One Smart Cookie Marketing» Beverage Companies

Dine out – save a life

Karen Rosenzweig — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:31:00 +0000

Today I stumbled across a reminder about a great organization/event for restaurants looking for a way to give back to the community – and really, shouldn’t we all be doing that?

The event is called Dining Out For Life, and it’s produced by the Lifelong Aids Alliance, which provides a variety of care services to people living with HIV/AIDS and other illnesses.

Now in its 17th year, Dining Out For Life takes place Thursday, April 29 in Seattle. To support this worthy cause, all you have to do is dine at a participating restaurant, grocery store, cafe, or bakery on this day, and 30% of your purchases will be donated to Lifelong AIDS Alliance, and the fight against illness and hunger in our community. There’s also a special prize drawing for two free tickets on Alaska Airlines, for those that dine at a participating restaurant that day.

There are about 90 local merchants signed up already — we can do much better than that! – and you can view the entire list here. I’ve already forwarded the information to all my clients (and several others!) and I encourage you to do the same. This is a great opportunity for restaurants to help their communities and build goodwill with their customers. As they say, it’s a “win-win” for everyone.

For more information, contact Trevor DeWitt at 206.957.1638 or TrevorD@llaa.org to sign up your restaurant today! Individuals can also participate as a volunteer. I hope to see you out and about April 29!

FROM DOFL: Dining Out For Life® is an annual fundraising event involving the generous participation of volunteers, corporate sponsors and restaurants. In exchange for their financial support, restaurants are listed in a city wide marketing campaign in an effort to increase customer traffic.

In 1991, Dining Out For Life® was created by an ActionAIDS volunteer in Philadelphia. Dining Out is now produced in over 55 cities throughout the United States and Canada.

More than 3,500 restaurants donate a portion of their proceeds from this one special night of dining to the licensed agency in their city. Nearly $4 million dollars a year is raised to support the missions of agencies throughout North America. With the exception of the annual licensing fee of $1,000, all money raised in these cities stays there.

The value of a Tweetup for restaurants

Karen Rosenzweig — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:53:47 +0000

Do you remember where you met your significant other? Do you remember how you found your favorite restaurant or bar or hangout? For most of us, the answer is yes or at least “I’m pretty sure it was…” Okay, that’s good enough for the purpose of this column!

My point is that meeting places are significant in a number of ways, and venues offer opportunities to people to connect on many different levels. As a restaurant, you represent a meeting place, a venue, a connection place for people to develop relationships – not only with each other, but with you.

And there we have the point of a Tweetup, and the reason it should matter to you as a restaurant, bar, winery, etc. A Tweetup is a scheduled, casual social event for people on Twitter to meet up; thus the phrase “tweetup”! Many people that know each other on Twitter have never met in person - yet – and you get to be the good guy by providing the means to get them face to face and build a better relationship.

As a restaurant, hosting a Tweetup offers you a number of benefits:

Appetizers are good Tweetup food!

The opportunity for people to visit you for the first time (“I’ve been meaning to eat there someday…”)
A chance to deepen your relationship with current customers and build a loyal clientele
Establish yourself as the “hot spot” for happy hour or lunch meetings or whatever status you are hoping to gain
Create goodwill by providing a venue for a like-minded community (Twitterers!) to meet, often for the first time, in a relaxing, welcoming place
Help build community and encourage networking – later those very people will bring back their meetings and parties to your venue, because of how hospitable you were and because they’ve seen a fun, successful event there
Increased exposure and visibility for you – when these Twitterers are in your restaurant, they’ll likely be “tweeting” out messages about the food, the venue, the people, etc. which can add up to a constant two-hour “commercial” for your business. And many have blogs and websites where they will later write about their experience, giving you further attention

So, you might wonder, what do you need to offer for the Tweetup to be successful?

