The use of Websites for Advertising and Marketing Purposes in Restaurants to Cut Costs of Operations in new Zealand (Essay Sample)

Electronic Media Analysis
Name
Institution affiliation
Electronic Media Analysis
Introduction
In the recent years, many organizations in the tourism and hospitality sector in New Zealand have adopted electronic commerce and information technology (Chan, 2000). The internet has provided the platform for hosting large amounts of information regarding tourism and hospitality industry. Consequently, many restaurants have set up websites to reach as many online users as possible. Such websites help the restaurant to tap the vast online market, obtain bookings and inform their current and potential customers of available and new products and services. Additionally, websites provides such restaurants with both local and international customers, offers interactive and personal access to their marketing and promotion messages (Coviello, et. al 2003). The use of websites for advertising and marketing purposes has also helped the restaurants to cut costs of operations. Overall, large amounts of money have been used in setting up restaurant websites, development and maintenance of the online websites. The main purpose of these websites is to capture the online users, attracting and retaining customers and ensuring personal interaction. The restaurants also carry out online sales of products and services thus increasing the traffic to their premises. Evaluation of these websites is also paramount to ensure continuous improvements and assess the performance of the website in relation to the online traffic, effectiveness of the marketing and sales functions and the tracking of the general performance of the website (Coviello, et. al 2003).
Sidart restaurant is ranked among the best restaurants in New Zealand. The restaurant provides fine dining and good food to all its customers. Sidart has received several awards for innovativeness in cuisines and the best chef across the state. Additionally, the restaurant is known for its sophisticated, formal food and affordable prices. In order to tap into the global online market, the restaurant invested on a comprehensive website that provides all the information for the existing and potential customers both locally and internationally. This paper will analyze the Sidart Restaurant website in relation to the information provided, ways in which the website communicates with the customers, the effects of the website on the business and the effectiveness of the exploitation of the online market.
Key issues of the case
Sidart Restaurant has adopted the use of an interactive website in order to expand its reach for customers and at the same time reduce the transaction expenditures in connecting with current and potential customers. The website also plays an important role in enhancing revenues and profitability through effective advertising, marketing and sales activities. The website has formed a powerful marketing tool that exploits the effectiveness in e-marketing across the globe (Attaran, 2003). The restaurant has also invested in developing a coherent website strategy that included efficient website design and ensuring effective web presence. Developers of the Sidert restaurant ensured efficiency of the site aimed at achieving the set business goals. The main business goals include attracting and retaining customers, selling the products and services online and increasing the online traffic that translates to additional customers.
It is important for any restaurant to evaluate the effectiveness of own websites. This is because of the significant amount of money and time dedicated to setting up and maintaining the website. However, the effectiveness of a restaurants’ website cannot be measured using online sales. This is because many service-oriented businesses such as hospitality and tourism sites do not generate any revenue from the websites. Such websites are used to advertise the available products and attract existing and potential customers to the actual facility. However, it is important to evaluate a website in order to make the needed improvements and compare the efficiency of the website with that of the competitors. Evaluating the website can also help in comparing the effects of online advertisements and the changes in the traffic flow to and from the actual facility. Additionally, the effectiveness of a restaurants website can be measured by the online traffic, user revisits, audience recall, and customer feedback (Pantelidis, 2010).
A good website
A good restaurant website should establish a web presence through an effective design, graphics and informative content. The website’s design should be attractive to the largest number of users in the internet. This can be done using pictorial displays, virtual tours, user-friendly navigation, and linked web pages such as social websites, example Face book, twitter and instagram (Kwok & Yu, 2013). The design should also accommodate interactive advertising, marketing content, calendar events, assorted information of services and printable menu options. Other good websites should also contain image mapping to information contained in local and remote sites, indirect affiliates and other channel members. Including animation, image and word graphics, audio and video clips in the restaurant website adds to the appeal efforts and attracts more traffic. Photo displays and digital images and videos serve the purpose of attracting new viewers for advertising the products and services provided by the restaurant.
A good website should contain location maps and its hours of operation. This information is important especially for the new and non-regular customers. Additionally, restaurant websites should also contain sample menus, catering price lists, banquet and catered events among other information that promote visitor interests. This provides awareness to the current and potential customers and serves as an incentive. A good website should also provide information on amenities and facilities available (Pantelidis, 2010). This includes the background information on the main buildings the lounge facilities, conference and meeting halls, entertainment sites, among other facilities. A restaurant website should also contain information on food service services such as sports bars, intimate cafes, candlelit dining rooms, private party options and other specialty features of the whole restaurant. A news section in the website is also crucial in providing the site visitors with the news on upcoming events, new menus, and special event organizations among other updates. A good website should also provide a career link that offers a user the opportunity to view available vacancies and give an opportunity to apply (Vaughan & Wu, 2004). This enables a business to increase the chances of acquiring qualified personnel either locally or internationally for a given vacancy.
Ecommerce
E-commerce represents a process of conducting business over electronic structures such as the internet. Restaurants exploit e-commerce platforms to facilitate transaction activities in order to achieve business goals. Using a good website helps companies in reduction of expenditures related to marketing, promotions and direct interaction with the current and potential customers (McKnight, Choudhury & Kacmar, 2002). Many restaurants that use good websites have received positive influence in the growth of customer numbers and revenue. Additionally, e-commerce has helped such restaurants in becoming cost effective and accelerating financial growth. E-commerce works best in the hospitality and tourism industry because it helps in increasing the general access of information. E-commerce helps in online processes such as advertising, promotions, and sales of services. The development of e-commerce and specific use of websites have drastically increased the amount of business conducted in restaurants and other service industries. This entails elimination of physical use of advertising, getting rid of intermediaries such as brokers and other restaurant dealers in the service industry. E-commerce helps in reducing costs of conducting business by eliminating the brokers thus leading to improved profit margins. Additionally, conducting online activities by the restaurants reduces the need for laying physical infrastructures and aids in increasing the geographical coverage thus reaching more people within a short duration of time (McKnight, Choudhury & Kacmar, 2002). E-commerce will also help in offering all customers unlimited access to the restaurants products any time of the day and night. This improves the convenience of both the customers and the restaurant management. Reaching new markets within a short duration using the internet also increases the awareness of the restaurant’s brand name and promotes its products and services.
It is important for a website to link its customers to different social media sites in order to increase the awareness and communication with both existing and potential customers. The use of social media by restaurants helps in creating numerous opportunities to change the traditional modes of conducting restaurant business (Kwok & Yu, 2013). The use of good websites also provides links to social media platforms that increases the online traffic and widens the customer targets. The development of the social media has also taken communication and human interaction to another level with regard to service industry. Social networking entails grouping of individuals with common interests into various clusters while keeping in touch using a website specifically developed for informal interactions. Examples of social media platforms exploited by businesses today include Viber, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Myspace. The social media enables individuals and groups of people to share information regarding current affairs both locally and internationally. The...