Social Media Marketing for KOPI Restaurants - Research Paper Example

KOPI Restaurant Social Media Strategy Introduction KOPI is a restaurant in the New York s Washington Square that is designed to offer exclusively Indonesian foods to Americans and Indonesians in this region among other customers. The restaurant has been established in a place that is surrounded by several universities especially the New School and New York University. In this regard, it is clear that in its establishment, the target group in focus were these students, most of whom are young people aged between 18 and 26 years old as well as many other young professionals residing in this region. Another important target in the establishment of this restaurant are the people living in the neighborhood. In most cases, this group comprises of couples, young adults as well as families residing in this place, whose main interests and hobbies include visiting coffee shops and reading among others. These people were thought to become the first adopters since they are the first to visit restaurants, coffee shops, test new technological gadgets, active on social media among other important features. This paper examines some of the reasons that caused the company to fail in its social media marketing approaches, while recommending some changes to be in done in a bid to achieve the set goals and objectives and position KOPI as the restaurant of choice among the target audience in New York City. In its analysis, the paper will focus on how ineffective the earlier strategies were since they were not quite interactive and engaging making the target audience to fail to respond to it as earlier planned. KOPI’s mission statement has always been to introduce a variety of tastes of Indonesian cuisine as well as coffee to the market in New York. In doing this, the company will be fulfilling its vision statement which is offering varieties of food specialties as well as beverages that are purely a representative of the Indonesian atmosphere and culture. The restaurant has done a lot to get started and achieve success in its marketing and performance; however, all these goals have never been effectively achieved because of reliance on poor approaches to social media marketing (Arline para 4-7). Having a target group that has a high affinity for new technology and are willing to try out new ideas, the restaurant would have managed to attract many of its target audience. However, the approaches used in the past have been in conformity with the set vision and mission statements making it hard for it to achieve success. The failure of the use of tight strategies made the target audience fail to recognize them, something that calls for a review of the approaches in social media marketing in the restaurant. The current approach being proposed for the restaurant has a better understanding of the specific needs of young people, something that will work in favor of the restaurant. The strategies that have been developed provide answers to many of the issues that have faced KOPI restaurant in its marketing approaches for Indonesian food and culture (KOPI 2015). The strategies will help the restaurant in its bid to have a strong brand positioning and an effective social media campaign that will market its meals and other services to its target group. The failure of the restaurant’s initial social media approaches When the restaurant was established, the managers did a very impressive thing in targeting young people, most of whom are students in the institutions in New York as well as young professionals in the same region. This group of people, in the New York and other countries, are said to be tech savvy, are willing to buy and try out new technologies and are very active on social media. In this realization, it is easy to imagine that the restaurant would have hit its targets quickly by implementing its social media strategies. However, this was not the case to be because the people in charge of the program seem not to have had a perfect understanding of what they wanted to do as much as social media marketing is concerned. In any business, the failure to implement successful strategies often leads to the overall failure of the organisation in achieving its targets. For KOPI, the failure in its approaches to effective social media marketing can be attributed to the fact that it did not resonate with its vision statement (KOPI 2015). Instead of making Indonesian foods and introducing this culture among its target market, the restaurant had changed to adopt some American styles in a bid to attract American customers. Secondly, when a business organisation is implementing a new strategy, it should be familiar among all its employees so that they can aid in its implementation, which makes it easy to stick to the organization’s vision and mission. The process creates an effective organizational culture that guides routine operations. However, for KOPI restaurant, this was not the case, most, if not all the workers did not have a perfect idea about how social media marketing works and how it could be used as a leveraging point for its success. In this case, the employees could not realize that the restaurant was deviating from its vision and mission to help correct it. In the efforts made towards using social media as an effective marketing tool, the posts that were made by the person in charge of the restaurant’s marketing did not seem to be engaging especially to the target audience. The posts made on the company’s facebook page, twitter and instagram accounts do not seem to address the marketing needs of the restaurant. In this case, it becomes quite hard for the target audience to engage and follow the restaurant. Most of the young people in the restaurant’s target audience need to have a platform in which they can share their idea, participate in the discussions being posted by following actively, something that the restaurant can use in marketing the different foods and services they have. The need for engaging customers in social media marketing One of the main advantages that social media marketing has to businesses is the fact that it offers a way of engaging customers, which is important in communicating about the business’ goals and objectives. This is an approach that can be achieved through seminars and conferences when it is done away from the social media platform. For social media, the advantage is that a marketer often has many target customers at once from different places, which the conventional way of marketing would not effectively manage, and would be very expensive to undertake. Engaging customers in social media marketing has many advantages to the marketer. First, it enables the marketers to answer some of the pertinent issues and questions that people could