A private room is nice, but at least a designated area in your restaurant for the group to mingle freely and not interfere with your other clientele
A few complimentary food items are always nice, but at the very least, offer special pricing on beverages and/or snacks. These people have come to meet each other, but also would like to sample your food too (and they aren’t there to critique it!)
A dedicated server is helpful, to show that you value the group and want to be sure they are taken care of
If your owner is onsite, have them come out and welcome everyone, talk about the establishment and answer any questions. It’s also a huge bonus to have the chef come out to say hello, chat about the food and just be visible even for a few moments
Consider offering a discount coupon for a future visit – you have a group of captive, hopefully happy (!) customers, and if you hand them a reason to return with more friends, it’s good for everyone
Nametags! Remember, we only know each other by our Twitter names (@incrediblechef) and we may not recognize faces right away

To give you a real-life example of how Tweetups can work, I was invited by Barbara Evans (@SeattleWineGal on Twitter) to a recent Tweetup at Alexandria Nicole Cellars. I had never visited that winery (bonus #1), I’d been anxious to meet the very effective Twitter fiend SeattleWineGal (bonus #2) and there were 10-12 other active wine/food enthusiasts attending that I hadn’t met but knew from Twitter (bonus #3). And I must add, there was a major “strike 1″ in addition to the 3 bonuses - the Tweetup was scheduled on an NFL playoff day! And being the huge football fan I am, it took A LOT to convince me to leave the TV that day, but the 3 bonuses (above) – and gentle nudging to “get a life” – won out. And I’m so glad it did.

The winery earned great exposure with a smart group of enthusiasts that are vocal on a very public forum (Twitter), so the PR gain there was huge! Plus ANC was able to give us some behind-the-scenes info and educate us about all the great things they offer. And to top it all off, they invited Rob Williamson, the general manager of Russell’s Dining & Bar, to tantalize us with appetizers from his restaurant, specifically created to pair with each wine – how’s that for added value?!

Everyone came out a winner in this Tweetup, and it’s only one example of the opportunities out there by hosting Tweetups.

Next week (Feb 2) I’m hosting a Tweetup with Epulo Bistro in Edmonds, so we can continue to build better face-to-face community in our little seaside town – many people attending do ”follow” each other on Twitter but have never actually met. So Epulo has the opportunity to provide that meeting venue for us, entertain us, get to know us, and most likely, to earn our ongoing patronage. And that is something most of us will remember for awhile…(see first paragraph!)

So tell me, what do you think makes a good Tweetup? What have you like about past Tweetups you’ve attended and what would make them better? We’re all ears (below)

Good things come to those that Tweet – 2009 review

Karen Rosenzweig — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:23:28 +0000

It’s that time to review highlights of the past year, and it’s very easy for me to identify the overarching bright shiny object for me – Twitter!

I reluctantly and skeptically entered the Twitterverse March 18, 2009 (I checked!), largely due to the advice from one of my highly respected advisor/friends, Betsy Talbot. The thought of expanding my personal chef business through this 140-character universe was intriguing and promising, but I ended up with something much different.

The short version is that I quickly identified a much better use of Twitter than I expected - by combining my former public relations background (15+ years) with my personal chef knowledge and experience (5+ years), I could help restaurants and food companies build their businesses in a powerful way. And off I went!

Without all the gory details of the ups and downs as I learned to use this fascinating – often time-sucking! – social media tool, it’s been a career-changing discovery that’s been an amazing surprise every day. I’ve met fascinating people, learned about incredible events, discovered cool products and generally felt my whole world grow exponentially.

So, I’d like to present a few quick highlights from the past year on Twitter – and I apologize to anyone in advance that I may have forgotten, overlooked or snubbed (ha!). If you ask me, I’ll just tell you that you were #6 on my list…

The Homegrown sustainable sandwich shop in Fremont

I Like The Way You Tweet (restaurant division)

I Like The Way You Tweet (non-resto division)

Chef Wayne Johnson, Andaluca

Cool People I Never Thought I’d Meet in Person

(but I did after “meeting” them on Twitter)

Great Advisors or Role Models in Building My Twitter Biz

Who doesn't love a Big Gay Ice Cream Truck? Too bad it's in NYC...

These Tweeps Are Having Way Too Much Fun (national division)

These Tweeps Are Having Way Too Much Fun (local division)

Always An Entertaining and/or Helpful Read

Try a Naughty Nellie at The Pike!

You Are What You Tweet (companies I’ve consulted with)

You Are What You Tweet (actual clients of mine)

The free-spirit Married With Luggage team - Betsy and Warren Talbot

Good Friends I love to follow

And there you have it…a look back at my Twitter world in 2009. I’ve posted nearly 3,000 tweets (okay, that does sound like a lot…) and have nearly 1,000 followers. I’m so excited for what 2010 and beyond will bring, and I look forward to meeting many more exciting people along the way.

Please leave any comments on your “top categories”, or additions/omissions from my lists or just to say whatever the heck you want! Happy New Year to all!

Perfect event for "non-Twittering" restaurants, chefs, food-companies!

Karen Rosenzweig — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:24:44 +0000

YOU ARE WHAT YOU TWEET!
Using Twitter as your recipe for online success

Monday, October 19, 2009
Mayflower Park Hotel, Seattle
6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
$50 for early-bird registrations (by Oct. 9); $65 after Oct. 9/at the door (if space available)
http://youarewhatyoutweet.eventbrite.com/

As a restaurant, chef or food company, do you dream of:

Being “the” neighborhood destination for socializing, eating and drinking
Connecting with customers and your community
Making more money
Multiplying repeat business
Making frequent customers feel special
Attracting a steady stream of new customers
Getting name recognition for making delicious food

If so, we have an event for you! Using the micro-blogging tool “Twitter”, you can accomplish all these things and more! This is a customized event for restaurants, chefs, wineries, breweries, and food-related companies that are not using Twitter – but that are pretty sure they should be! If you are scared, curious, skeptical or not sure about what Twitter can do for your business or how to get started then this is the event for you!

You’ll hear success stories and sage advice from featured panelists:

Chef Wayne Johnson, Andaluca Restaurant
Nancy Leson, Seattle Times Food & Restaurant Writer
Linda Stratton, Asst. Marketing Director, Pike Brewing Company
Clay Loges, Taste and Tweet/CEO of Yodio.com
Moderator and Presenter – Karen Rosenzweig, Incredible Chef/Social Media Strategist

We’ll show you how using Twitter effectively can deliver:

“Talk of the Town” status
Access to your customers through engaging conversations and feedback
Full restaurants/stores with adoring fans
Loyal customers as you provide inside info and/or special offers
“Raving Fans” by acknowledging and interacting with your customers
New customers attracted by recommendations and special promotions
Positive feedback about your food in a highly visible and viral platform

And the end result of this event? You’ll be inspired and motivated to take the plunge and join us on Twitter, thus creating a more robust community for all of us in the Puget Sound food scene. Information will be provided on programs available to help you start Tweeting! We look forward to seeing you there!

TO REGISTER: http://youarewhatyoutweet.eventbrite.com/

Hosted by the Mayflower Park Hotel and Andaluca Restaurant

Food and beverages provided by: Andaluca Restaurant, Woodhouse Family Winery, Buchanan Chocolate

http://youarewhatyoutweet.eventbrite.com/

Tour Seattle like an insider

Karen Rosenzweig — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:51:59 +0000

I’ve always wanted to be like those characters on the old TV show “Cheers”, or to be more specific, I wanted what the theme song promised “you want to go where everybody knows your name”.

And so that is why I now want to be Angela Shen (right) when I grow up. Seriously. As the founder of the nationally-celebrated Savor Seattle Food Tours, she can’t seem to go anywhere (at least in the downtown Seattle food world) without everyone greeting her, hugging her, giving her food – you get the picture. You can feel the love a mile away.

