QSRs see marketing trend leaning towards social media landscape
Most quick service restaurants say marketing trends are now leaning more towards the social media landscape as online conversations grow louder and at a rapid rate.
“Online, especially video and user generated content will, continue to grow at exponential rates,” Kim Russell, chief marketing officer at Nando’s commented in response to a recent interview.
“Marketers and businesses that embrace the new technology available and engage in dialogue online with their customers will reap the rewards,” he said.
“Being involved with online marketing since 1999, I have seen the internet evolve into what is now a very user driven medium. The future is in being able to engage your existing and/or prospective customers to become ambassadors of your brand so as to introduce more of their friends to your offerings,” says Schnitz’s Andrew Dyduk.
“This is the ‘word-of-mouth’ advertising of the future; facilitated by technology – propagated by people. We’re nearing a convergence between mobile devices and web-based applications (the iPhone is a perfect example) and more businesses need to embrace this technology to ensure they’re reaching their target audience where ever they may be,” the franchise and marketing chief of Schnitz said.
Eagle Boys Pizza believes blog advertising using widgets is an interesting and very new consideration in the digital marketing space.
“How it works is that a blogger, website or social networking account owner would download an Eagle Boys online ordering widget onto their page/site and encourage hungry visitors to click on the widget to place an order with Eagle Boys immediately,” says group marketing executive Christine Hooper.
“The blogger or site owner would then receive a slice of the purchase price or a referral fee. It’s a clever new idea, and certainly one that caught my eye,” Hooper said.
The Eagle Boys executive said experiential marketing will also be the next big thing in the advertising and marketing industry – It will be all about customer experience, touch points and having the brand personality really reach out to customers.
“We see trends that are moving toward brand engagement, so its important to be able to provide platforms where customers feel like their comments and feedback are being heard,” expressed Mad Mex owner Clovis Young.
According to him, they always encourage their customers to voice out what they think via customer comment cards, online comments, or even direct feedback to Mad Mex via email.
Trios Wraps marketing director Sam Elia described a new marketing trend developing in terms of more cut through, more targeted, less wasteful, more direct communication and relationship connection with existing customers. Wendy’s says consumers are looking for bran relevance and authenticity and will seek these brands out above all others.
“This means there is already a strong trend towards marketing that focuses on core values and connects with consumer sentiments and this looks set to continue,” GM for marketing Todd Duthie said.
Pacific Retail Management, on the other hand see “green marketing” and “societal marketing” as the current developing trends in the market.
“Ensuring your company has an emphasis on social responsibility is now an important part of a marketing mix and marketing professionals need to take this opportunity with both hands,” says marketing manager Scott Philipson.
He said although this can be very productive when added to the marketing mix of a company, it is also very important to ensure the message or campaign is both positive and creative.
