Advertisement in the Restaurant Industry

Executive Summary

Restaurant business is a good investment for those who love food. It is a business that will never bore a person because a lot of experiments can be done on discovering new ideas and trends when it comes to the strategies that will make it grow. However, there are also challenges that are needed to be considered such as selecting the right location, thinking of the best strategies to attract customers, making the best food and assuring its taste that differs from any other restaurants of the same. Putting up a restaurant should start from developing the concepts up to its implementation. And it should take necessary actions to be able to meet the expectations of the guests and manage the quality of products as well as an excellent customer service.

As the restaurant industry emerges in the world market, it requires innovation such as advertising through modern media. It basically attributes web and print advertising. Restaurant industry requires more effort on keeping the customers and maintaining a good advertisement in order to gain prospects. People are also one of the focuses of this business as you get to know people whom will be your guests and not just customers.

Introduction

Taking for account the best strategy to inform the target market about the products and services of a restaurant caters to the print and web advertisement. Today, the use of print and web advertising seems to be the fad of many companies and almost overtakes the television. Print advertising is an effective tool of promoting the product or a brand because it catches the attention of the readers in a longer time rather than television. However, television ads attract more viewers because of its visual representation of the product. From the company’s point of view, print advertising is an effective tool because it lasts longer on the media compared to the time duration given to the television ad (Glaser, 2007). Thus, print advertisement can be an appropriate medium to use as an ad campaign for a restaurant considering the idea that pictures of the products can be very effective on print ads such as magazines, newspapers and other.

But what is more in today is the use of web advertising. Web advertising is a way of globalization because it reaches not only the local market but also it attributes international selling. Web advertising is also known as online advertising where businesses promote the product through the use of the internet. Web advertisements usually contain the messages that attract the customers to buy the product or service of a company. As such, these advertisements appear in the banners, social networks, e-mails, search engines and the like. There are also web advertisements which allow the lookers to interact with the ad. This means that viewers can have their own choice on what to look at when it comes to the posts on a particular page. There are web posts that are in the form of a video and this significantly reaches the level of television ad. Through this, viewers can also respond to the ad by giving feedbacks by sending emails, live chats or through phone and sometimes video conferencing (Glaser, 2007).

Comparing print advertising into web advertising defines the grounds between which is more attractive and which one conveys the message of the campaign well. Print advertising can be a good form of communication for a restaurant business because it somehow serves as the menu of the restaurant, while web advertising is also a good way of presenting the business because the use of internet is everywhere (Baines, 2001). However, using print is more likely to be costly because of the expenses in printing while web advertising requires a good visual representation when it appears on a web page and this may somehow cost the advertiser. Hence, it will be good though if a restaurant will be using both techniques. Print advertisement is for the target market that do not use internet much while web advertisements are for the internet users and this would likely depicts a business to business sense of advertisement. Usually, advertising online attracts for the potential customers of the restaurant as well as other investors.

Discussion

It is good to assume that web advertisements do not always have a positive feedback because most of the net lookers are not ‘users’, they are just ‘buyers’. When we say ‘users’, it means that they are the ones who directly use the product or eat in a restaurant. Users are those who would likely pass by a restaurant and eat because of an ad that they have seen on streets or somewhere that can be seen in a long period of time. Buyers then are those who seek for something but do not directly intend to use the product. Web advertisements are not that visible than print ads because access to the internet is needed before the market can view it. Basically web advertisements are for a specific target market and it caters to the users of the internet only. What’s risky about using internet as the medium for ad campaigns is that there is no assurance of a good turnover and most likely, a small number of customers will be able to discover to the business online. However, advertising online is a start of selling internationally. Restaurant owners just have to consider the grounds for international selling in order to reach the potential customers across the globe.

It is said that internet is the best medium for advertising nowadays. Different kinds of businesses will be able to help by web advertising such as a restaurant business. Many small restaurants now have their own websites and are included in the local business directories which provide them an online list. However, as what is mentioned earlier, it is not recommended that a business would only get a website and let it be. Websites should be maintained and interaction with the customers is needed most especially for restaurant businesses because customer’s loyalty should prevail.

