RESTAURANT MARKETING VIA THE WWW

INTRODUCTION

"Millions of people worldwide use it daily to communicate and fetch information. Major newspapers carry page-one articles about it. Fortune 500 companies rush to use it to tell their story-and to conduct business. US Senators seek to regulate it. Investors leap to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into one of its best-known startups-even though that company hasn’t had a nickel of earnings. It’s even the subject of feature films."

"Xing software, Streamworks... .. delivers audio and video on demand, rather than requiring a user to download a file off the Web and play it back from a local drive. The system can be used to deliver stored files and can broadcast live programs, as well. The big picture is that this really turns the Web into a radio network, and a little further out, a TV network.... And it does it by the existing (Internet) infrastructure."

Next, this paper will show the problems and opportunities these interactive technologies, most specifically the WWW present to the hospitality industry and specifically the restaurant industry. Then it will examine what is happening now on the WWW regarding the restaurant industry. Finally, it will conclude with What is happening now on the WWW. And, what can one ascertain with respect to restaurant WWW development basics and prognostications for its use by the 21st century restaurateur?

THE INTERNET

The Internet (Net) began in the late 1960’s as a United States Department of Defense cold war experiment, ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Administration). Its purpose was to link together distant government computers on a network capable of surviving a nuclear war. The nuclear war never came, but the ARPAnet foundation grew into today’s Internet. "While the Internet has shown large and steady growth over its 26-year history, the last two years have seen astonishing expansion -- with the Net more than tripling in size." The number of Internet users estimated at 38 million in 1994 will reach 56 million by the end of 1995 and approach 200 million by 1999.

The Net is the basic backbone or infrastructure for what is commonly referred to as the 'Information Superhighway'. It is the Net that allows computers all over the world to 'talk' to one another. The Net supports various functions such as the World-Wide Web (WWW), Electronic mail (e-mail), Usenet, Gopher, Telnet and File Transfer Protocol (FTP). While all are useful, e-mail and the WWW offer the most benefits for the hospitality industry.

While e-mail is a text only vehicle similar to a mailbox, the WWW is similar to a global library with millions of free books, records and movies, open 24 hours a day. All it takes to get into this library is a computer, modem and on-line account. The basic unit in the WWW is a web page, home page or site. The content (text, audio and video) is left up to the page or site owner. There is no librarian on duty and the vast majority of pages or sites are free for the accessing.

Surfer may sound like a casual user, but their demographics are first rate. The average Prodigy Web user for example, is 39 years old with an average income between US $60,000 and $75,000. Other surveys in the same article show a predominantly male user with some college education. These are the 'surfers' visiting the WWW pages.

WWW pages are put up by businesses, organizations, schools, clubs, students, anyone. For example, it is even a school project for third grade classes at a local Tallahassee school (Kate Sullivan Elementary). There are no restrictions (yet) on content. As might be expected there is tremendous depth and breadth on the WWW. The hospitality industry is present on the WWW through advertisements on popular pages, various restaurant 'classified' pages or with their own respective pages.

MARKETING INTO THE 21st CENTURY

The 1:1 future will be characterized by customized production, individually addressable media, and 1:1 marketing, totally changing the rules of business competition and growth. Instead of market share, the goal of most business competition will be share of customer -- one customer at a time.

Economies of scale will never again be as important as they are today. Having the size necessary to produce, advertise, and distribute vast quantities of standardized products won’t be a precondition for success. Instead, products will be increasingly tailored to individual tastes, electronic media will be inexpensively addressed to individual consumers....

In the 1:1 future businesses will focus less on short-term profits derived from quarterly or annual transaction volumes, and more on the kind of profits that can be realized from long-term customer retention and lifetime values."

We are in one of those unique periods of history when we are able to witness the emergence of an entirely new mode of communication; Just as in the 15th century one would have witnessed the emergence of the printing press, today we are witnessing the emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web. In its time, the printing press proved to be a catalytic technology that helped bring about the Reformation and as prognosticated above by Peppers & Rogers, the Internet and other interactive communication technologies necessitate a total "reformation" of traditional marketing communication strategy.

As the new digital-interactive-information technologies begin to supplement and inevitably supplant the established mass-media of print and broadcast as our primary means of product/service information dissemination, marketing communication specialists will need to acquire an entirely new sensibility in order to use the emerging technologies to their fullest potential. Every domain of marketing communication will be profoundly effected by these pronounced advances in interactive communication technologies. So too, the marketing/advertising practitioners in the restaurant industry must begin to address the question as to how best blend these new technologies into their marketing mix.

