BOOMERS VS. MILLENNIALS

When it comes to wine, the generations just can’t agree.

Napa Technology, makers of the WineStation, uncovered a vast ideological wine drinking divide between Baby Boomers, aged 66 – 47; and Millennials, those aged 21-34.

Preliminary data captured from more than 3 million ounces of wine poured from Napa Technology’s WineStations across the United States, coupled with input from leading wine experts, points to a challenging proposition for restaurateurs and wine program directors trying to accommodate a wide range of consumption preferences and price points while still maintaining profitability on an extremely perishable product.

Millennials, those aged 21 – 34 want exciting, adventurous wines from around the globe and Baby Boomers, 47 – 66 years old, prefer domestic, familiar brands at value prices.

Marian Jansen op de Haar, wine industry expert and founder of consultancy, Vines 57, reports, “Many boomer wine drinkers go for the “sure thing” rather than experimenting. Wines such as Silver Oak, Duckhorn, Grgich Hills, Chateau Montelena have all been popular, especially when offered by the glass.”

Most surprisingly, many leading wine experts report that millennials are spending more on wines and wines by the glass than their older wine drinking counterparts.

Several wine experts believe that Millennials are driving the wine making styles and not just variety. Andrew Shipe, Vice President Culinary & Marketing, Aramark – S&E refers to young drinkers as the Juice Box Generation and reports, “The youth that grew up on juice boxes are still looking for those sweet flavors as they move into the wine category.”

According to Robert Larsen, public relations director for Rodney Strong Wine Estates, friendly education, exploration and discovery are breaking down the previously perceived stuffy barriers for young wine drinkers.

Larsen explains, “ At Rodney Strong’s Meritage blending seminar guests get to blend five Bordeaux varieties we use in our Symmetry to make their own blended wine. Our other seminar is a pinot noir clone tasting, for our Davis Bynum wines, where the attendees taste six different clones of pinot noir, I had 80 people in the last pinot clone seminar who were super engaged and full of really great questions.”

And Trudy Thomas, Director of Beverage, JW Marriott Camelback Inn Resort & Spa, agrees, “New wine drinkers are fearless about asking questions about an unknown wines.” She adds, “We are seeing a more educated, price savvy consumer.”

Wines by the glass are also on the rise, in volume, price per ounce and prestige. It is not uncommon for wines by the glass to range from $20 on up. Screaming Eagle, Château Pétrus, Château d’Yquem, Joseph Phelps Insignia and other rare beauties are increasingly quaffed by inquisitive young drinkers.

With the advent of the WineStation, Napa Technology is helping to close the great generational wine divide with its cutting-edge wine preservation system.

“Wines by the glass have been a great way for restaurants to offer a wide range of varietals and price points to satisfy a diverse group of diners,” says Jayne Portnoy, Vice President of Marketing & Brand Strategy, Napa Technology. She adds, “But in order to maintain a wine program’s profitability, operators need to have a preservation system that eliminates waste and over pouring.”

The WineStation, most recently installed in Alain Ducasse’s bistro Benoit, has helped hundreds of restaurants, wine bars, cruise lines, hotels and grocery stores worldwide develop profitable wine programs that appeal to a wide range of both classic and adventurous palates.

If you have decided to make a purchase, do you prefer to pay the lowest price possible or stick with your favorite brand?

According to a recent study published in the Journal of Marketing, people tend to forge emotional bonds with a brand so strong that, if forced to buy a competitor’s product, they suffer separation anxiety. In fact, that bond can be strong enough that consumers are willing to sacrifice time, money, energy and reputation to maintain their attachment to that brand. The more strongly a consumer’s attachment to a brand, the more willing they are to forsake personal resources to maintain an ongoing relationship with the brand. They are willing to engage in difficult behaviors — “those that require investments of time, money and energy, so as to maintain or deepen a brand relationship.”

The average consumer doesn’t even realize how attached and devoted they are to a brand. The study advances brand research in consumer psychology and goes beyond the existing models, indicating that traditional measurements such as brand attitude strength do not adequately explain consumers’ intense loyalties to the brands they love — that they fail to explain how brands capture “consumers’ hearts and minds.” Brand attachment, the authors claim, does exist, is predicated on a brand/self-relationship and can better explain what drives consumer behavior and their loyalty and commitment to the brands.

