This is part of NRN’s special coverage of the 2011 Multi-Unit Foodservice Operator conference, or MUFSO. The conference is taking place Sept. 25-28 at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, Texas. Follow all coverage on NRN’s ‘At the Show’ section, check out NRN editor blogs, The Reporter’s Notebook, and Tweet with us using #MUFSO.
The union of social media and mobile phones has created an opportunity for restaurateurs to interact online with consumers like never before, according to The New York Times’ technology columnist David Pogue.
While many brands understand how to use social media to talk and listen to guests online, the next development step operators need to understand in order to increase their sales reach is smart-phone apps, Pogue told MUFSO attendees on Monday during his keynote presentation, “Web 2.0: Social Media and Other Tools to Help Business Reach Consumers.”
“Where are the apps?” Pogue asked. “This is the dawn where chains are making their presence known on your phone with apps. There aren’t very many of you [restaurant brands] that have them yet.”
Conducting a demonstration using McDonald’s iPhone app, Pogue credited the chain with having a restaurant locator available, but questioned the utility of having nutrition information and careers information on the app.
Customers are going to care about being able to place an order on an app, he said.
“In fact, I want the app to learn what I always order so that I can just re-order it with one tap,” he said. “I think we’re just on the ground floor of this. Why hasn’t anyone done touchscreen tables yet?”
Pogue encouraged MUFSO attendees to keep an open mind when it comes to adopting new technologies and investing in people to develop new platforms, especially when the tech landscape changes constantly.
“So these are the waves crashing over our society right now, but not everyone’s leaping onto it,” Pogue said. “There’s a lot of corporate resistance, and there are a million reasons to be afraid of Web 2.0 and mobile technology.”
Watch part of Pogue's presentation; story continues on next page
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Companies legitimately worry about several things related to new technologies, Pogue acknowledged, from lack of control over what’s said about them, to difficulty in measuring return on investment, to employees wasting time on Facebook.
“But if you use it right, there are some incredible things you can do,” Pogue said.
He pointed out several companies like Southwest Airlines and Zappos.com who use Twitter’s real-time, targeted capabilities to respond to customer questions and complaints. Any company can eavesdrop on what’s said about its brand on Twitter easily, he said.
Chains could use Twitter or Facebook to talk about what’s going on behind the scenes at the company, Pogue added, like showing consumers products that went through a test marketing process but didn’t make the cut.
Companies also have deployed YouTube videos as a way to reach a wide audience with different, cost-effective marketing creative. Pogue cited BlendTec, a high-end blender manufacturer, quintupling its sales in a year after developing kitschy, popular YouTube videos, and Old Spice doubling its sales in one month after its commercials went viral on YouTube.
“There were 50 million views of [Old Spice’s] video because it was funny, it was sexy, and they did it with no budget,” Pogue said.
New platforms arise all the time for consumers, he added. Hundreds of smaller sites and services complement Facebook and YouTube, “and what they all do is the same principle of connecting people who don’t know each other but who have very narrow interests that align.”
Contact Mark Brandau at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @Mark_from_NRN