It is suggested that the emerging WWW will redefine the relationship between the restaurateur and patron in at least three critical ways.

(1) The Restaurateur will take a more direct and continuous role in communicating with the customer:

By definition marketing 1to1 in the 21st century is direct and immediate. Historically, the "ad-agency" was the middleman who served the role of a carnival barker on the mass-media midway-- of simple slogans and "unique selling points". The ad- agency's most basic charge was to provide the potential customer with a few bits of information in the most direct and entertaining manner possible. For the most part, all that was needed was a catchy headline and/or visual to grab attention, some body copy to describe the restaurant's comparative benefits and a logo and slogan to promote memorablity. At his/her best, the interactive restaurateur will serve as the primary communicator and facilitator of an on-going, on-line conversation between the restaurant and the customer. He/she will provide the customer not only with exactly what information they need--when they need it (on demand advertising, menu selections, specialties, specials), but also additional venues through which to interact with the restaurant (such as merchandising, recipes, forums or food and beverage questions).

Indeed, an interesting offshoot of our research on "restaurants on the WWW", was found in the comments of the on-line restaurateurs we contacted. As it was, e-mail was sent to thirteen restaurateurs with either their own direct e-mail box or an interesting site. The e-mail was informal, asking them about their WWW site and restaurants on the WWW. The e-mail was sent on October 31 and November 1. By November 7, nine of the thirteen restaurateurs responded (69% response rate). Some asked for anonymity while others gave permission to quote them. All nine respondents were happy that they put up a site on the WWW. A common theme in talking about their site was that it was a fun project for them. They seemed to do this from both a business and labor of love perspective. Of those that commented, more than half did the necessary design and programming work themselves. For example:

"The home page was conceived for purely personal pleasure. I had discovered, as you did, that there is little 'out there' for restaurants and dining experiences...of course the proof is in the pudding (no food pun intended). I only recently finished the project and hopefully more and more people will discover it and utilize the site fully. By this I'm primarily referring to the new section that will appear, 'Ask the Chef.' We will invite visitors to e-mail us with food/wine questions and also food and wine pairing questions they may have."

"I am happy with the site. I am the chef proprietor of the restaurant and a computer nerd for a hobby. I scripted the site myself for about $20.00 for the graphics to be made into jpeg format at Kinkos. Then I published it through an open-door network provider for about $40.00 per month."

"Yes I am (happy with my site) since I made it, but I...need to redo a lot...mostly the two menus, plus...some additions like; mail order basket page, specials page, wine and beer page."

(2)The Restaurateur's business strategy will expand from the marketing concept to the communication concept....

The fundamental principal on which modern businesses have operated throughout the past decades has been the marketing concept (defined as profit through consumer satisfaction based on the ability of the product or service to deliver the attributes promised by advertising). While the marketing concept will continue to be important, the restaurateur will increasingly need to pay homage to (what we define as)the communication concept : The process wherein the restaurateur enables, engages, facilitates, sustains and rewards interaction with the customer throughout the entire consumption cycle. Future marketing success will be found in giving the customer the easiest, most rewarding access to relevant information before, during and after the dining experience. Interactive WWW technology enables the restaurateur to personalize his approach to every customer and exchange relevant information that will prove mutually beneficial. For, in the future, the bottom line will not only be a matter of market share but also customer-share , measured by the number of clients active in a database that is developed and maintained via the WWW. As delineated by Peppers and Rogers:

Companies pioneering the 1:1 future view their enterprises in a boldly different way. They...

•cultivate each customer's lifetime value and the company's share of that customer's total spending over time

•organize for the management of customers and the relationships that go with them, rather than rely only on traditional product management structures

•use new media to create ongoing dialogues that learn and grow as each customer interacts with and buys from the company

•collaborate with customers, one at a time, to create individually tailored, "customer-ized" relationships, products, and services for each.

 

Marketing l:l helps its clients use revolutionary information and communications technologies to individualize and enhance their customer relationships. The goal: increased share-of-customer and lifetime value through l:l collaboration and communication.

The centrality of the communication concept and the cultivation of "customer-ized" relationships can be clearly recognized in the comments of those pioneering restaurateurs on the Web that we interviewed. To wit:

"I strongly believe that given the opportunity to 'touch someone' then it should be done in the best and most positive way. Not through advertising but through sincerity and enjoyment, even humor. This site allows us to do what we believe in and not what some marketing ‘geek’ tells us."