Do you believe brand attachment exists?

As pointed out in Science Daily, it is brand attachment that explains consumers’ devotion to the iPod, fans’ intense reaction at celebrity deaths and the torment of teenagers who are denied their favorite brand of jeans. Through brand attachment, the study suggests, consumers see brands as an extension of themselves.

As the old cliché goes, “we are creatures of habit” and are hardly ever referred to as “creatures of loyalty”. Our choices reflect this train of thought. Our choices become our habits, and our habits bring us comfort. They provide us the illusion of order to our not so orderly lives. Harry Beckworth, writing for Psychology Today, elaborates: “We spend several years picking up Listerine, Colgate with whitening, and Glad Wrap sandwich bags. After years of building those habits, we don’t even consider Lavoris, Crest with tartar control, or Ziplocs. It’s not that we are loyal to the other products. We just reach their aisles and reach for them out of habit. Choosing them just feels comfortable. Just thinking about the others makes us anxious.”

With consumer brand loyalty having the largest impact on what a consumer purchases, the solution to getting the best price is developing an objective purchasing process — a process which completely abandons any meaning when it comes to brand names.

Will breaking your brand loyalty bond free you to select items that are more cost efficient?

According to data compiled from the The 2011 Social Shopping Study, 50% of consumers spend 75% or more of their total shopping time conducting online research. This includes 15% of shoppers who spend 90% or more of their shopping time online doing research. And from 2010 to 2011, these numbers experienced quite a large spike. In fact, they doubled! In 2010, only 21% of shoppers spent 75% or more of their shopping time on product research online.

Interestingly, the data pointed out that 1 in 3 shoppers (34%) spend a few days conducting online research about information-intensive products such as computers, appliances, and TVs before making a purchase, which in 2011 was the most popular period of time for shoppers to spend doing online research. More than 4 in 10 of shoppers (44%) start their online product research process with a search engine, looking for top search results relating to the product they’re seeking. When it comes to using social media for research, 7 in 10 shoppers (71%) either never (49%) or rarely (21%) use social sites to research products and gather information.

So, once you’ve unharnessed your brand loyalty bonds and find yourself part of this 33% researching group, in order to get the most value out of your shopping experience, you can start to utilize a price and feature comparing system to obtain the best value. What I recommend is to utilize publications that write product reviews. Publications like Consumer Reports, CNET, and The Consumerist. They present comparative studies that highlight the current best “bang for the buck.” In turn, I do a product price comparison to see where my selection is available at the lowest cost via different online methods such as Google or Amazon Price Checker.

When I’m about to buy a more expensive product, I research it thoroughly, but the brand name doesn’t mean a whole lot. If it’s an electronic item, for instance, it’s likely that it was made out of many of the same components in the same Chinese factory no matter what name is on the box. If it’s a dishwashing detergent, the vast majority of the materials in the box are exactly the same. The small differences between the items have little to do with the name on the outside of the box.

All I care about are features and price. Those things matter far more than the name on the package. I’m striving to apply the same philosophy to everything I see. Does it matter what car someone else bought? Not really. They just decided that it had the right set of features for them. I might not value those same features, but then again, I’m not the person spending the money. If I see someone driving a luxury car, for example, all I can really assume is that they have a different set of features that they care about in a car than I do.

I’m not defined by the brands that I buy, nor should anyone else. They’re just stickers on the outside of an item that may make my life a bit easier or more enjoyable.

Happy online shopping!

Works Cited
J. Rank. “Advertising Effects – The Functions of Advertising, Advertising and Psychology, How Advertising Works, Getting Attention, Processing Information, Information Evaluation.” J. Rank Online Encyclopedia. Web. 2 Feb. 2012.

Park, C. Whan, MacInnis, Deborah J., Priester, Joseph, Eisingerich, Andreas B. and Iacobucci, Dawn – Brand Attachment and Brand Attitude Strength: Conceptual and Empirical Differentiation of Two Critical Brand Equity Drivers.” Journal of Marketing, Volume 74, Number 6, Nov. 2010. Web. 3 Feb. 2012

Science Daily. “A ‘Brand’ New World: Attachment Runs Thicker Than Money.” Science Daily. Web. 4 Feb. 2012.

