Are you a new restaurant business owner looking for a unique marketing strategy? Or have you recently noticed a decline in customer reach despite using traditional marketing techniques? In either case, it is time for you to add a new technique to your marketing approach.
According to CNBC, 60% of new restaurant businesses fail within 12 months, often due to poor customer experience. Staff management issues, inappropriate marketing techniques, and complex menus can also play a part.
However, there is a way to skyrocket your restaurant business against all odds. Emotional or sentiment marketing is an underrated tool that can revolutionize your restaurant’s approach and enhance brand loyalty.
Take the example of Noodles & Company. They introduced a new menu item solely based on customer demand. As a result, it fostered an unbreakable emotional connection with the customers.
In this blog, we will delve into the uniqueness of emotional marketing and explore its strategies.
Why Is Emotional Marketing Important?
You might find it unconventional to link restaurant marketing with emotions. However, emotions are a crucial tool that helps bring in loyal clientele and establish a genuine connection.
Customers return to restaurants not only for good food, value-for-money prices, discounts, and loyalty programs but also for the emotional connection they experience. Therefore, adopting a sentiment marketing approach can encourage and enhance this aspect in your new restaurant business.
This approach is not about obtaining ROI. Instead, it humanizes your brand and helps foster a personal bond with the customer. When customers are emotionally engaged with your restaurant brand, they will become advocates. These customers will recommend you to their peers and share their experiences on social media, enhancing your restaurant’s image and authority.
Emotional marketing provides a lasting experience that compels customers to return to your restaurant. They become loyal and less sensitive to pricing. This approach is vital for creating a memorable restaurant experience, increasing impressions, and boosting sales.
For instance, Starbucks has utilized this marketing technique to personalize mundane things and celebrate various occasions. Their campaign, “Every Cup Has a Story,” has successfully increased brand loyalty through intimacy and emotional connection. Today, around 10 million Americans go to Starbucks for their morning coffee.
Can You Use Restaurant Management Software (RMS) for Emotional Marketing?
You have probably invested in a restaurant management app that helps you streamline business operations. This software can automate various administrative functions for your new restaurant. It offers features such as employee scheduling, payment processing, inventory management, accounting, and Point of Sale (POS) integrations.
However, did you know you can leverage RMS to enhance your emotional marketing techniques? For instance, you can utilize features like menu configurations and loyalty program implementations.
This way, your customers will have a delightful experience scrolling through your detailed online menu while placing their orders. Additionally, integrating loyalty programs into the RMS will enable customers to accumulate points automatically when they settle their bills.
RMS saves all your customer data. This feature allows you to analyze demographics and generate personalized sentiment marketing techniques. According to CheddrSuite, new restaurant owners can improve customer satisfaction and increase efficiency by employing emotional marketing with an RMS.
Emotional Marketing Strategies for Restaurants
Coca-Cola’s emotional marketing technique focuses on happiness. The brand captures a consistent communal feeling. As a result, millions of people worldwide love and trust the brand.
To succeed in the competitive Food and Beverage industry, you must understand customer needs and use storytelling in your campaigns. Additionally, you need to carve out the “wow” moments and factors for your brand.
Moreover, you will need personalized sentiment marketing to appeal to your customers. And empathy plays a big role in this. Place yourself in your customer’s shoes to better understand their needs and compare them with your brand identity.
Doing so will help you create a campaign that evokes a human touch in a personal way. Once decided, you can follow these approaches and strategies:
- Inspirational approach: In this strategy, you associate your restaurant with an idea that you and your customers believe in. Examples include the use of paper straws and contactless ordering.
- Emotional approach: It helps humanize your brand and foster a sympathetic connection. For example, you can celebrate Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc., and give your customers discounts on their birthdays.
- Aspirational approach: This can help you analyze and understand your customer’s dreams, goals, and lifestyles. In turn, you can sell the “experience” of eating at your restaurant.
Furthermore, you can award loyal customers through milestone awards such as coupons or free meals. Another vital strategy would be establishing a community. This way, you can appeal to the customer’s sense of belongingness. All these strategies will help foster an unbreakable bond between your new restaurant and the customers.
The Bottom Line
Emotional marketing campaigns boast a success rate of 31%. Likewise, 71% of customers may recommend a brand based on the developed emotional connection. Additionally, 86% of loyal customers expect brands to reciprocate their loyalty.
That means this marketing tool can either make or break your brand. You must utilize a persuasive brand image that taps into human emotion and forms a deep emotional connection. For example, Forbes suggests that the “Anti Plastic Straw Movement” is one of the most effective campaigns in history.
People are more likely to choose a restaurant brand that prioritizes creating an emotional bond rather than relying on discounts or short-term metrics to lure customers. You can tap into your customer’s deepest desires and core emotions by leveraging sentiment or emotional marketing.