be having (Bunskoek para 9-11). The target customers can easily be redirected to the website when explaining about some of the important features and services that the restaurant is offering. Additionally, social media enables the marketer to talk to several target customers at once. Majority of the people that are active on social media are young people, most of whom are learners in higher institutions of learning as well as the young professionals. Effective content on social media compels users, who make up the target audience to talk back at the brand. For this reason, social media allows marketers to maintain a kind of flexibility that capitalizes on the fluctuating sentiments-of-the moment as well as emerging trends in the environment and market. The marketers in KOPI restaurant are supposed to make a clear direction and structure of the kind of content that they are placing in their social media in order to cause their target audience to effectively interact with it by talking back. They should come with content themes that are relevant to the restaurant, addressing the current marketing needs of the restaurant. By using multiple social media channels, the marketers should ensure that they customize their content to make it unique and interactive. Success of social media marketing in other businesses The advent of technology has been an important leveraging point that businesses have used in their growth and development. Technology has reduced some of the operating costs for businesses by introducing more effective ways of marketing and advertising. Many companies have now shown an overreliance on social media as an important tool for their marketing and advertisement. Some of the notable examples of companies and business that have used social media marketing for their growth and success include Chipotle, which is a Mexican-style fast food restaurant. The restaurants, media team seems to have quite an interactive and vocal site that regularly interacts with its large fan base on social media. The target audience often asks questions and makes comments on the posts made by the marketing team. In return, the team thanks its customers and visitors to the site by giving them positive feedback to their comments. In this case, it is able to solve their complaints and invite them to various events and campaigns taking place in the business (Washenko para 1-4). Another classic example of how social media has been used actively with huge success is the case of Maes Beer, which has in the past given free barrels of beer to people, on condition that the share their social media platforms with 20 of their very close friends. The strategy workd to their advantage since it caused huge sales of their brand, not just to their regular customers, but to many other new ones that were overwhelmed by the marketing strategy (Cloutier para 4-5). The company has resorted to using social media marketing as one of its critical marketing and selling points of their products. Recommendations into active social media marketing by KOPI One of the recommendations that will be used in effective social media marketing for KOPI restaurant includes the use of a post and Hashtag campaign. In this approach, signs will be placed in the restaurant, informing customers through their social media of how to post pictures, make reviews by putting a Hashtag #KOPINYC. In doing so, the customers will be entitled to a 15% discount on meals bought on weekdays and free appetizers when they visit on weekends. By implementing this strategy, the restaurant will create an online buzz among available local communities, thus increasing brand recognition and presence in the target audience. The restaurant, in its new social marketing will reach on bloggers and foodies as its second recommendation, most of whom are known to have a great influence on people in the social media. The restaurant will advice the bloggers on how to make positive reviews about the restaurant and the services they offer using relevant Hashtags like #KOPINYC in drawing the attention of the target audience. Another recommendation towards effective social media marketing involves creation of anniversary event campaigns that will be promotional tools for the restaurants and its variety of services offered. In these campaigns, the restaurant will offer exclusive products and services, especially during months that the campaigns will be held. The restaurant will create special products like lattes art, specialty foods and flavors that can be purchased on those particular days. This will aim at causing repeat purchases among customers that will love them. Introduction of special student discounts is also another important recommendation that will appeal to the student community. So far, this approach has been going on for a while where students are entitled to a 10% discount. This strategy will be reinforced in social media campaigns in order to increase its reach among the large student community in the New York City. Key performance Indicators In achieving the above stipulated recommendations, some of the Key Performance indicators to be used will include increasing the number of new customers in from each of the especial events like anniversary campaigns. Social media will be essential in reaching not only to the student community, but also to other young professionals in the region. Another indicator that will be used to mark the success of the social media campaign strategy will be customer retention. Normally, attracting new clients in the business is one thing and retaining them is another. In this new marketing system, there will be systems like special discounts to loyal customers that have been frequent visitors to the restaurant for a long time. Activities like excellent customers care and attention to feedback though online social media and other approaches will be keenly evaluated and taken into consideration. Lastly, another key performance indicator will include having positive mentions and shares about the services and other products from the restaurants. The target audience will be encouraged to share the social media sites with their friends in order to help increase publicity for the social media platforms. Additionally, there will be a lot of active online engagement with customers in order to enhance their loyalty to the restaurant through increased repeat purchases. Works Cited Arline Catherine. What is a vision statement. 11 December 2014. Web. 9 April 2015. Bunskoek Krista. Social Media Marketing for Restaurants: 21 tips. 2015. Web. 9 April 2015. Cloutier Chris. 30 Businesses that are rocking social media. 17 July 2014. Web. 9 April 2015. KOPI. Kopi Kopi. 2015. Web. 2015. Washenko Anna. 4 Restaurants doing social media right. 19 October 2012. Web.9 April 2015. Read More