Beckwith, Harry. “http://www.powerreviews.com/assets/download/Social_Shopping_2011_Brief1.pdf

Marketing Charts. “Online Research Takes Up Large Portion of Shopping Time.” Power Reviews, 1 Jun. 2011. Web. 4 Feb. 2012

Overview

Influential dad bloggers need a different approach than their single guy or even mom counterparts. Ink Foundry worked with Outback’s marketing team to create a fun and engaging Connect With Dad dining program.

The primary goals of the program were to identify top influential digital dads to “get the conversation started” between the brand and the estimated 7 million online dads as well as provide a brand sampling experience to the influential digital dads and their social media friends, fans and followers.

The program was extremely well received by the influencers and was oversubscribed by 40 percent with dad bloggers eagerly agreeing to participate with the leading casual dining chain.

Program Considerations

We relied on information from the Yahoo! Digital Dads survey, additional research and our blogger outreach experience to accurately position the program to address the unique concerns dads have when dealing with brands:

• Men can feel left out of brand advertising that historically focuses on moms
• They don’t want to miss their children’s fleeting youth like their own dads did
• Spending time with children is a top priority
• They don’t want to be considered a sub-segment of the mommy blogger, they have their own needs, language and requirements
• There is a growing need for “dad community”

Tactical Approach – Funny Reigns Supreme

Our research indicated that dads actively seek community. Our rationale for our approach is that dads appear to be struggling with their newly expanded parenting role and are looking for support, reassurance and camaraderie from other dads, but want information presented in a humorous tone.

The Outback Steakhouse restaurant marketing program was positioned to tap into the joint experience of dads everywhere.

We ask the influential dad bloggers to share the funniest dining moment they’ve experienced with their children in a blog post.

We gave them as much freedom to “own” this as possible, while providing the support they needed to get the dad and Outback conversation started.

The Giveaway

Since the dads know their audience best, we let the influencers organize the giveaway any way that made the most sense for them. They could give the dinner certificate away to posters on their blog, fans on Facebook or Twitter followers. Most preferred to give it away on their blog, but they cross posted extensively across a wide digital footprint. Additionally, Ink Foundry distributed content and assets to a wide variety of social media outlets.

We provided one gift certificate per blogger to giveaway as well as encouraged a brand experience for the influential dad blogger and his family prior to the public facing portion of the program.

Vetting Bloggers

Ink Foundry sourced and recommended top dad bloggers for the Outback Dining with Dad program. Bloggers were evaluated and ranked based on criteria including fit for the brand; total digital footprint; cross-channel engagement; post frequency, traffic as well as in and outbound links. Read more about engaging with influencers.

Even though many influential dad bloggers appeared on “top lists” across the web, that in itself did not necessarily qualify them for the Outback program.

Results

• Total reach: 2 million consumers
• Total social media posts: 2,220

Timing

Ink Foundry had less than thirty days (yes, that’s 3-0) to complete the program.

What everyone seems to agree on, is that a wide variety of wines from around the globe are capturing consumer interest, and wine consumption, particularly by the glass, is on the rise.

Andrew Shipe, vice president culinary & marketing
Aramark – s&e

1. Juice Box Generation – The youth that grew up on juice boxes are still looking for those sweet flavors as they move into the wine category.  We continue to see a trend towards red blends, Malbec and Moscatos and a movement away from big oak Chardonnay toward unoaked wines which match well with a wide variety of foods.
2. Think Outside The Bottle – We continue to see innovation in packaging as suppliers raise the quality in boxed wines and move into kegs and other alternatives.  This supports the sustainability movement and makes the operation more efficient for pouring at large volume operations.

