Free Essay on Social Media Strategy for FnH Restaurant

Healthy diet recipes in FnH Restaurant

This is a social media strategy paper for FnH (Fast-n-Healthy) restaurant based in Preston, Lancashire. The eatery will seek to promote a healthy diet at a relatively low cost. The signature dish will be a grilled cheese sandwich served with an organic soup. The restaurant will source all of its produce from local suppliers. This social media marketing strategy is designed to offer recommendations on how to harness the opportunities available in the health-eating trend in the UK. Thus, it is intended to be informative, to stimulate a response from potential clients and to convert the response to sales. The social media plan recognises that there are numerous stakeholders within FnH’s environment. Key stakeholders include the local community, staff, suppliers, owner, customers, and regulatory bodies (government). Minor stakeholders include animal rights groups, the media, and business societies.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

This plan recommends that the marketing message should be conveyed through straight sell, humour, scientific evidence, fantasy, and lifestyle themes. The leading social media platforms to use should be Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These platforms have the necessary reach regarding user numbers. They also have relevant features such as hashtags and autoreply which will make it easy for FnH to engage with clients. Lastly, FnH will rely on research findings to draw lessons from other restaurants on social media marketing techniques.

Branding strategy of Fast-n-Healthy

Fast-n-Healthy restaurant will be located in 175 Friargate, Preston. This location is ideal for the restaurant since it is along one of the busiest shopping streets in Preston. As such, the location will provide Fast-n-Healthy restaurant will a continuous stream of clientele. Fast-n-Healthy restaurant’s slogan will be “fast, tasty, and healthy.” This slogan is developed with the consideration that clients are interested in taste as well as the health benefits of a meal. Additionally, the slogan summarises the entire business model of the Fast-n-Healthy restaurant. The eatery wants to serve its health-conscious clients with healthy fast food meals.

Fast-n-Healthy will adopt the name FnH as a branding strategy. Short, catchy names are easier for customers to pronounce and remember when referring to the hotel. FnH’s operations will be guided by corporate statements. The outlet's vision statement will be, “to be the leading health-oriented eatery in the UK.” The mission statement will read, “FnH seeks to promote healthy eating by providing our clients with affordable, healthy, tasty and fast food.” By developing a mission and vision statement, a company creates a set of beliefs that guide management strategies as well as influencing customer attitudes (Cornelissen 2014).

Strategic intent and communication objectives of the restaurant

FnH’s policy targets market trends. First, the restaurant’s menu will contain healthy fast food options. The food menu will offer a wide variety of health-oriented foods. The key meal will be a grilled cheese sandwich served with an organic soup. The menu will ensure that it contains meal servings which contribute to the 5-a-day servings. Warren (2015) notes that three-fifths of UK persons look for foods that contribute to their 5-a-day goals. As such, food will be served with salad or with a side of fruits. Since a good number of UK citizens follow the advice of friends or family when it comes to healthy food choices, FnH will target seek to create a lasting impact on the minds of customers and potential customers through social media efforts. Hopefully, these ads will in turn increase word of mouth referrals. Lastly, FnH’s marketing strategies will target young people who eat out more often than the elderly. Since young people use social media more than old individuals, they are likely to be the primary recipients of the message.

FnH’s marketing strategy is designed to make its target market aware of the availability of a healthy food outlet in Preston, Lancashire as well as the outlet’s broad range of health-centred meals. On top of that, the communication methods will aim to stimulate a response from customers in the form of purchases or inquiries. Also, the objectives of the communication strategy will be to cultivate the public’s perception towards FnH. FnH hopes to be viewed as the first choice healthy food restaurant by the residents of Preston and the surrounding regions (Bovee and Thill 2015).

Stakeholder analysis

In the food industry, many stakeholders will interact with FnH during its operations. Actions by one stakeholder can have a ripple effect on the others. When horse meat was labelled as beef and sold to consumers, vendors found themselves having to stop sales. They also had to invest in mechanisms to identify wrongly labelled products. Vendors also had to shorten their supply chain to promote visibility. On the other hand, the government began to make periodic testing mandatory. The scandal affected consumers who had to seek alternative products (Beckett 2015). Consumers as stakeholders can also cause change. The recent trend in healthy eating has meant that producers and vendors have to offer foods with minus claims while others have shifted to providing organic meals (Warren 2015).

Key stakeholders: Customers and Regulatory bodies

A 2016 report by Price Waterhouse Coopers shows that 47 % of British persons aged 18 and 34 began to eat healthily in that year. The same report shows that 53 % of those in that age group intended to eat healthy in 2017 (PWC, 2016). Moreover, a study by the University of Cambridge shows that the number of fast food restaurants in the UK rose by 45 % between the year 1997 and 2015 (Green 2015). Another study by OpenTable shows that persons between 18 and 24 eat out twice as much as older persons (Garrahan 2015). Customer needs drive the direction of businesses. As more people eat healthily and eat out, FnH’s business model becomes more sustainable. Further, it makes more sense to use social media for the adverts since most social media users are young individuals.

