What I Know About Web 2.0 Strategy, I Learned From Restaurants

Led by: Paul Beck, Ogilvy Interactive

Most of the foundation of what I know in Digital Marketing, I learned from my 10 years as a Restaurateur in New York. For hundreds of years, restaurants have succeeded and died under one premise - deliver an experience that exceeds the customer's expectations and they ignore risk to personal reputation and will tell others about it. Fail to do so and you'll be on the bad side of statistics. Delivering both a "reason to care" and a "reason to share" has enabled growth through fans or advocates. Some to legendary proportions. The French Laundry, El Bulli, The Fat Duck, Pierre Gagnaire, LeCirque, Nobu, etc.

This discussion will focus on what marketers can learn from restaurants, and what restaurants can learn from marketers. A few examples to whet your appetite:

• "Your best customers were once potentially your worst customers" - restaurants offer the opportunity for a brand to prove their commitment to the customers experience which is more powerful than just having a good experience for a customer
• The rule of 50's - a good restaurant experience will generate 5 people learning about it, a bad, 50
• It's not the "steak, it's the sizzle" - although today because of the long tail, more people understand what good food now can be, the experience is still critically important to the success and in other words….
• A restaurant with good food and excellent service will likely be more successful than a restaurant with excellent food with poor service

What can Web 2.0 marketers learn from your best, and worst, restaurant experiences?

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