Marian Jansen op de Haar, Wine Industry Consultant
Vines 57

1. Younger drinkers, millennials, age 21-30, are more adventurous and drink higher priced wines than Gen Xers.
2. Boomers are still spending more and more often.
3. Blends are continuing to be popular, especially red blends that contain Syrah and Grenache (or any other Rhone grapes) and/or an unconventional blend of red grapes.  Cabernet and Cabernet (Bordeaux) blends are the number 1 or 2 selling wines seemingly leveling off at last year’s highest point.
4. Pinot Grigio is still very popular and has generalized from Italy to other countries and more and more includes wines labeled as Pinot Gris (both Alsace and Oregon).
5. Riesling is growing towards Pinot Grigio levels, especially German Rieslings.  A small trend is emerging for dry Rieslings (Germany is producing more of these and are exporting them).
6. Merlot is finally making a comeback especially in the higher price point from wineries that have always made excellent Merlot such as Frog’s Leap, Markham, Rodney Strong and Robert Sinskey.
7. Chardonnay as a category is still the number 1 or 2 selling varietal (alternating the top spot with Cab)—they have become less oaky over the last 5-10 years.
8. A “new” category has emerged: “unoaked” and wines are labeled as such (probably a fleeting trend?).
9. Classic wines, especially in the midst of the recession, have been very popular, even at higher prices.  It seems that many boomer wine drinkers rather go for the “sure thing” than experimenting.  Wines such as Silver Oak, Duckhorn, Grgich Hills, Chateau Montelena etc. have been popular, especially when offered by the glass.
10. Cava and Prosecco continue to grow and are used in cocktails—often with hard liquor.

Trudy Thomas, Director of Beverage
JW Marriott Camelback Inn Resort & Spa

1. We are seeing our guests go for value oriented wines, not cheap wines but wines that deliver for the money spent.
2. Malbec and Moscato are both continuing their hot streak.
3. Wines which make great cocktail wines as well as food friendly wines with good acid and elegance are moving faster especially among female drinkers.
4. We are seeing more by the glass sales, especially in the higher price categories.
5. Consumers seem willing to spend more on a great by the glass wine than commit to an entire bottle, driven both by the economy as well as drinking and driving more responsibly.
6. New wine drinkers are fearless about asking questions about a new wine.
7. We are seeing a more educated, price savvy consumer.
8. Our guests prefer a list with some comfortable placements whether by name or varietal to the eclectic and obscure wines popular a few years back.
9. The drink local, sustainable and organic wine trend is still popular.
10. The practice of adding locally produced, sustainable and organic wines is becoming an expected practice not a novelty.

Jesse Inman, Winemaker
Romililly Wines & August Briggs Winery

1. There is a general trend towards more balanced wines with respect to alcohol and fruit character.  Folks are expressing that they don’t need to be punched in the mouth to enjoy good wine.  The foodie explosion has helped this trend, because this wine style is much more food friendly.
2. Young people are buying more wine and can’t afford many of the ‘in your face’ style wines, yet want quality.  This leaves the door open for obscure varietals and regions that are up and coming, that don’t command high prices.
3. The $15-$25 bottle price point is hyper-hot.

Banger Smith, Director of Beverage
The RAM

1. Value Equals Volume: Our 20 for 20 wine list has lead to increased bottle sales and we’ve seen an uptick in multiple bottle sales after introducing value pricing.

Doug Zief, Senior Vice President
WHM, LLC

1. Food TV shows such as the Food Network, TLC, Discovery, and Bravo have led to a more educated, discerning consumer.
2. Red wine continues to grow market share; mostly Malbec, Pinot Noir, and Cabernets.
3. I see Merlot retreating.
4. Chardonnay sales have dropped off of a ledge in favor of mostly New Zealand’s Sauvignon Blanc, Moscato (unbelievably!), and Pinot Grigio.
5. Italian and French wines have dropped out of favor- Italian wines still have an identity problem as people still think of straw-covered bottles as representative of Italian wine.
6. People also refuse to order wines a.) whose grape varieties they don’t recognize, and b.) whose names are intimidating to them.
7. The opportunity lies in finding better value wines that we can offer for less and still maintain our margins.

Julie Brosterman, founder
WomenWine.com

1. There is more focus on ‘green’ from lighter weight bottles to labels that have sustainable, bio-dynamic or other ‘natural’ packaging, etc.
2. Beer lovers are discovering wine.
3. Many wineries are participating more on social media channels, which is increasing consumer education about food pairings,  varietals, value and so much more. Technology is really bringing excitement to the wine industry.