The government is in charge of drafting rules and regulations which govern the food industry. In the UK, the Food Standards Agency is responsible for monitoring food standards. Also, the UK is subject to European food laws. For instance, the European Food Safety Authority and the Advertising Standards Authority have tight legislation that on health declarations made by food producers. Thus, producers and vendors in the UK have to be careful when marketing food so as to not mislead the public (Warren 2015).

Key stakeholders: Suppliers and Community

Suppliers are critical to a restaurant's operations because they supply food, which is the core product in any eatery. FnH’s business model centres on getting fresh organic food from suppliers within a 50-mile radius. This will involve extensive partnership and a short supply chain to ensure timely delivery. A short supply chain also ensures that quality standards can be monitored through source auditing as noted in the 2016 report by Beckett. Further, Daneshkhu (2016) indicates that people in the UK are buying more organic foods each year. Between 2015 and 2016, the sector grew to 1.95 billion pounds which translates to a 4.9 % growth (Anderson 2016). This means that as demand for organic food grows, suppliers follow suit.

The community is an important stakeholder for any restaurant, and FnH is no different. A study by Lee et al. (2016) examines the impact of CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities by restaurants on the perceptions of clients especially parents. The study finds that when hotels engage in CSR activities which target children, the parents are more like to view the outlet positively and they are also more likely to visit and revisit. CSR initiatives by FnH will not only provide the community with an understanding of why eating healthy is better for them, but it will also provide FnH with a platform to market itself as the community’s first choice in healthy foods. This benefit is also noted in a 2011 study by Rangan, Chase, and Karim where the sampled companies noted a sales increase due to CSR.

Key stakeholders: Owner and Staff

The business owner is in charge of sourcing capital, starting a business, and managing it on an operational, tactical, and strategic basis. The owner can be involved in their business directly or indirectly. However, the end goal for any investor is to earn returns. As such, the sustainability of FnH will be largely reliant on its profitability. Similarly, the investor/ investors’ capacity to inject funds will be critical to FnH’s growth and marketing strategy.

Employees act as the face of the organisation and any act whether positive or negative is assumed to be a company’s action (Noe 2014). Thus, FnH will have to ensure that its employees are well trained in culinary and customer service activities. The performance of employees is to some extent dependent on variables which can be manipulated by the management. This can be done through pay rises, giving them job security, and creating a favourable job culture. These types of motivation are extrinsic (Berdud, Cabases, and Nieto 2016). However, workers also need intrinsic motivation which is an internal drive to work.

Consumer groups with Animal Rights groups

In the UK, there are multiple consumer organisations which deal with a broad range of consumer-related issues such as legal advice and complaints. These stakeholders are not critical to the operations of FnH, but they can cause problems for the restaurant if they receive customer complaints.

These groups work to ensure that animals are well treated and protected by existing laws. Even though they have minimal impact on the operations of FnH, they may influence the public’s perception towards FnH.

Business Societies with Media

Business Societies are used to bring together proprietors of various income generating entities. They may not directly affect FnH’s business model. However, they can influence local councils to enact rules which bar certain types of business in certain areas.

The media is placed under other because the interest they will place on FnH is minimal.

Nielsen Company research

According to a 2015 study by the Nielsen Company, in Europe, advertisements that have a theme of real life situations are most likely to appeal to customers. They rank humorous, health-themed, family-oriented, and value oriented ads in second to fourth position respectively.

This social media campaign will contain multiple themes in one advert. Fist, the ads will address the issue of healthy eating and how FnH can help ordinary consumers to achieve their health goals. As Warren (2015) notes, many people are looking for meals which contribute to their 5-a-day programs and those with less of components such as salt and sugar. Second, FnH’s social media campaign will address the topic of buy local. Since FnH will source for food products from the local economy, the restaurant will use its ads to emphasise this act. The assumption is that people will develop a closer relation to the brand if it uses local food. This will also allow FnH to provide food quality guarantees (because a short and visible supply chain allows for traceability). As seen by the effects of the horsemeat scandal, people are wary of food quality issues (Beckett 2015).

Third, FnH’s social media adverts will highlight the taste and cost of the meal. According to Warren (2015), people are more likely to be swayed by the taste of a product than by its cost. This will require the ads to emphasise the company’s slogan of, “fast, tasty, and healthy.” As seen in the report by Garrahan (2015) young people value quantity (low cost) over quality while older persons value quality (higher quality) over quantity. Thus, the message will appeal to both age classes.

