Eating-Out or Eating-In it is a Social Event

Harkin back to the time when you had family dinners, the last time you went to lunch with co-workers, the last time you went to a church picnic, a family reunion, school lunch or even a funeral.   Our daily lives are marked with events, time, and food.  In just about every cast according to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®, events, time, and meals center around food and social interactive. 

So can anyone be surprised that there was an official announcement this week that: Social media has eclipsed advertising to become the most commonly used form of marketing for restaurants.

In fact Eighty-two percent of restaurants in the United States devote at least part of their marketing budgets today to social media, making it the most popular channel, according to new research from TripAdvisor, the online travel guide.

For those of us that still get the newspaper the good news is that the second most common avenue is print advertising, which draws expenditures from 68% of U.S. restaurants, followed by online listing services, which are used by 56%, TripAdvisor found in a survey of the restaurants it lists.

The economy must be improving as the study suggests the use of all marketing types could be on the upswing: 85% of respondents in the U.S. said they should be doing more to promote themselves. And fewer than half said they spend less than 10% of their time on marketing. The research also revealed:

• 94% of U.S. restaurants currently monitor what’s being said about them, presumably online and mainly through social media. Roughly one out of 10 (13%) have an outside firm handle that task for them.
• Globally, restaurants regard social media as the most effective tool for boosting business, followed by online directories and search-engine optimization.
• The least likely method is using online coupon and voucher services.
• Marketing responsibilities are largely shouldered by existing staff. Only 17% of U.S. restaurants have hired someone to handle marketing, and 1% have retained an outside marketing consultant.

Now as you harkin back understand that things have not changed that much food is the common denominator edifying the growth of social media consumers looking for food today.  Is your company evolving your menu, marketing, and messaging for today’s consumers? Your customers like eating-out while eating-in. 

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant