WHAT IS GASTRONOMIC MARKETING?

The hospitality business has worked very well due to daily word of mouth. Customers who went to a bar or restaurant enjoyed the food and did not hesitate to recommend it to their acquaintances. Word of mouth continues to happen, and there is no shortage of customers who come for recommendations, but these customers are limited to a small number of visits. Recommendations, while always appreciated by a business, remain few actual visits. Family, friends and close neighbors.

Today, with globalization, reaching users near a restaurant is not enough. The hotel industry is one of the main reasons for tourism and safe search when making a trip. In a world completely converted to the digital scene, being present in the online environment is essential for your restaurant or bar to become a successful business. The answer lies in gastronomic marketing.

GASTRONOMIC MARKETING?

Numerous advertising agencies and professionals in the communication sector have hospitality businesses among their accounts. Marketing has become so important in this sector that several agencies have decided to specialize and become gastronomic marketing agencies.

We can define gastronomic marketing as the set of strategies and actions designed and carried out to capture and captivate customers, meeting their needs through gastronomic products and services. The social networks and the website of the restaurant, the photographs of the dishes, spaces and equipment, the design of the menu, and even the music played on the premises. It’s all food marketing.

The goal: attract new customers and retain the ones we already have.

THE GASTRONOMIC MARKETING PLAN.

The first step is to understand that professional marketing management of your gastronomic business is essential for its success. Once you have entrusted the communication of your company to an advertising agency, it must begin by researching the market, audience and target audience to design a marketing plan detailing the objectives and strategies to be followed in the short, medium and long term. . Once your target audience has been identified, the appropriate marketing actions are designed to reach it and achieve the set objectives successfully.

Each action involves monitoring and analysis that studies its results and guides the development of the following actions through detailed reports.

ACTIONS TO GET NEW CUSTOMERS.

In recent years, the gastronomic sector has begun to trust in the importance of communication for the success of its businesses. The hospitality industry has always preferred the traditional model of offline marketing. Traditional media such as radio continue to be the star media for advertising restaurants and bars. Along with these, brochures with promotions such as the dish of the day are among the first actions in which these businesses invest to make themselves known and promoted.

Globalization and digitization have changed the rules of the game. The behaviors, needs and tastes of users are constantly changing and evolving. Awareness of the trends and new strategies that stand out in the gastronomic marketing panorama is essential to adapt to your target audience and achieve your goals. 

Traditional media such as the radio, the press or specialized magazines in the gastronomic sector continue to be a great success when working on the brand image of hospitality businesses, achieving a great reputation. Arranged interviews on the radio in which the work carried out by the team are disclosed more closely, and press releases and link-building articles in leading media in the sector become actions with a great return on investment and guaranteed success.

Also Read: TOOLS TO MANAGE FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY IN YOUR COMPANY

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND THE WEB AS A SHOWCASE FOR YOUR GASTRONOMIC BUSINESS.

These well-used strategies are powerful tools, but we cannot focus exclusively on traditional media. Today, if you are not on social networks, you do not exist.

87.1% of the population has social networks. 40.7 million users. 9 out of 10 people use social media and spend nearly two hours daily on it, making it a fantastic medium to reach them.

Professional social networks act as a showcase for your restaurant. The same goes for your website, which must include a digital letter. We cannot forget that users are constantly informed and informing themselves, so it is most likely that they will want to know the menus of the premises before going to them, to decide which will be the best option for their evening.

This culture of information, connectivity and anticipation has also changed the way of booking. Customers want to book from home with their smartphones. Turning immediacy into an inconvenience or an advantage for your restaurant is a matter of perspective. Give your customers the option to book at the moment with a simple click and translate this action into security and the possibility of planning for your team.

Through these media, users can let themselves be conquered by the photographs of your dishes and the unique spaces of your business. At the same time, they enjoy discovering the most social facet of the premises by meeting the team and being entertained with videos of recipes and experiences.

This highlights the importance of photography and audiovisual material in the hospitality industry. If the photos you publish are of poor quality, even though your dishes are spectacular and delicious, the user will not choose you and will choose to go to a competing business. Therefore, if we want to attract customers by showing them in advance our culinary proposal, it must be as visually attractive as possible to conquer it.

REVIEW MANAGEMENT

The content of your website and social networks must be quality, but this is not enough.

Let’s remember that in the hotel industry, opinions and recommendations have great weight when deciding on a place.

A criticism that has not been dealt with adequately or that has not been dealt with directly will generate distrust in other users, causing them to discard your restaurant. If this goes further, it can become a brand crisis that can bring down your business.

Maintaining feedback with customers on our website, social networks, and key platforms in the sector, such as Tripadvisor, is essential. The management of opinions must be carried out by a communication professional. Appreciating the positive mentions, or managing the negative ones with tact and respect, will allow users to trust your establishment.

BRANDING

All these actions must be captured within a branding concept that shows your brand’s unique image. Not only the web, social networks, and the communication carried out by other means must follow the philosophy and aesthetics of your brand. Branding continues in the physical premises with the dish tasted and the service received, but also with the name, the logo, the slogan, the design of the menu, the uniforms, the cutlery and the decoration of the premises. Branding is more than turning your hospitality business into an experience for the customer who wants to discover, live and relive.