Marketing strategy of FnH

One, straight sell. This refers to a technique of selling a product by displaying all of its qualities in the message (Hillard, 2014). Straight sell diagrams can be accompanied by infographics. As seen in the report by Warren (2015), many people get their food information from the traffic light labelling system. Thus, a similar approach can be adopted. Two, using scientific evidence. Scientific data provides a marketing strategy with informational authority. Third, the message will contain humour. Humour will be used to convey the advert in an engaging and memorable manner. This involves the use of funny slogans or puns beside or within the advert (Hillard 2014). The advert could also be humorous based on character depictions. Fourth, the ads will incorporate fantasy. The posts will contain descriptions of the health goals that people want to achieve such as weight loss. Lastly, the healthy-eating message will be portrayed as a lifestyle trend.

A report by Needles and Thompson (2013) for the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration shows that companies that implemented social media advertising in their operations experienced an increase in their revenues and customer loyalty.

Primary stakeholders of FnH

FnH intends to take advantage of the healthy lifestyle trend in the UK. The social media strategy is designed to create awareness of FnH restaurant as well as its health-centered meals with the hope of converting interest to sales. FnH’s primary stakeholders include the local community, staff, suppliers, owner, customers, and regulatory bodies (government). Other minor stakeholders are consumer groups, animal rights groups, business societies, and the media. The main themes in the social media campaigns will be healthy eating, eating local, and low-cost meals. The ads will be placed on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. FnH will interact with clients through a dedicated social media accounts manager and autoreply features.

References

Anderson, E. (2016). Organic food sales surge to hit almost £2bn. [online] The Telegraph. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/02/23/organic-food-sales-surge-to-hit-almost-2bn/> [Accessed 20 Mar. 2017].

Barker, M. S., Barker, D., Bormann, n. F., & Neher, k. (2013). Social media marketing: a strategic approach. Mason, OH, South-Western Cengage Learning.

Beckett, A. (2015). Consumer Trust in Food. Mintel Group Ltd

Berdud, M., Cabasés, J., & Nieto, J. (2016). Incentives and intrinsic motivation in healthcare. Gaceta Sanitaria, 30(6), 408-414

Bovee, C. L., & Thill, J. V. (2015). Business communication essentials: a skills-based approach. Boston: Pearson

Cornelissen, Joep P. (2017). Corporate Communication A Guide to Theory and Practice. Sage Pubns Ltd.

Gbadamosi, A. (2013). Principles of marketing a value-based approach. Basingstoke, Hants. [u.a.], Palgrave Macmillan.

Green, C. (2015). The number of takeaways is soaring in Britain, especially in poor areas. [online] The Independent. Available at: <http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/fast-food-britain-the-number-of-takeaways-soars-across-the-nations-high-streets-10149755.html> [Accessed 20 Mar. 2017].

Hajli, N. (2015). Handbook of research on integrating social media into strategic marketing. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference

Hilliard, R. L. (2014). Writing for television, radio, and new media. Australia; Stamford, CT: Wadsworth

Lee, K., Conklin, M., Bordi, P. and Cranage, D. (2016). Restaurants’ healthy eating initiatives for children increase parents’ perceptions of CSR, empowerment, and visit intentions. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 59, pp.60-71.

Needles, A., &Thompson, G. M. (2013). Social media use in the restaurant industry: A work in progress. Cornell Hospitality Report, 13(7), 6-16.

Nielsen, (2015). Ads with impact: what messaging themes speak loudest to consumers?. [online] Available at: <http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2015/ads-with-impact-what-messaging-themes-speak-loudest-to-consumers.html> [Accessed 20 Mar. 2017].

Noe, R. A. (2017). Employee training and development. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Oldroyd, J., McElheran, K. & Elkington, D. (2011). The short life of online sales leads. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: <https://hbr.org/2011/03/the-short-life-of-online-sales-leads> [Accessed 20 Mar. 2017].

Price Waterhouse Coopers, (2016). Healthy eating is increasingly on consumer’s agendas, with millennials leading the way. [online] PWC. Available at: <http://pwc.blogs.com/press_room/2016/08/healthy-eating-is-increasingly-on-consumers-agendas-with-millennials-leading-the-way.html> [Accessed 20 Mar. 2017].

Rangan, K., Chase, L. A., Karim, S., & Harvard Business School. (2011). Why every company needs a CSR strategy and how to build it. Boston: Harvard Business School.

Statista, (2017a). Most famous social network sites worldwide as of January 2017, ranked by number of active users (in millions). [online] Statista. Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/> [Accessed 14 Mar. 2017].

Templeman, M. (2015). Facebook lead ads: how to use them effectively. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/miketempleman/2015/10/13/facebook-leads-ads-how-to-use-them-effectively/#21f24f96490b> [Accessed 20 Mar. 2017].

Warren, C. (2015). Attitudes to healthy eating. Mintel Group Ltd

Walter, E. (2014). Top 25 Restaurants in Social Media and What Small Businesses Can Learn from Bigger Chains. [online] Inc.com. Available at: <http://www.inc.com/ekaterina-walter/top-25-restaurants-in-social-media-and-what-smbs-can-learn-from-bigger-chains.html> [Accessed 20 Mar. 2017].