David M. Morgan, Vice President of food & Beverage
Omni Hotels & Resorts

1. Whites other than the traditional Chardonnay are growing in popularity. In Florida and most hot weather states, there seems to be a trend on many wine list with categories like “Interesting Whites” or “Non-Traditional Whites.” This is very true at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort in Northeast Florida
2. Italy’s Pinot Bianco is one of the top sellers on the Verandah Restaurant’s 40 Wines for 40 and Under.
3. Whites from traditionally red-famous Rhone Valley are becoming more popular in the United States and are being grown more frequently throughout the New World. Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne are three whites that are making people forget about the famous white grape just North in Burgundy.

4. Angelica Sbai, Beverage Manager
   Certified Sommelier, Certified Specialist of Wine, BarSmarts Certified
   Bravo Brio Restaurant Group

5. In 2011, we saw a surge in Malbec and old world Italian wines. Malbec has become our number one red wine by the glass.
6. California always holds its own carrying nearly half of our wine sales.
7. Pinot Grigio has always been our top selling white varietal with Chardonnay and Riesling close on its heels.
8. With the help of features and promotions, we have been successful in guiding our guests towards more obscure Italian wines including Valpolicella, Greco di Tufo, Garganega and Aglianico.
9. We have also seen a growing demand for wine dinners, flights and tasting events. Guests are really opening up to new wines and winemaking methods.

10. Jorge Moran Ize, Executive Assistant Manager
    Presidente Intercontinental, Mexico

11. Spain continues to be the number one country from which we sell the most wine.  The predominate region is the Ribera del Duero.
12. French and Italian wines are the second hottest selling bottles, nearly at the same level as the Spanish wines.
13. We are very excited to see the growing popularity of Mexican wine.

14. Robert Larsen, Public Relations Director
    Rodney Strong Wine Estates

15. The way people are “geeking out” with wine education is a trend I expect to see more of, but in a friendly, hands-on kind of way, instead of the stuffy, “you don’t belong in this crowd” way of the past.
16. Exploration and discovery are two constants that excited young wine drinkers are elevating to new heights all the time.

17. “At Rodney Strong’s Meritage blending seminar guests get to blend five Bordeaux varieties we use in our Symmetry to make their own blended wine. Our other seminar is a Pinot Noir clone tasting, for our Davis Bynum wines, where the attendees taste six different clones of Pinot noir, I had 80 people in the last Pinot clone seminar who were super engaged and full of really great questions.”Larsen said.

    Jax Sperling, Director of Culinary R&D
    Genghis Grill Franchise Concepts Lp.

18. Although relaxing with a glass of wine while enjoying a fast casual meal may seem unusual, at Genghis Grill, we find our advocates are well educated on wine varietals and are pleasantly surprised to find their favorites here.
19. Name brand recognition, along with common varietals, are key to the success of selling wine in the fast casual dining segment.
20. Consumers know which wines pair well with each of our 80 fresh ingredients and are increasingly expecting fine wines at fast casual establishments

21. Fernando Salazar, Vice President of Food & Beverage
    Wyndham Hotels and Resorts

22. Consumers are more savvy and ready to experiment with grape varieties other than the ubiquitous Chardonnay and Cabernet.
23. Wines from Spain are hot right now, particularly from Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Priorat. From Tempranillo to Mencía to Garnacha for reds to Viura and Godello and Verdejo on the whites, all these wines are getting consumers excited.

24. Kevin Settles
    Bardenay Restaurants & Distilleries

25. Besides the ever-popular “it” wine that is Argentinian Malbec, our guests are enjoying red blends, particularly from Washington state, featuring traditional Bordeaux grapes with Syrah.
26. Rhone-style blends are also very popular, where more familiar varietals like Syrah are combined with lesser-known Mourvedre or Grenache grapes.
27. 
    

    Bob Midyette, Director of Fleet Beverage Operations, Royal Caribbean International and Azamara Club Cruises

     

28. We certainly see more entry level wine consumers approaching and trying wine.

29. Jayne Portnoy, Vice President Marketing
    Napa Technology

     

30. Wine managers are increasingly relying on data to help increase profitability on wines by the glass program.
31. Consumers are demanding more diverse wines by the glass selections, allowing for big splurges in small does, thus seeing a growing demand for intelligent preservation and dispensing options.
32. The surge in the use of the WineStation within retail and restaurant environment showcases the consumer demand to have the ability to “try before they buy.”

