Fantastic example of the reality of the Return on Investment in marketing. Food service marketing is no different and from what I can see, the majority of the industry is not using these tools to their fullest or even just using them. Why? Setting sail into social media waters also takes commitment, someone who knows what they're doing and marketing strategies are key. It takes time and money and we all know time is money so it comes down to money and the ROI.
Social media is not a fad which I'm sure no one would argue with yet how to approach it will always prompt discussion. Facebook is 6 years old and as that's the big man on campus will use this time frame to base this post around however will add, social media is't just Facebook, it means all tools associated with it.
Food service is vastly different from retail, we all understand that and we know that everyone is a retail buyer. So how do we apply the psychology of marketing with social media food service sales and marketing? For the most part, the same way. Social media is a vehicle for word of mouth marketing online.
When I was ready to purchase a camera, I didn't want to do all the research that happens with making that purchased. That represented investing a lot of time to find what camera was going to work best for me so I asked friends about there cameras, their likes and dislikes about their camera. When I found a friend that has experience with the type of camera I wanted, I just took her advice and bought the same camera as she has. I trusted her feedback about the camera and never by purchasing the same camera I would have someone that could lend me support for using it as well.
Now purchasing a camera compared to purchasing chicken breast is much different yet not so much when it comes down to it. In an operator and distributor analogy, the operator is trusting his distributor rep on his or her recommendation with one of their first questions of if they know the product and how it preforms. That's word of mouth. So how do you create word of mouth marketing in social media to cultivate opportunities for your product and ultimately a sale in food service? The traditional approach is food shows, sales calls, sales meetings, distributor marketing tools and so on and that works yet when looking at the ROI, do you truly know the ROI in that model? It's there with a lot of moving parts and in a competitive environment. Social media is just another tool to support the process and with today's tools and technologies, we can reach our customers on their time.
Culinary Notes is our vehicle to support our efforts, our members and show you how we can create value and word of mouth marketing for your product.
Madonna Kash
FoodService Geeks & Restaurant Marketing Partners
About Madonna
