National Restaurant Association and LivingSocial Research is in

Two months ago, we received news that LivingSocial was teaming up with the National Restaurant Association to work together to educate restaurant owners and managers to use online and daily deals, along with traditional methods to effectively market themselves.
LivingSocial gave the NRA an unrestricted grant to examine the effectiveness of a number of marketing channels. Research has not concluded and results are being reported. James Balda, the Chief Marketing Communications Officer of the National Restaurant Associaion says that finding the right marketing mix is essential in the restaurant industry.

“Our new research outlines the challenges and opportunities of both offline and online marketing to help restaurant operators find the ‘sweet spot’ for promotions by identifying what consumers respond to and how various messaging vehicles are perceived.”

The study was conducted in February and March with telephone interviews with 425 restaurant owners, and in February via an online survey on 1,064 nationwide. The National Restaurant Association has highlighted some of their research findings.
Brand recognition and perception is heightened by the use of technology:

Restaurants that use online marketing (emails from restaurants, emails from a daily deal provider, and websites) tend to be viewed by consumers as modern (67% emails, 59% daily deals, 65% websites) and popular (63%, 59%, 63%). Restaurant operators perceive websites (90%), TV ads (87%), social media (84%), restaurant emails (82%), and daily deals (77%) as effective in bringing in new customers.

Marketing communications that offer personalized savings as an incentive result in higher sales:

• 87% of consumers would go to or order from a restaurant if provided with a savings offer.
• 95% of operators perceive savings offers to be an effective marketing tool.
• Consumers would go to or order from a restaurant if they received customized marketing messages that referenced past restaurant patronage (68%), allowed them to make reservations (66%), and identified them by name (64%).

Research found that most restaurant owners know about the marketing tools, and for the tools to work, they just have to be implemented.

• 84% of restaurant operators consider restaurant-specific marketing emails to be effective in increasing revenue for their restaurants, and 78% of consumers said an email from a restaurant would motivate them to go to that restaurant. In addition, 63% of restaurant operators say they plan to use such emails in the next year.
• 78% of restaurant operators consider daily deals to be effective in increasing revenue for their restaurants, and 69% of consumers said an email from a daily deal provider would motivate them to go to the restaurant featured in the daily deal. In addition, 40% of operators say they plan to work with a daily deal provider in the next year.

Mandy Cole, the SVP of Sales at LivingSocial talks about the partnership and its ultimate goals:

“Many restaurant owners feel overwhelmed by the wide range of marketing options available to them. We partnered with the National Restaurant Association to conduct this study to see which tools are most effective at increasing revenue and improving business for restaurants.  Working together with our thousands of restaurant partners, we look forward to turning these findings into actionable steps to help restaurants improve their marketing efforts.”

The National Restaurant Association is based in Washington D.C. and yearly hosts the industry’s largest trade show, which took place last week in Chicago. Full results of the survey were revealed there and can be found at www.restaurant.org/onlinemarketing.

By Stephanie Taylor
http://www.dailydealmedia.com/