33. According to Bob Midyette, “Technology is really helping us bridge the gap and reach the hesitant wine consumer. For example, the new Napa Technology wine dispensing units at our Vintages Wine Bar concepts allow guests to sample premium wines by-the-glass. We also use iPads with wine details to help engage, inform and entertain guests. We view technology as an area of comfort for the novice, allowing them to cross into the great unknown of wine. We’re always looking for ways to effectively use technology to create a gateway and reach these new wine consumers and we’ve been very successful so far.”

    These 16 wine experts have their finger on the pulse of the hottest trends happening in wine bars, restaurants, hotels and cruise lines.  Keeping up with today’s educated consumer who expects choices in varietals, price points, quantity and more is driving the rapidly changing wine consumption landscape across the United States and Mexico.

    Technology, data, wine preservation and education is helping satisfy customer demands and maintain profitability.

    What wine consumption trends do you see?  Which do you think will continue?  Which wine trends will retreat?

By Carin Oliver

It’s official.  Facebook will convert all Pages on March 30 to the new Timeline design that’s already rolled out to individual profiles.  Most visibly, the new Page layout will mimic many features currently found on the the personal profile Timeline, including the vertical content and the widescreen masthead image on the top of the page.

In addition to the new look, there are also some exciting engagement functionality developments.  These changes, of course, will pose both opportunities and potential obstacles for your brand.

Brand Page administrators, will be able to star posts to feature their appearance to widescreen or make posts sticky that will keep them visible in the Timeline’s top-left area for seven days. Companies will also be able to add “milestones.”   Milestones will be displayed as a widescreen content box featuring photos and text highlighting a brand’s history.

Effectively, these new functions will allow content to have a longer shelf life and therefore allow brands to more fully define their personalities.  Both positive and negative historical activity can show on the page, but there is an opportunity for brands to hide content that is no longer relevant or potentially embarrassing.   Next week we will follow up with a post on how to manage what content is visible on your Page.

FAVORITE NEW FUNCTION

One of the most exciting changes for engagement is the new friend activity feature.  Individuals who visit a brand’s Page will see a prominent display on how their friends have interacted with the brand either through a check-in, a tag, a post or a like. The Facebook Ads that target friends of friends have been, by far, the most effective method for conversions.  We anticipate this new feature will work in much the same way.

PAGE ADMIN UPGRADES

Facebook has also upgraded the Page administrator options as well.  The admin panel hides or expands on command, which should save some hassle when making changes and updates or checking on the Page insights.  Insights will also be in a more accessible at a glance format.

Our favorite feature is that brand Pages can now respond directly to private messages.  This should streamline communication between consumers and brands, making customer service via Facebook so much easier and effective.

Visually, the new larger photo format places more emphasis on quality photography.  For all of our Facebook clients, photos have driven the vast majority of engagement.  Facebook reports that network wide, photos generate two times more activity than other post types.

HUGE DESIGN IMPLICATIONS

The change to timeline for Pages has some significant design implications for brands.  And while Facebook design has always been important, with Timeline, it’s going to be imperative that brands spend resources to take full advantage of the great  opportunity.
Three design changes to consider:

1. Cover image
1. The cover can be a powerful opportunity to define your page’s personality with display logos, products, photos and more.
2. Tab Thumbnails
1. Tabs will be much more prominent and really need a specific design
2. These could be a screenshot, a designed “button” like look.  Properly designed tab thumbnails will help your fans move through your Page’s content.
3. Each design should be specific to the content on that page to help users discern which tab is which.
3. Bigger Interior Tab Area
1. The tab pages have been redesigned to allow for width.   This means you can expand the design and will be able to fit more key elements ‘above the fold.’
2. On the negative side, however, this could mean a ground-up redesign of ALL the tabs.   It would be ideal to redesign the tabs to take advantage of this increased real-estate.  Bear in mind, however, that all the tabs still work fine in the new layout (they just don’t take advantage of the increased width).

Let us know if you have any questions about Facebook’s Timeline changes and how you can best take advantage of the new functionality and design.

You and your marketing team are invited to attend our first 2012 webinar, Identifying and Engaging Influencers.  Sign Up Here: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/391493654

We will share our experience in the restaurant, wine, casino, travel and entertainment categories with brands such as CPK, Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & WInebar, The Palms Casino and more.

