. Though a little slower process it is worth the effort provided you do it consistently every day. Even if you can make friends with few people – a small number  that is countable on fingers, it is worth to create a momentum. The compounding effect of fans that can be generated virally over a period of some time like few months can turn out to be mind boggling.

Get Active- Now that you have reached out influential people within your restaurant and food industry and also potential customers from your town or city that are on Facebook, you need to get active with them. That means first you must share valuable contents or useful information that are relevant to them. You can do it by making a quick updates on Facebook. The frequency is also important. There is no set rules how many updates you can or can not do. The important thing is that the number of the updates has to match with relevancy and usefulness to your customers. At least one update a day is critical. Because if you don’t make any updates then it can be felt by your fans. It would be like your fans calling you on the phone but no one is picking up the phone. That displays that there is no actions going on and will be clearly visible by the fans on the fan page. So even if there were fans initially they will lose interest and start dropping from the fan page. So please don’t let this happen. The key thing to remember is engage with fans by asking questions and getting feed backs. They will comment and provide feedbacks and your job is to listen. Listen first what your fans are saying. Internalise it and respond to any or all of the comments. This way it shows that you do care about your fans. It also tells them that you do exist as a human being.

Join Groups and Create Events – There are so many groups on Facebook. You can search the type of the groups that you are interested and join the group. Not as a restaurant business but as a regular individual who has a interest on that topic. Lets say you want to attract environmental conscious customers then you can join a group which discuss about environmental impact issues that are dear to their heart. Hope before you join this group you have inclination to at least adopt some of the ways where you are contributing to the planet by just doing simple things like using paper products instead of plastics or foams. Now you can proudly  talk about how businesses, just using paper products can help in protecting the environment. You could share some of the case studies with them. You could also share some good articles that talks about the same issues with some results. Now when you prove them that you are knowledgeable person then they will start trusting you and respecting you. While you are sharing your ideas, you have a reason to display some of the results that you have achieved at your restaurant. You can share and they will listen this time because you have already gained the trust from them. You can even create an event with a theme like , “Saving the environment While enjoying the great Food.” where you are only using recyclable products and also raising money for charity programs like Saving the Planet or something similar to that. These are just some ideas that I am just throwing at you. You can be much creative and come up with your own events based on your interest but also relevant to your restaurant.

Hope you get some ideas how you can be creative and use Facebook as a networking tool and start building a qualified network of potential customers that you could turn them as your real customers at your physical restaurant and hopefully  loyal fans for years to come.

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The Opportunity Facebook Offers To Restaurants In Marketing Their Brand.

Posted on May 5, 2009 by Nash Sherchan| Leave a comment

Facebook has become one of the most integral part of our social communication medium. Without it it must be hard to live as a social human beings where we like to communicate with each other whether it is with our friends or loved ones. My self would be a great example who use Facebook more than email or even phone call if I want to communicate with my friends whether in States or other countries. Every day I see new lost friends joining Facebook. That indicates to me that there is more and more people joining  Facebook. It has become a digital home to all of us no matter which part of the world we live in. Before we decide to visit to any new restaurant we ask our friends on Facebook. Some times while visiting restaurants we send Facebook updates right from there inviting our friends. When these new breeds of customers are living and breathing Facebook, it would be a mistake any restaurants would overlook the opportunity it offers.

I was doing a research on the internet and I came across a video presentation about social media by Reggie Bradford . I got more interested as he was talking about restaurants and new way of social media marketing. To my surprise he is from Atlanta. He was talking about local brands like Moe’s South West Grill, Willy’s Mexicana Grill. Even better. I knew then that writing a blog post would be even more fun.

“In the downturn, I think the only way to keep a brand in front of customers and the message relevant is to use social media.Marketing dollars work at dramatically higher multiples when consumers help create your message and pass it along.” Reggie Bradford

Reggie Bradford, ceo, Vitrue, Inc., a social-media marketing firm, explains why it has been more important than ever to businesses to adopt social media marketing in this new age of digital world. He shares his experience about how iHop is successful in tying up the marketing effort using Facebook and was able to even attract a marketer like himself.When he was checking out his facebook, he noticed that his friends had RSVPed to attend IHOP’s National Pancake Day which benefits the Children’s Miracle Network. He then left facebook and headed to iHop’s website. He located the nearest iHop restaurant and went there with his family for the breakfast. This is a classic example how a restaurant can tie in a  great marketing with great cause on Facebook. With out the social networks like Facebook and presence of his friends transparent digital footprints he would not be able to know about IHOP’s National Pancake Day which benefits the Children’s Miracle Network. Attending then would be out of question.  See how all these marketing ties into a network effect. So I would highly urge all the restaurants to have a presence at Facebook and engage with customers interacting, answering their questions, and entertaining with promotions and may be freebees like Denny’s and iHop.

The other thing that I liked about iHop’s promotion is that they have tied up with social cause. They were giving Free Pancakes but also raising the money for Children’s Miracle Network. So it attracted even people like Reggie Bradford to attend the iHop promotion. The marketing is brilliant if you observe this carefully. IHop has tied up this with social cause positioning their brand who cares about their community and the children. This is one of the most powerful marketing promotion I believe there is  because it is connecting with those parents who also have their own children and have a deep feeling to support this cause. These parents are also one of the most socially aware customers there is in the entire planet. You can not sell them with those old sneaky sales techniques or those flashy fake advertisement on the television. They can smell it from a distance. So please don’t even bother trying it to these tech savvy customers. Instead connect them by engaging  and entertaining these customers via social networking sites like Facebook which is their digital home. You would be far ahead than many other restaurants who are still  hiding their heads in the sand as if nothing has changed since 2004 after the birth of Facebook.

So I would encourage to all restaurants if you haven’t used Facebook for your restaurant then start creating a presence on Facebook. Start engaging with your customers. Entertain them with great marketing promotions, events and surprises every now and then. You will win over your customers and create a loyal fan for years to come. I believe those restaurants who acknowledge that world of restaurant marketing has changed and are willing to change themselves by adopting Facebook will win ultimately.

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