Moreover, when John Mollison, Advertising Director for the Pizza Ranch, Inc. was asked what he would like to say to his non-wired restaurant brethren, he succinctly responded: "Customer contact is worth a million TV spots."

(3) The nature and contours of the communication messages between the restaurateur and patron will undergo drastic change.

As we move from a mass -to -the multi-mediated world of interactive communication a number of changes will take place:

> Communication will become multi-dimensional and transactional. We will move from one-way, truncated 30 second spots, 1/2 page spreads and 7-word billboard blurbs to interactive communication-pods of information about the restaurant that can be peeled back like an onion with "tell-me-more" & "show-me-more buttons", while the consumer provides the restaurateur with key facts and data.

> Communication will move from intrusive commercial messages that intermittently interrupt the on-going media experience of the customer to invited conversation, wherein the customer actively seeks out and requests information on the restaurant's offerings and promotions.

> Communication will be less ephemeral (zapped in a matter of nanoseconds; skipped with a flip of the page; driven past at 65 mph) and more embedded with information being part and parcel with the web site with which the individual is interacting.

> Finally, in terms of style and substance, communication between the restaurateur and customer will movefrom glib and superficial titillation with intangible rewards to substantive value-added "infotainment" with immediate and tangible rewards. No longer will the simple price discount, 2-4-1, play-on words or double entendre -with a slice of cheese or beefcake thrown in- be the consumer's only reward for paying attention to the restaurateur's message. A WWW-site will necessarily offer customers something real and something tangible for their time and attention. The extended frontiers and contours of the WWW allow the restaurater to expand his range of communication messages to include as much product/price and service information as necessary, as well as an expanded range of engaging on-line entertainment -- such as games, contests and interactive features.

RESTAURANTS AND THE WORLD-WIDE WEB

TABLE 1, Search Engine Results

YAHOO LYCOS WEB CRAWLER MCKINLEY

"Restaurant" Sites 426 10,907 3,580 >60

"Florida Restaurant" Sites 8 45 266 6

"Orlando Restaurant" Sites 2 14 82 0

Most surfers start at the top and then work their way down the returned hot list of sites. This paper used the same process in order to logically try to replicate what a typical ‘surfer’ does. This is not a probability sample, rather a convenience sample of restaurant related sites using four separate search engines. For each search engine’s results list, the analyst worked his way down the list, starting from the top. Each site was categorized based on its description, name or actually visiting the site itself. This process was repeated again on November 1, to verify the coding.

Depending on the search engine and its classification scheme, the same site may show up several times in the results. These multiple listed sites were counted only once for each search engine. However, if the same site showed up using another search engine, that site was counted for each separate search engine. While the results are not generalizable to the entire WWW domain, they do give some indication of the type of restaurant related sites on the WWW. Table 2 below shows the classification of 305 separate WWW sites containing the word 'restaurant'.

TABLE 2 - WWW ‘Restaurant’ Sites Classification

YAHOO LYCOS WEB CRAWLER MCKINLEY TOTAL

Sites Surveyed 91 61 93 60 305

Restaurant Guides 56 44 77 44 221

% of sites surveyed 62% 72% 83% 73% 72%

Restaurants 15 13 10 11 49

% of sites surveyed 16% 21% 11% 18% 16%

Suppliers 8 1 1 10

% of sites surveyed 9% 2% 1% 0% 3%

Consultants 3 1 1 5

% of sites surveyed 3% 2% 1% 0% 2%

Universities 2 1 3

% of sites surveyed 2% 0% 1% 0% 1%

Usenets 1 3 4

% of sites surveyed 1% 0% 0% 5% 1%

Book/Magazine 4 1 5

% of sites surveyed 4% 0% 1% 0% 2%

Miscellaneous 2 2 2 2 8

% of sites surveyed 2% 3% 2% 3% 3%

The developers of these sites are a wide and varied group. Some of the WWW restaurant guides are done by individuals or groups of individuals for the pure pleasure of having their own WWW page. There is no profit motive whatsoever on their part. They just want to share their views with their cyber brethren. What starts off as a fun project later develops into an interesting, useful source of information.