Join us and learn more about influencer marketing.

We will announce our additional webinars soon. If you would like to co-present with the agency, please contact Carin Oliver. She can be reached at Firstname@InkFoundry.com.

By Carin Oliver

Approximate reading time:  5 minutes

What’s in store for restaurant marketing in 2012? We see six key restaurant marketing trends that will lead this next year’s efforts to gain market share, better understand the customer and turn a profit in 2012. We also believe there is one trend that will consume marketing dollars in 2012 but will turn out not to be influential in driving consumers into restaurants.

A recent Harris Poll reported that the majority of consumers surveyed planned on reducing their spending on dining out occasions. We believe this will make dining choices in 2012 even more selective as consumers opt for safe, trusted brands and rely more heavily on recommendations from friends and online research.

The most important restaurant marketing tactics restaurants will employ for 2012 include:

Data

The biggest restaurant marketing trend in 2012 will be integrating data capture and in-depth analysis from social media, public relations, email marketing and advertising teams. Savvy restaurateurs will also increase the data points collected on customers to better allocate tight marketing dollars into the marketing channels that are delivering the most return on investment.

Although data reporting services are in abundance, they alone will not be able to deliver the multi-platform analysis required. While social media participation and listening was a great first step for many organizations, in 2012, it will be time to go beyond gathering data and to bring in senior customer intelligence analysts to extract usable information from the data. Analysts will need holistic marketing training to effectively mine and merge insights from webpage analytics, onsite restaurant data capture and social media analytics from Facebook, Yelp, OpenTable, Twitter, YouTube and others.

Many restaurants are still keeping data in separate silos, maintaining marketing, public relations, influencer relations and business data in different departments. Although we believe this will be a protracted process, in 2012, we will begin to see silos break down and the emergence of more fully integrated communications programs that inform each other to reach a highly defined target market with customized messaging and provide a robust understanding of marketing effectiveness. The organizations that can effectively streamline internal data from multiple touch points will have a significant lead over their competitors that will extend well beyond 2012.

Identifying And Activating Influencers

If you ask any restaurant marketing professional, they report that the number one way consumers find and decide to dine is based on a positive word of mouth recommendation from a close contact in their social sphere. But when it comes to finding and activating those customers who have the most authority to drive recommendations, there has been a significant lack of data to understand who those individuals are and which tools to give them to encourage pass alongs.

In 2012, we will see more programs identifying and activating the hidden individuals who influence a greater number of diners. The big play will be in digging deep beyond the top traditional media influencers and food bloggers to uncover the passionate foodie who is prime to spread the word about their great restaurant experience.

Specialized tools, techniques, and word of mouth marketing agencies will be engaged to identify those individuals who are passionate about a particular kind of restaurant, have both the digital and offline reach to be influential and are considered knowledgeable by their social sphere. Activating the individuals who have access, motive and credibility to make restaurant, food and dining recommendations will see wider adoption at a diverse array of restaurants.

While we don’t think the perfect tool that seamlessly blends on and offline dining influence will arrive in 2012 it will be the year that restaurants get serious about working with influencers.

Signature Items

While signature items have been around since restaurants began, a new marketing importance will be placed on them. In 2011 we witnessed an increase in chatter on websites, blogs and in traditional media discussing specific dishes versus specific restaurants. This will place more emphasis on restaurant marketers to make sure signature items are getting sampled by key influencers in order to steal share from competitors. This will also play heavily into local search as consumers research individual items instead of types of restaurants.

Gamification Of Loyalty Programs

2012 will be a transformational year for how restaurants will attempt to differentiate their loyalty programs from their competitors with social gaming-type rewards for performing certain actions, such as referring friends, visiting multiple times and more.

Location based services with their badges, titles and rewards will merge with restaurant loyalty programs to play a major role in incentivizing repeat visits, facilitating sharing and making rewards easier to redeem for diners. Check-ins in 2012 will begin resulting in real offline rewards from savvy restaurants. Integrating gaming dynamics to impact diner action will accelerate restaurant loyalty programs.