There are a lot of restaurants that have been successful through online advertising and putting up their own websites. One example is the Chomp Menus.com, it is actually a site where www.gatormenu.com and www.gatorwaiter.com are put together in order to merge as one. Combing the two restaurant sites is a proof that web advertisement can give success to the business owners. In addition to, the host of the site is YNot Advertising which is a restaurant based advertising (YNot Advertsing, 2005).

The story of Doris and Nat, restaurant owners, also depicts successful story non using web advertising for their restaurant. It is actually an Italian restaurant which is operated by their family members and few employees. One of the services of the restaurant is the delivery of the pizzas to the customers within half a mile (Vener, 2007). They have done a good job though but when competitors came out, it appears that the business have been into a battle of competition between Pizza Hut and Domino. Certainly, they need to emerge and advertise in order to promote the quality of their products and services and be distinguished from any other restaurants (Vener, 2007). The strategies of the other competitors are more on the print ads where they give leaflets and other materials to promote the restaurant. But this is quite costly for the couple and other media for advertising are too expensive as well such as the television ad and radio ad (Vener, 2007). Hence, they have thought of advertising through the internet. They put a large sign in front of the store saying that they have an online site where people can buy and order pizza. Through this site, the owners can collect lists of customers which they think will order again and be a loyal customer of the restaurant (Vener, 2007). This is also a good start of spreading the website where potential customers discover the restaurant through their common friends.

Owning a website is less expensive than other advertisements. Actually there are free sites over the net that can host a page and proper management is just the most important thing to consider. Time and energy can be minimized as well because less effort is needed unlike producing leaflets for the restaurants, making a television or radio ad or paying them. Effort, time, energy and money can be saved if web advertisement will be used. In addition to, web advertising is an instant process or way of spreading the information about the business and does not restricts the content in the sense of how far it can go or the duration of time that it can reach the potential customers. Payments with regard to the advertisements online toward the business are actually easy to manage because various selections are available over the net. This appears to be convenient for the customers because they do not need to go out and pay personally for the products, payments can be done directly through money transfers which is very handy to do over the net (Glaser, 2007).

Web advertising should be tried by restaurant businesses because this trend is emerging in the market. For small businesses, it can be successful in the local market up until it branch out to a bigger one and try international selling. This kind of advertising is worth a try because it carries a lot of advantages where other kinds of advertisements can not do. Unlike web advertising, print advertising is difficult to reach far places and very costly in reality. Print advertising also requires a lot of energy for maintaining and managing the status of advertisement in the market unlike web advertising that can be manipulated just through the use of internet (Glaser, 2007).

Table: showing the comparison of Web and Print Advertising

Conclusion

Distinguishing the benefits of web advertising from other media in advertising reveals a lot of advantages that a restaurant business can get from it. Less time, cost and energy is needed in advertising over the net than print advertising. The differences and similarities of web advertising and print advertising are mentioned through the discussion and thus it appears that web advertisement will more likely to offer a great advantage than print most especially in restaurant businesses.

Print advertising is more expensive than putting up a website and advertise online. Not only restaurant promotion can be done over the net but also getting orders and directly doing business as if it is in the normal mode of operation. This brings great convenience not only to the customers for they can save time and effort going to the store buying pizza, but also to the owners because they can have more keeping up the quality of customer service and customer satisfaction in the restaurant. Also, web advertising makes the customers to develop brand loyalty for the restaurant because of the convenience that they can have through online ordering. This particularly points out to those working people who only have minimum time for ordering personally.

Thus, it will be best recommended that a web advertisement will be used in order to promote a restaurant. Though print advertisements are tested effective, web advertisements though give the same benefits but more advantages are seen on advertising over the net. However, it should be put on a highlight that a website is not enough for a restaurant. The use of websites for ordering should be properly planned and is included in the marketing plan as a strategy to be able to take extra effect on the business. And for any ideas, it should be properly managed in order to achieve the goal that the business aims. It will be a great help for the restaurant businesses to promote the products and services that it offers through the use of web ad as it embraces a larger market. It will also be helpful for determining the position of the business in the market as it emerge in the competition of businesses of the same.

References

Baines, P. (2001) “A Pie in the Face” in Alternatives Journal, Spring 2001 v27 i2 p14.

Glaser, M. (2007). “Your Guide to Online Advertising”, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Web.

Vener, R. (2007). “Can Mom and Pop Restaurants Successfully Market Online?”. Web.

YNot Advertising (2005). CHOMP Menus.com . Web.