Other WWW restaurant guides, though, have some type of profit motive. Usually, an enterprising WWW developer sells space to local restaurants, restaurant associations or tourist's office. The developer promises to promote the site and thus gain exposure for the listed restaurants. The restaurants have a certain amount of space on the page for displaying their menu, hours of operations, credit cards accepted, etc.

A common feature of some WWW restaurant guide pages is the chance for visitors to read reviews as well as send in (e-mail) their own reviews. These e-mailed reviews are then posted to the site. This type of interactivity encourages visitors to visit the same site again and again. Visitors become part of and associate with the site since their review is posted there. Restaurant Reviews is one such example.

Regardless, the sites that classify or group restaurant related information on the WWW are classic examples of one of the basic benefits of the information superhighway. The WWW provides a global library of restaurant information. For instance, consumers (anywhere in the world) with WWW access can search for Afghan restaurants in Boston or Mexican restaurants in Belgium, 24 hours a day. When they find a restaurant they like, they can peruse the menu, jot down the phone number, study its reviews and see what credit cards it accepts. This, though, is just the beginning. Interactivity, a major progression, is used by a select few restaurateurs on the WWW.

Of the 305 'restaurant' related sites surveyed, only 49 (about one in seven or 16%) were actual restaurants. Here, the restaurateur decides the content going into his/her WWW site. The restaurateur can selectively choose what he/she wants to offer, promote, highlight and display. As the WWW has unlimited storage space coupled with multi-media capabilities, the breadth, depth and presentation possibilities of the WWW site are limited only by the restaurateur’s imagination and financial considerations. As will be shown later in this paper, the financial considerations are surprisingly small.

Since some restaurants were mentioned in more than one search engine, there were only 43 separate and distinct restaurants, rather than the 49 restaurants shown in Table 2. Unfortunately, it was not possible to access all 43 restaurants. Due to problems on the sending and or receiving end, only 37 restaurants of 43 (about six of seven or 86%) were successfully accessed and subsequently analyzed. Access problems are known on the WWW and will be around for some time. Table 3 presents the results of this analysis.

TABLE 3 - Analysis of WWW restaurant sites

Total Rest. Sites 43

Personal Group

Rest Sites Accessed 37 10 27

% Total sites 86%

Sites with Email 25 12 13

% of sites accessed 68% 32% 35%

On-Line Sales Promo 11

% of sites accessed 30%

Frequent special 5

% of sites accessed 14%

Directions 5

% of sites accessed 14%

Reservations 5

% of sites accessed 14%

E-mail newsletter 3

% of sites accessed 8%

Franchising 3

% of sites accessed 8%

Coupon 3

% of sites accessed 8%

Recruiting 2

% of sites accessed 5%

Contest 1

% of sites accessed 3%

Only 10 of the 37 sites accessed, about one in four (28%), were their own freestanding site. The other 27 sites were part of some local network or group system that took care of developing and housing their WWW page. This type of operation, while simplifying the process, may or may not be ideal for the restaurateur. For most of the 27 restaurants housed with a group, the page was little more than an expanded print advertisement. There was no creativity, the graphics were non-existent or boring and the site had no interactivity.

Promoting their catering or goup sales operations via the WWW was another sales offering. In addition to extensive menu listings and party options, they all offered the possibility to e-mail in specific requests. Tour groups for example could contact about possible options for their bus groups. T-shirts, promotional items, mail order gift baskets and even food to go or eat in were the other on-line presentations shown on these sites. None of the sites sold gift certificates, which are an easy source of revenue now and meals later.

Directions should be included on every site but were on only a small number (14%) of sites. The directions do not have to be on the home page, rather an option for the visitor.

Recruiting or employment opportunities, were rarely (5%) mentioned. One of the sites, a major chain’s home office for a European country had a well thought out site for information about employment positions, from the hourly up to managerial level. However, there was no e-mail address anywhere on the site. The site did have phone and fax numbers, but e-mail is much, much more immediate for the cyber visitor.

WEB-SITE DEVELOPMENT & MAINTENANCE BASICS

WEB-SITE DEVELOPMENT & MAINTENANCE BASICS

It would seem in the near future that web-sites are going to be like belly-buttons, in that everybody is going to have one. But the decision to develop a web-site just because web-sites are "hot" and everyone is getting one can easily prove to be a terribly expensive and damaging exercise. The WWW has plenty of boring, time- consuming, poorly-designed sites that would do the marketer and the general public a favor by permanently fading away into cyberspace.

