Recent trends in Marketing Essay

Inauguration by a Celebrity: In this, the celebrity becomes a brand  ambassador of the hospitality unit and thus it leads to creating an image of the restaurant. The inauguration leads to an indirect advertisement in the newspapers informing people that the restaurant has been inaugurated by this celebrity. For example: Food Star Restaurant in Bandra-Khar area inaugurated by Actor Salman Khan helped the restaurant in marketing its image. Sandwich Man: This concept is very popular in the United States. In this, an individual wearing a costume which has a resemblance with the restaurants image tries to attract and market the restaurant to the people who pass by. The sandwich man tries to interact and entertain the people thus persisting them to eat in the restaurant. This is a form of direct marketing done by the restaurant directly to individuals without the help of any electronic or non-living medium. For example: McDonalds uses this concept of Sandwich man Advertisement in Magazines and Newspaper: Often restaurateurs and hoteliers try to invite different food critics so that they can write good reviews in about the restaurant and hotelier. In this the restaurant or hotel is marketed using a print medium and thus gets a good amount of audience who might become a potential customer of the restaurant. For example: Magazine like Good Food and Sunday Times. Advertising via Phone: Customers are often given feedback forms after they are done with the meal. In which they feed in their mobile no’s and also other details. In this process, the restaurant will store the details of the customer in a certain database and will try market the restaurants various discounts or food items through the medium of SMS to the customer. This is basically a form of retaining the customer.For Example: Rajdhani Restaurant In-Store Media: In-store media the restaurant uses television or radio within the restaurant and tries to re-capture the interest of the customer to order more food. The in-store media informs sometimes about the menu of the restaurant and or it just keeps playing the Television advertisement of the restaurant. For example: McDonalds in certain malls of foreign countries Outdoor Advertising: In outdoor advertising, the restaurant tries to attract people by just placing an information board about certain discount or certain buffet in the restaurant. For example: Every Saturday, Krishna Chhaya Restaurant in Khar has buffet service for Lunch. Online Restaurant Info Guides: Various sites  like zomato.com, mouthshut.com and burrp.com are sites where people can get all the information of the restaurant and also of the reviews of the customers who have visited that restaurant. This online restaurant guide is one of the most popular techniques in marketing of restaurant. Food Festival: In food festival, the restaurant will come up with a certain kind of theme for a certain period of days. This theme includes the restaurant staff wearing clothes according to the theme and also the food being prepared based on that theme. For example: Barbeque Nation came up with African Food Festival in May 2012 Restaurant/ Hotel Website: Now-a-days, all kind of restaurant and hotels have come with their own websites. These websites include the various products, services, locations etc. The customers can even order food through these websites which ge ts home delivered. This is a popular technique used in advertising wherein the restaurant by itself advertises providing its information. For example: www.mcdelivery.com, www.kfc.com. Telephone and E-mail Marketing: Restaurateurs create a database of all their past customers and also the potential customers and they keep on trying to attract them back to the restaurant through phone communication or e-mailing them. They call or email them and inform them of the various new products or discounts available. For example: e-mails of discounts on large pizza orders from dominos. Guerrilla Marketing: Guerrilla marketing is an advertising strategy that focuses on low-cost unconventional marketing tactics that yield maximum results. The original term was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book ‘Guerrilla Advertising’. This alternative advertising style relies heavily on unconventional marketing strategy, high energy and imagination. Guerrilla Marketing is about making customers surprise and create a buzz among them. Take- away Menu: Often when food is home-delivered, the parcel also includes the take-away menu. This take-away menu is a kind of marketin g done by the restaurant to advertise itself with recent changes in done to the menu. For example: The pizza box of dominoes also has a take-away menu stuck on it. Movie Theatre Advertising: In this, restaurant tries to advertise itself in local theatres to attract the potential local customer. For example: the Lakara restaurant of Punjab sweets in Bandra West is advertised in the local multiplex named Gaiety  Galaxy. Transit advertising: In this, the vehicles delivering food are painted with certain logo and contact info of the restaurant, so that people can view and save the contact info of the restaurant and thus order from them. This is a form of indirect advertising. For example: Pizza Hut bikes have the contact no painted on the back container of the bike. Coupon Cards: Coupon cards and vouchers are given through various ways to customer and thus to utilize these coupons the customer will come to the restaurant. This technique is applicable to new customers as well as old customers. Popular fast food joints use this technique every now and then. For example: Smokin Joe’s pizza often has menu cards filled with coupons. Television Advertising: In this form of advertising, restaurant and hoteliers can market their products and services to a large amount of people and thus help in creating awareness about the brand. For example: Dominoes 30 minutes or less advertisement is advertised on television. Sponsoring Social Events: This technique of marketing a restaurant is used when it has opened up in a local area and trying to create awareness about itself. For example: Krishna Chhaya Restaurant in Khar West sponsors the college festival Utkaarsh of Khar Education society college of Commerce and Economics. Discount on Large Orders: This attracts customers who would like large orders or prefer catering service. For example: Biryani being sold in kgs. Word of Mouth Publicity: This is a form of indirect publicity whereby the restaurant provides good service to the customer and also expects that the customer might pass on a good word about the restaurant in the market. Restaurant and hotels try to maintain a database whereby they take information from customer through question that : Will they be coming back to the restaurant? Will they recommend the restaurant to their friends or family? Asking new customers, from where to got to know about the restaurant? (with options of friends, family, newspaper etc.) WEBLIOGRAPHY http://www.restoconnection.com/guerrilla-marketing-put-to-good-use-by-restaurants www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com/what-is-guerrilla-marketing/ http://www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com/guerrilla-marketing/creative-uses-o f-stickers-in-advertising/ http://smallbusiness.chron.com/effective-marketing-plan-hotel-restaurant-industry-43767.html http://www.buuteeq.com/hotel-marketing-plan www.mcdonalds.com www.wikipedia.com www.foodnetwork.com/magazine.html www.zomato.com www.mouthshut.com www.burrp.com www.pizzahut.com