Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Today's Specials:
SOCIAL MEDIA: How Restaurants Can Create Snapchat Geofilters
Snapchat introduced a new feature that could potentially be a marketing goldmine for your sports bar or restaurant. Here is a step-by-step guide on what they are and how to create them.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Alcohol Makes Us Fat
No one needs to remind us that drinking alcohol isn’t the best health wise. And to make matters worse, this infographic from a personal trainer shows just how alcohol contributes to weight gain. On the bright side, they do recommend the healthiest drinks to order.
Breweries on the Rise
The beer industry is booming. According to the Brewers Association, and this infographic, the brewery count has grown spectacularly, specifically over the past ten years. Take a look at the exponential growth of breweries in the US between 1976 and 2016.
Disney Space Restaurant
Disney World has announced their plans to open a space-themed restaurant inside the Epcot theme park in Florida. Details have yet to be worked out, but the table-service restaurant will allow guests to “travel high above the earth” near Disney’s existing space shuttle attraction.
AMAZON COMPETES WITH THE APRON
Why it matters to you: Amazon is launching a meal-kit delivery service.
It’s no questions that Amazon is the king of the delivery jungle. Last month, Amazon spent nearly $14 billion to buy Whole Foods and now they’ve hinted that they are coming for Blue Apron now. The Amazon-Whole Foods deal has in part affected the meal kit service very negatively resulting in a much lower expected value upon going public. In the latest food-delivery news, Amazon has filed a trademark for a meal kit service of its own. Blue Apron’s investors did not take the news well because the company’s shares fell to one of their lowest points since the company went public.
Amazon’s service is described as: “We do the prep. You be the chef,” which is essentially exactly what Blue Apron does. This new meal-service, as well as the company's deal with Whole Foods, doesn’t exactly paint a bright future for Blue Apron or any other meal-kit service. Blue Apron is still considered to be America’s largest meal-kit delivery service even as they closed out a really bad month. Overall, the company will need some top industry analysts to help the company compete with Amazon. As for restaurants, Amazon entering the food market could potentially take a bite out of sales in months to come.
DON’T BE BLUE OVER ONLINE REVIEWS
Why it matters to you: Can a negative online review actually improve your business?
The term “online review” is a clear trigger warning for restaurant operators. Our industry’s frustration with Yelp alone has been well documented. However, we rarely execute strategies that either mitigate or even improve the results of online reviews. A study by Northwestern University’s Spiegel Research Center has found that even negative reviews have value in encouraging purchase decisions by consumers. While the study focuses on retail operators, it still provides relevant and valuable insights for hospitality operators as well.
The study concluded that all reviews (even negative ones) have a role in guest’s decision making. In fact, they found that a full 5-star rating can be perceived as too good to be true and drive consumers away. They aren’t saying you should be happy with negative reviews and they strongly encourage you to engage with those reviewers to address their concerns in an infographic you can see here. That infographic also delivers a succinct strategy for how to maximize the utility of all reviews, even the bad ones to grow your business.