As it is, the initial cost in terms of real dollars is relatively modest. Indeed, as one restaurant cybrauteurs noted, "I am the chef propietor of the restaurant and a computer nerd...I scripted the site myself for about $20.00 for the graphics to be made into jpeg format at kinkos. Then I published it through opendoor network provider for $40.00 per month" (Scott Meskan, Georges....). Albeit, our suvey of WWW restaurateurs would suggest one's initial web-site start-up costs can range anywhere from $250 to $550 for basic development. Like the interstate, the toll to be on the info-superhighway will depend on the amount of freight you want to carry. Once designed, and up on a server, one's monthly WWW connection cost will depend on the size of the site and amount of traffic. To wit:

" I can say in general.... monthly costs are based at $35, but vary with the volume of images... around $25 per 100k served, Then traffic is a potential other cost , with 10 Megs of traffic included in the $35, and additional traffic at $5 per Meg or portion thereof."

These tolls can appear prohibitive to those who must decide how to spend a limited advertising budget, as one restaurant web-site author observed:

 

"The commercial costs are way out of line for net service from providers here in Tuscon and around the country. For instance, most of the providers want $15 a month for one 8 by 11.5 page on their sites...so my pages would be about $70 to $100 a month to store maybe 300k of Delectables info, plus another $100 a month if you want your own domain name.... $2160 a year (I did it for $550 a year)...at the same time I could take that $2160 invest it in a yellow page ad and get at least 10 to 20 calls a day that bring in cash sales." (Mitchell Mock, Delectables...)

 

However, it should be noted that this restaurant site operator went on to say that he has begun to sell space on his site so his costs are already going down. For those committed to exploring the ultimate communication and commercial value of the WWW, it is not the initial development costs that matter. Rather, it becomes a question of the cost of site maintenance, in terms of time as well as money.

Some sites change by the hour. Yahoo (1995) continually updates its site with new URL additions or news editions, for example. Weather sites must change as often as the weather. The CNN (1995) web page has to keep up with its television sibling. These are exceptions, but the underlying principle of routine maintenance is paramount to a successful WWW site. One of the reasons web sites are bookmarked is because the surfers know there may be something new there.

Maintenance involves updating the site, responding to e-mail and changing the site. Updating could include modifications such as correcting changed, moved or expired hot links, editing outdated or incorrect text, and altering graphics, audio or video. E-mail correspondence is core to 21st century marketing and must be given high priority. These are potential customers who took the time to write, to associate with the site. This is the opportunity for one-to-one marketing. A slow (2-3 days) or poor response sends a strong message. Finally, the site has to change continually. The surfer needs a reason to return.

Maintenance, be it responding to e-mail or changing the site was addressed by several respondents. Most said it was not much trouble answering the e-mail, but they wished they would change the site more often.To wit:

"If you enjoy doing something then it’s not trouble. In general though one needs to have a little knowledge or technical basics to maintain the site successfully. I update the menu section on a weekly basis. What I've discovered, while "surfing" is that few people bother to keep their site updated."(Paul Carter, Tarbells...)

Marketing on the WWW is more of an on-going commitment than a one-time advertising expense. One is investing in the opening of a communication channel between the restaurant and the customer, not simply paying for an ephemeral message in a mass medium. In the final analysis, how much one wants to spend on maintenance, depends on how well one wants to communicate.

"Maintenance expense is basically a function of the design of how it's done: Does a (restaurant) want to have an active on-going dialogue with customers and potential customers? (the most dynamic & appealing pages, but with also the most expensive) or is a more passive this-is-what-we-are approach acceptable? Maintenance, ideally for the restaurant would be handled by the office itself, or some staff marketing/advertising person included in a salaried position. When it's an hourly expense of Page Developers like us, then it comes down to paying hourly development & maintenance charges of typically around $75/hour, with 1-3 hours a month typical." (anonymous e-mail)

The WWW itself has multitudes of sites devoted to designing a WWW page. Bob Allison’s page, Tips for Webmasters (1995) is a well thought out, comprehensive site with hot links to many other useful sites. The site must be creative, entertaining and designed to be downloaded fast. Additionally, the site should have an e-mail address for feedback and communication. Visitors will say what they like and do not like. Charles Marrelli’s (1995) case study of the Coors’ ZIMA page is another excellent starting point for designing a WWW page. In the future, the design standards for web pages will only go higher.

