"You can do a lot with the presentation but you can't go wrong with the food"

Restaurant business has today become very exciting space to be. From experienced people to start ups all are drenching themselves in this business. Seeing the global ratio of franchising where almost all top brands are franchised and are successfully growing in various counties have given a room to Indian brands to look at the same model. When one looks at opening a restaurant especially in a diverse market like Kolkata they need to get their training right, SOPs right, get a lot of technical people on board to be able to assist them and set up systems, it comes with huge cost.

“If you want to really get it right and you want it to be automatize and then only you can replicate it. Here you do not get too much of choice than to expand to get those cost in place otherwise running one restaurant of 70-100 seater and having all those automatization, training and SOPs in place you will not help you make money,” says Nitin Kohli, Business Head, Neotia Hospitality. So, if one has the vision about running a restaurant they need to understand the scope of expansion and what is their cost to build EBITDA in a better manner. One needs to hedge their investments in different verticals and category so as to earn best of it. One needs to go multi brands keeping the focus right.

Going by the local taste

India is moreover United States of India where every state has its own flavour, own palates and one needs to understand that they can’t please everyone in India. Brands entering India or already operating in India needs to understand what their core products are and focus on certain markets and cities despite of going pan India. “We can’t close our eyes and go to markets where no certain target audience are available. For eg: if you are a chicken based brand and you are planning to enter into Gujarat market which has very niche customer base will be wrong idea but at the same time looking at locations like Hyderabad and Kolkata for that matter will be easy to capture the market,” points Rohit Malhotra, Rohit Malhotra, Business Head-India, Barcelos. Meanwhile, relationship with the franchise partner and with the customer need to be understood on what are you giving to the market and what are you going to get back.

Driving with entrepreneurial skill

“I didn’t follow any rule book neither a rocket science. I was about to leave for Australia for my MBA and I went to my father’s restaurant for 15 days and in that 15 days I inculcated a vision that it has the potential to go far. From there my vision was expansion,” shares Bishal Saha, Proprietor, Kasturi Restaurant & Food Plaza who took his father’s restaurant to make it a brand. “My father taught me few good things that helped me grow this business; don’t serve something which you won’t have, you wants serve to your kid, the taste of the tongue is the same. I only serve food which I like,” adds Saha.

Thus, we can say that food business is all about expansion. If your brand is doing right and you have got the proper mix of the prepositions you are ready to expand.

What all different types of cuisines you have kept in your restaurant menu?

The Chinese Story primarily serves Indo-Chinese cuisine, with a few selected favourites from across the Orient including Thai, Vietnamese, Malay and Japanese.

What all services do you provide in your restaurant under casual dining?

At The Chinese Story, we try to pamper our guests as much as possible without intruding on their privacy. Our staffs are alert and trained to anticipate guest needs. We also have TV, free Wi-Fi and ports to charge mobiles and laptops.

Who are your target customers?

Our location puts us in the vicinity of one of Chennai’s biggest IT hubs with over 50,000 employees in a single campus. There are a number of colleges whose students and their families live in the vicinity of the restaurant. We cater to all of them, providing great food at an affordable price with a comfortable ambience. Most of our dishes need a maximum preparation time of 10 minutes and thus it is ideal for office goers, college students and working people in the area looking for a quick lunch.

How do you see social media as a marketing medium?

Social media and online marketing is one of the major marketing mediums we use to interact with our target audience. We are active on Facebook, Instagram and Zomato. We strongly believe that social media is the primary medium to reach and engage our audience. We are in the process of developing an app as well.

What is your expansion plan?

We plan to open 10 franchise outlets, primarily in tier II and III cities. We also have a kiosk model which we are in the process of implementing; this model has a limited menu and unique packaging that can be consumed on the move, perfect for office goers and people on the move. We have tied up with BPCL in this venture and have positioned our kiosks within their outlets. 

Today, food on social media has become the latest fad. It has brought new food trends, inspired the new age status symbol of having been there and provided free advertisements to restaurants and food joints.

Good food portrayed through appealing pictures online encourages people to try out new restaurants serving foods and cocktails. And as it is turning out as the best way to promote one brand connecting with the millennials, who rely more on the number of reviews and photos posted online rather than word of mouth. The online visual content is high in demand as it has enticing photos on website across various social media platforms and it has become an essential part of the promotion. And with apps like Instagram and Facebook, people today share their memory online. And these pictures are helping in creating a connection between restaurants and their guests.

According to a recent survey in the UK, only 11 per cent between 18-29 year olds feel that food advertising is aimed at them. Therefore, if the brands want to change that number they have to take a different approach. Edelman advised the brands to connect with these consumers, as they eat with their eyes first and “snackable food images are just as important as the content they accompany.”

The young adults live digitally. They share each activity and they won’t eat a meal till they capture it and upload the image of the meal on the Web, sharing it with their friends on social pages.

“Millennials understand technology, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other such platforms like foodpanda which is able to marry all these things. And the food that is being consumed by these advertisements is where a combination is needed to strike the right balance. So it is going to be a more hybrid model and is very exciting,” pointed Dheeraj Gupta, MD, Jumbo King Food Pvt Ltd.

Nature of Market

The power of social food is spreading to marketing. With this, restaurants have started displaying their menu on these social pages inviting people to spread their brand for free, banking high on growth. And as the industry is soaring with competition among restaurants, one has to give 100 per cent to be successful.

According to experts, restaurants should have unique marketing ideas and strategies which can improve the business and get attention from ‘hungry eyes’ everywhere. “The Business is growing huge because of the millennial eating habit and taste, which has changed, as they are well travelled and seeking adventurous platter who have more belief on food porn,” shared Zorawar Kalra, MD & Founder, Massive Restaurants Pvt. Ltd.

The trends of casual and family dining are the ones that are feeling the constant pressure from the attack of so-called fast casual chains. Casual dining restaurants usually serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and the restaurant staffs provide full service. The food usually takes longer to prepare and serve, compared to fast casual chains and the restaurant does not offer a drive-through ordering facility.

“Everyone wants to share things online and the young generation wants the content for their page,” said Vikrant Batra, Owner, Cafe Delhi Heights.

There are a lot of people addicted to pulling out their cell phones to take snapshots of the creative food like greasy burgers, frothy mochas and picturesque cupcakes they eat, while out in the town. Vaibhav Kumaravel, Partner, The Chinese Story shared, “The news spreads on social media so fast that you can probably become the star of the night.”

Now there are many restaurants that started promoting at an official Instagram menu also, but other joints have also embraced the photo-sharing network. The idea of using the hashtag is actually for observing how many people pulled out their mobile phones once their plates hit the table. Even the well-known chefs and popular restaurants are enthusiastically interacting with their customers on social networking sites and making it memorable.