Sunday, February 27, 2011

Hungry For Delivery.

Growing up, I anxiously looked forward to Friday nights. Yes, school was out for the weekend, but there was much more to look forward to --delivery Fridays! Although the options were limited to pizza, chinese-food, or fried-chicken, it sure was fun. 


I recall being the one who would fetch the paper menus from the same drawer we kept the Yellow and White Pages in, spend 30 minutes arguing with my sisters over what we would order to later have to obtain approval from the "accounting department", Mom. After approval from Mom, we would place order and 30 to 45 minutes later, "Ding-Dong!"


Now, flash forward Twenty some years later and the game of ordering delivery has dramatically changed. Let's approach this from the perpective of yours truly, a single male in his late twenties. It's a weeknight, you're home from work, you're hungry, and you realize you haven't gone grocery shopping or you're too tired to cook. In marketing we call this Desire Recognition and Desire Development --I'm hungry and what do I do about it. Naturally the next step is NOT towards the drawer containing the Yellow pages, no. There is no such drawer in my home, rather I proceed to my laptop. When I open my browser, like most people, Facebook is my startup page, and there are already "timely" ads featuring local take-out and delivery joints; we call this Desire Fulfillment




As a self-proclaimed foodie, I already have a select number of establishments I frequently order delivery from but every now and then, I'll log on to Yelp, type in "restaurants" and receive both sponsored results and organic results for relevant local restaurants to choose from, many of which has a website from which you can browse the menu, add your order to your shopping cart, pay, and 30 to 45 minutes later, "Ding-Dong"!


In terms of social media having an impact in the ultimate outcome of what we decide to consume, Lenny’s Sub Shop, a Memphis, Tennessee–based sandwich chain, launched a Facebook promotion on Monday February 21st that has so far tripled the company’s Facebook fan count and its orders.


According to a report from Berkeley Media Studies Group, Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing: Targeting Children and Youth in the Digital Age, "intereactive food and beverage marketing must be viewed within the broader context of the changing nature of advertising and marketing. The rapid growth of the Internet and proliferation of digital media are fundamentally transforming how corpo­rations do business with young people in the twenty-first century. As food and beverage companies announce changes in their TV advertising, they have already begun to shift their marketing into a broad array of new-media efforts."


There is no doubt that the way we order delivery, among other things has dramatically changed over the years and this shift in how we consume is increasingly influenced by social media, Game Theory Marketingand interactive food and beverage marketing. E-marketing is here to stay, ready to point you in the appropriate direction the next time you're hungry and down for some delivery.


Cheers, 


Sources:
Digitalads.org
QSR
Forbes

3 comments:

  1. I myself can relate to the take out Friday! We would spend hours deciding where to go!Now, I also use yelp. Depending on the location I am, and what I am craving as well as the others I am with (Desire development). I recognize I am hungry and we then decide what exactly we want to eat. Now it is much easier than before. In a moment I can separate things by types of foods, by location, etc with my cell phone. Technology has made our process a smother, more detailed process . It's amazing! A couple days ago I "yelped" the nearest Mexican restaurant and it said if I checked-in at the location, I would get 10% off!

    Amazing!

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  2. I couldn't help laughing when reading this post. Does the city even delivers the yellow pages anymore? Today I order pizza and not only I was able to search on the Internet for special deals and nearby locations, but I was also able to order my pizza on my phone. I got to pick the ingredients I wanted and pay it on my phone as well. They delivered 35 minutes later and I did not have to talk t anyone during the whole process. This new way of using the Internet is very useful for consumers. In the other hand, people's interactive communication is decreasing with the Internet. Just like I didn't have to talk to anyone when I order my pizza, many other companies will soon start with same concept.

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  3. Hi Ray, I can completely relate to your blog post. My family for years has kept one drawer in the kitchen just for takeout menus, and our refrigerator is full of restaurant magnets. Although I prefer to order food via the internet because it can be faster my parents still prefer to pull out a menu form the kitchen drawer and make their orders over the phone. I understand why my parents prefer to an order over the phone and that’s because sometimes placing an order online can take longer. The reasons why it might take longer are if you’re a first time user and have to register to the website, you press the back bottom by accident which deletes all your information, the internet goes out unexpectedly and younger people sometimes don’t have a credit card to pay for the order. I personally have had everything I have just stated happen to me which can be a little irritating when you’re trying to do something faster. So I have to admit that form time to time I prefer to just taking that old restaurant menu out and calling over the phone. By the way your post has seriously mad me hungry. :)

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