WWW page design is in its infancy and still undergoing a radical evolution. HTML (hypertext markup language) has been the main programming tool used to produce web pages and is now up to version 3.0. HTML however is only two-dimensional and is being replaced by VRML (virtual reality modeling language). VRML is the "emerging standard for describing navigable and interactive 3-D worlds" (Robertson, 1995). The 3-D WWW browsers are limited and expensive now, but this will change in the near future.

"Hot Java" by Sun Microsystems (1995) adds another dimension to WWW capabilities. This software package will download and execute specified programs on a WWW page. "The program can be anything: an animation, sound file, stock market quote, interactive game, .. anything" (Tubbs, 1995)! Sun Microsystems' (1995) WWW page showcases its software with real time sound and animation.

Net surfers can access a WWW site by typing in the URL or clicking on a hot link. However, the exit is just a "click" away as well. A good WWW site keeps visitors. Dr. Charles Hofacker (1995), owner of New South Network Services, succinctly explains: "In general, we feel that those who can produce interesting content and flowing html, stuff that people will want to browse, will be on top of the Web food chain."

The really exciting pages are those that offer interactivity. Several sites post recent tasting notes and invite cyber visitors to post their own notes. By offering the site-user/consumer a forum for feedback and comment, there will emerge-- in a matter of days-- an extensive file with comments and tasting notes from around the world. Other sites offer the possibility to e-mail their specific questions to an expert.

There is little point in putting together a WWW site if no one if going to visit it. And nobody can visit it unless they know its address ( your URL). For net-surfers the primary means of finding a site's URL is by using one of the net's search engines. Since most search engines work on key words or terms, a good description will have as many of these terms as possible. Creative text writers should incorporate such obvious words as restaurant, dining, cuisine (plus the ethnicity-i.e. Italian, Chinese, French, BarBQ, etc.) and related/relevant words such as wine, food, seafood, free coupons, etc. etc. Oncemore, your maintenance duties need to include periodic search-engine-checks" to ensure that your restaurant is being listed in relevant keyword searches. As one experienced WWWrestaurateur lamented:

 

" One thing that is a little frustrating is the number of different search engines on the web and getting them to add your URL to their database. it seems that most do not update their bases on a regular basis at all. So it may take weeks to be recognized by various independent engines, which may be of concern to some individuals with an idea of creating a 'site'. It would be good for restaurants to form their own little network and create links from their home pages to other restaurant home pages." (Paul Carter, Tarbells...)

Presently, the Net has a number of vehicles for promoting a site. Submit-It (1995) is a comprehensive WWW site, exclusively created to be "The fastest way to publicize your web site". This free service automatically registers a site with 15 different catalogs or search engines such as Yahoo, WebCrawler and Lycos in one simple operation.

Advertising a WWW site can be just as creative or more so than the actual design. Even though it is a new medium, old media should not be ignored. The URL is the key to promoting the WWW site through the traditional methods. Advertising via print, TV, radio, billboard, direct mail, yellow pages, etc. should all include the URL. Promotional items such as business cards, stationary, T-shirts, posters and others should include the URL wherever possible.

************UNEDITED & DRAFT COPY BEYOND THIS POINT*******

A ‘hit’ is a highly debated term on the cyber frontier. Basically, it is a measure of how many surfers visit a site. The problem is what constitutes a hit. A site has several files to download and each downloaded file is a hit. The total hit must then be divided by the number of files. Most models divide the hits by two or three, but there are other complex considerations. Modem Media’s IRIS model is one such method of measuring hits.

* "We are getting between 100 and 440 hits per day with an average of about 230. We feel that this is great visibility over a wider area (the entire world) than we could ever hope to reach in any other media. We have guests from all over the world visit us so this suits us well."(NikkoInc)

* "111 hits a day from around the world (18 countries), most hits from US commercial and US edu domains" (Mitchell Mock, Delectables...)

*"80-200 per day"(John Mollison, Pizza Ranch,Inc...)

* "Right now we’re not overly heavily listing the page since it’s still considered in development, but at this stage, we’re basically doubling distribution for each of the last couple months, with the last month about 1500 hits. When the page is actually out in production it may double or triple that."(Jerral Sapienza, System Administrator, llx.com, Mazzi's Italian Restaurant...)

* Cuurently, our tracking systen has been in place since August (1995) and we had over 750 hits >hits would average 200 hits per month....(Plain n fancy.)...

CONCLUSION

Need to take expanded communication perspective regarding the utility and effectiveness of the www...serves both interanl/mngmt functions as weell as external/advertising -marketing

functions...