One to One Accessibility

Social media has made getting to know the brand much easier and connecting with diners outside of the restaurant has been a simple communications evolution for many restaurants. Restaurants, unlike many industries, excel at customer relations and social media has given operators another channel through which to make a meaningful connection with diners. However, diners are now demanding more: They want to get up close and personal with who’s cooking in the kitchen.

Specifically in 2012, consumers want to hear from but also interact with the chef directly, both on and offline, not with the intermediary in the marketing department. Expect to see personalized messages directly from the chef to best customers telling them when the menu changes, nightly specials, and suggestions based on past orders.

While this might sound like another daunting task on top of an already busy schedule, chefs will manage this enhanced engagement by relying on the marketing team to first identify the restaurant’s best customers both on and offline. In the restaurant, the chef will also need to play a prominent role on the dining room floor.

People are looking for more personalized, direct connection with both what’s on the plate and who’s plating the food.

Coupon Personalization

In 2011 many restaurants experimented with social coupon sites such as Living Social, Groupon and others. Unfortunately, many reported neutral and often negative results. We believe restaurants will continue to experiment with coupons and certificates in 2012, but with more realistic expectations of results, more control, customization, flexibility as well as insist on reporting data.

We also believe that most restaurants will realize their own customer lists are gold mines for helping to promote them, focusing again on the top influencers and providing them with additional opportunities for value added experiences and tools and rewards to facilitate the pass along recommendation.

Couponing will be more select and personalized for the brand with restaurants running their own deals to loyal customers. This trend will accelerate as restaurants see the benefits in tracking and engineering word of mouth recommendations that a well designed application and program can deliver.

Search is the New Social…NOT

And now for the trend we will see that will waste precious resources.

In 2012 we will most likely see restaurants allocating resources to local search. We do not believe this will provide an adequate return on investment for dining establishments. Preliminary results from our current dining survey point to search as one of the least influential channels for diners. While we don’t see local search as having a huge impact on dining decisions in 2012, we do believe it is part of the marketing equation that restaurants should not totally ignore this next year, but should earmark resources judiciously.

What restaurant marketing trends do you see that you care to share?

Thanks for attending my education session at CalSAE Seasonal Spectacular.

Hope you enjoy my presentation, “Turning Common Materials Into Killer Content” that I gave on December 7th in Sacramento. Let me know if you have any questions!

We will announce the prize winners next week, January 23, 2012. And will release the survey results in February.
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If you complete the survey, you can be rewarded with some cool tokens of our appreciation. We will randomly select 15 survey takers to receive one of 15 different wine and food-related items.

They include: (1) bottle 2008 Romililly Pinot Noir; (1) $150 Amazon Gift Card; (1) bottle 2008 Rodney Strong Sonoma County Chardonnay; (5) $10 Starbucks Gift Cards; (1) Vinturi Wine Aerator; (1) bottle 2003 El Sol Amador County Pinotage; (2) 2008 Rubicon Estate Captain’s Reserve Chardonnay; (1) box Napa Valley Quail Point chocolates; (2) $25 Visa Gift Cards = 15 people who will win prizes!

In January, we will begin a new webinar series to address some of the biggest marketing issues that face wineries today. And we wanted to invite you to join us.

We are considering the following topics, but would welcome input on which items are most important to you:

• Motivating Your Wine Club Members To Spread Positive Word of Mouth
• Identifying and Engaging Influencers To Fuel Conversation About Your Wine
• Facebook Marketing and Applications For Wineries
• Using Social Media For Consumer Insight
• Best Practices For Winery Website Design
• Creative Ideas For Promotions That Are Actually Legal in California
• Training Staff on Social Media Best Practices
• Content Marketing Through Storytelling
• Time Saving Tips For Social Media Marketing
• Retooling Marketing Messages For Social Media Channels

Let us know by adding a comment below or emailing Hannah Dunton directly.  She can be reached at Hannah[at]InkFoundry[dot]com.

In the webinars we will share what we’ve learned while working with brands such as Hilton Hotels Corporation, Rodney Strong Wine Estates, Romililly Wines, Fleming’s, Anheuser-Busch, Tanqueray, Fogo de Chao, Lexus, Lawry’s, Roy’s Hawaiian, and many other wine, spirits, food and restaurant experience.

We look forward to your participation.   Sign up for the wine marketing webinars here: