RESTAURANT ENTERPRISES: A RESEARCH. ON MICHELIN STAR RESTAURANTS. Demet Tüzünkan, Selda Uca, Aslı Albayrak, Michalis Toanoglou ...
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IN RESTAURANT ENTERPRISES: A RESEARCH ON MICHELIN STAR RESTAURANTS
Demet Tüzünkan, Selda Uca, Aslı Albayrak, Michalis Toanoglou
INTRODUCTION • Today, enterprises are starting to use social media tools more intensively in activities involving marketing efforts such as sales promotion, public relations, advertising and publicity. ✓ On this basis, businesses can reach potential and actual customers faster, perform marketing activities on much more economical conditions and receive immediate feedback.
• Restaurants are also one of the enterprises that use social media tools to direct their marketing activities. ✓ Restaurants share every item that reflects their identity in social media tools. ✓ Thus, they increase brand awareness and reach more people.
Michelin Star Restaurants • Today Michelin star restaurants are considered to be the best restaurants in the world.
• The history of these restaurants, which offer a different experience to customers with the atmosphere, design and management of the world's most successful cooks and employees, is based on many years.
According to the Michelin Guide, the star ratings and the meanings of the stars carry: • The one star is "a very good restaurant in its category" on the show and the restaurant continually offers the kitchen prepared to high standards.
• The two stars are "great cookery, a good way to go" restaurant, pointing out to the elite cuisine prepared skillfully and carefully.
• The three stars "great kitchen, worth a private trip" is the degree. Anyone here is always extremely good and can even eat fabulous food. The restaurant makes its own meals using the best ingredients.
• It can be said that Michelin star's most important contribution to restaurants has been 'quality approved' in an international guide which is more than a century old and has gained people's trust. ✓ At the same time restaurants in the guide are more known and their reputation is spreading in a short time. ✓ The quality of these restaurants, which have been approved by international standards, is constantly increasing in popularity by customers.
METHOD • The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the activities of Michelin star restaurant operations in Greece in the field of social media marketing.
• In this context, visual items in Instagram, one of the most popular social media circles of Michelin star restaurant operations in Greece, were analyzed by content analysis method.
• The analysis unit of the work constitutes photo sharing in the Instagram channel of the operation of 21 Michelin-starred restaurants in Greece.
• The reason of the selecting Greece destination is
the absence of a Michelin star restaurants in Turkey. Also, Greece is the nearest destination which competes directly with Turkey, among Mediterranean destinations.
• Since there were not Instagram account of 6 of the 21 restaurants included in the survey, they were not evaluated.
• In the study, a total of 3856 photos shared by 15 Michelin star restaurants in
Instagram, one of the social media networks, were evaluated through content analysis.
There are 11 sub-themes / categories under the 3 main themes in the coding schedule.
Findings
• A total of 21 Michelin-starred restaurants were found in Greece on the basis of data obtained from the Michelin Guide between 1 July and 31 July 2018.
• 2 of these restaurants are 2-star, 3 are 1-star, 3 are registered with Bib Gourmad and the remaining 13 are registered with the Plate Michelin.
• While Bib Gourmad represents restaurants with low prices but high flavor, the Plate
Michelin symbol is being used from 2018, indicating that the restaurant has very good food.
• The product images that 8 of 15 restaurants share in their Instagram accounts are more than 50% of their total visuals.
• While the ratio of the total of the product shares of the remaining 5 restaurants is between 30% and 50%, for only 2 restaurants this is between 20% and 30%.
• The service visuals shared by Instagram accounts of 8 of the 15 restaurant operations are between 10% and 20% of the total visuals.
• While only 1 in a restaurant is between 20%
and 30%, in the case of 5, the share of this main theme is less than 10% of the total share.
• At 7 in 15 restaurants, the atmosphere
visual sharing rate is less than 10% of the total visuals.
• Atmospheric images shared by Instagram accounts of only 5 restaurants are between 20% and 50% of their total visuals.
• At 3 restaurants, the share rate of this theme in total images is below 10%.
CONCLUSION • Today, among the marketing efforts of restaurants on the internet, "social media" has taken its place as a rising value.
• One of the factors that can positively influence the subjective evaluations of
consumers is the visual items that can provide a positive image about restaurants in their minds.
• Instagram, one of the social networks where visual content sharing is the frontline, is a very effective platform for the promotion of restaurants.
• According to the results of the study, Michelin star restaurants are mainly catering for food and drinks in Instagram. ✓ The product images shared in a large majority of 15 restaurants have the highest percentage of all photos.
• As a result of the analysis, it was determined that the sharing rates in the Instagram accounts are very low, such as the services provided, price information, highlighted promotions, decoration, service provided space and presenting staff.
• For customers looking for information about Michelin star restaurants, only
product photos are often not enough; customers also want to see tips on how to prepare food for their meals, the environment where professional cooks work, customer and staff interaction, and the atmosphere of the restaurant.
• The availability and quality of photographs related to the atmosphere in which the service and service provided in the social media accounts are presented; people will be motivated to visit.
• The results of this study emphasize the importance of marketing and
promoting Michelin star restaurants to make them better able to meet the needs of evolving and changing technology.
• Because of the constant renewal of information, the possibility of reaching
from anywhere, and the fact that it is a preferred vehicle to visit, more efficient use of internet and social media in restaurant marketing should be provided.