** WWW-site Communications Functions BY Audiences Matrix **

AUDIENCES

Internal/ Management ........... .Employess................ schedules, newsletters, job openings

............Vendors,suppliers....... orders

.............Restaurant guides........ reviews,specialties,specials

. ............Restaurant Associations..reports

External/Marketing................Advertising

Promotions

Merchandizing

Line Extensions

Customer Relations & Customer-to customer Billboards

In the end the value of the www be measured both in terms of how much $$ it save s as well as how much $$ it generates.....

With a little effort and research, restaurateurs can can take the necessary steps to enter the 21st century of marketing via interactive communication technologies.For as Patton said"A good plan violently executed now, is a helluva lot better than a perfect plan next week"

The Internet and World-Wide Web are already being used by a number of restauarants with very positive economic results.

"I believe commercial sales will only work for certain types of business for the next few years, then technologies will improve to allow business like restaurants to make actual sales over the net."(Mitchell Mock, Delectables...)

"We have had good experience so far with our web site."

>>>>>THIS IS A GREAT QUOTE SUMS IT ALL UP>>>>"In all honesty, we are very close to a "finished" product; alittle fine tuning is required. Once that is complete, it won't be. You cannot become satisfied because there is an undetermined but growing, population of visitors surfing the information superhighway. You must remain innivative in order to keep interest. The Niagra region, where we are located, generates billions of dollars in tourism receipts each year. more and more of these visitors will visit our region "virtually" before physically. We must create the impression that if that traveller does not visit Plain & Fancy restaurant, their trip will not be complete." ( Gregg Craelock,Plain & Fancy Restaurant....)

 

 

"The increasing popularity of the Internet, as a business vehicle in general and an advertising medium in particular, is due to its current size and future growth prospects, its attractive demographics, and its potential to provide andefficient channel for advertising, marketing, and even direct distribution of certain goods and information services.

Indeed, one recent estimate (Verity and Hof, 1994) puts marketing through conventional channels at four times more expensive than marketing over the Internet. Along with these suspected increases in efficiency, the anecdotal evidence mounts that net.marketing may also be more effective than marketing through traditional media. For example, one source (Potter, 1994) suggests that marketing on that portion of the Internet known as the World Wide Web results in "Ten times as many units sold with one-tenth the advertising budget."

The Challenges of Electronic Commerce,By Donna Hoffman and Thomas Novak (Hotwired)

Web page production is not difficult, but it pays to think carefully through the design and maintenance and to use a professional who is experienced with this technology. As on-line marketing techniques and the WWW mature, and as a greater percentage of the world plugs into the Web, WWW marketing may well become a tactical necessity, not just an opportunity.

"I come up with new ideas for it but I do not always have the time since my day to day business takes most of my time."

"I don’t change it enough or make it more interesting!"

A 'hit' is a highly debated term on the cyber frontier. Basically, it is a measure of how many surfers visit a site. The problem is what constitutes a hit. A site has several files to download and each downloaded file is a hit. The total hit must then be divided by the number of files. Most models divide the hits by two or three, but there are other complex considerations. Modem Media’s IRIS model is one such method of measuring hits.

"We are getting between 100 and 440 hits per day with an average of about 230. We feel that this is great visibility over a wider area (the entire world) than we could ever hope to reach in any other media. We have guests from all over the world visit us so this suits us well."

"111 hits a day from around the world (18 countries), most hits from US commercial and US edu domains"

"80-200 per day"

"Right now we’re not overly heavily listing the page since it’s still considered in development, but at this stage, we’re basically doubling distribution for each of the last couple months, with the last month about 1500 hits. When the page is actually out in production it may double or triple that."

"I believe commercial sales will only work for certain types of business for the next few years, then technologies will improve to allow business like restaurants to make actual sales over the net."

"We have had good experience so far with our web site."

Maintenance, be it responding to e-mail or changing the site was addressed by several respondents. Most said it was not much trouble answering the e-mail, but they wished they would change the site more often.

"If you enjoy doing something then it’s not trouble. In general though one needs to have a little knowledge or technical basics to maintain the site successfully."

CONCLUSION

A good plan violently executed now, is a helluva lot better than a perfect plan next week"

General George Patton

need to take expanded communication perspective regarding the utility and effectiveness of the www...serves both internal/mngmt functions as well as external/advertising -marketing functions...