It is this “feeling” that helped propel me into my recently-launched Social Media for foodies business, because I am all about enjoying great food, being connected with the purveyors and enjoying the flavor of Seattle. Angela has that. I want it. And you can get it by going on one of her tours. Follow along…

I have known Angela for several years through a local networking organization (BNI) and I have watched her grow her seedling business from a solely-owned and operated one-tour pony into an eight-employee, multi-tour Triple Crown threat (excuse the horse racing analogy; that’s another of my many past lives). She has been celebrated in Bon Appetit magazine, USA Today, and Frommers Travel Guide. But, believe it or not, I had never actually been on the tour until recently, when I signed up for the Gourmet Food & Cultural Tour.

I gathered along with 7 other hungry tour-ists (but not all tourists!) at the Mayflower Park Hotel lobby, set for our three-hour tour of 8 delicious food establishments in the downtown area. We were outfitted with sound equipment, which I was skeptical of at first, but later found out was essential given the noise on downtown streets and in some of the bustling restaurants.

First stop – Andaluca and one of my favorite chefs, Wayne Johnson. Chef Wayne, who recently celebrated his 10th anniversary at Andaluca, paired an amazing crispy duck cake and apricot chutney (left) paired with a glass of sangria – a perfect way to start our afternoon trek! The marriage of flavors in the duck cake – which is perhaps the only of its kind in the area – was marvelous, and we were off to a wonderful start.

Along the short walk to our second stop, Angela filled us in on a bit of Seattle trivia and history (Doc Maynard, brothels, etc), most of which seemed new to me, even though I grew up here! But it was presented in a fun, lively, informative way that made me feel just like one of the tourists, here for a sunny afternoon tour.

Our second stop – Serious Pie. Not as in “dessert” but pizza made withserious ingredients. The chef appeared from the hot kitchen to describe their version of pizza, which ain’t your daddy’s pizza! The crust is incredibly light and thin, as a result of using a slightly wetter dough and cooking it longer (7-9 minutes) at a lower temperature (680 degrees) than their competitors (2-3 minutes at 1000-1300 degrees). This gives the crust a tasty slight char on the bottom, witha beautiful “structure” that features amazing toppings such as buffalo mozzarella with San Marzano tomatoes, or roasted chantarellemushrooms with italian black truffle cheese – wow!

In addition, Serious Pie’s other “secret” is to cook the pie until nearly done BEFORE adding the cheese – that way the cheese doesn’t burn or really even cook at all, but melts beautifully to maintain its artisanal structure. They also cure their own meat, make their own dough, buy all ingredients locally – and then do as little to them as possible. Seriously perfect.

Then it was time for more Seattle history – timber town, wooden buildings, the fire, “seamstresses” and taxes – you’ll have to take the tour to find out what that all means! So we came to the third stop at Il Bistro, a charming candle-lit restaurntin a cave-like space next to Pike Place Market. We tasted a creamy saffron risotto withmussels and clams, paired with a San Giovese (right) – buono! We also discovered an important fact – Il Bistro offers one of the best Happy Hour deals in town -there are 15-17 items on the menu with half-size portions at about 1/4 of the regular price! Note to self – return here many more times!

Then we made an unscheduled stop at the famous Pike Place Fish – where Angela is CLEARLY a favorite daughter! – and she arranged an impromptu fish-tossing moment for a couple on the tour who were celebrating their anniversary. The wife made a beautiful catch (above) while her husband documented it perfectly on his trusty camera. Nice touch, Angela!

Next stop was Creminelli Fine Meats, actually inside the Market, where we sampled several fabulous handmade artisan salamis and sausages (right). Then it was time for the longest stop on the tour, the Pike Brewing Company, where we were treated to a fascinating tour and great education from our vivacious tour guide Abil! We then sampled a couple of beer/cheese pairings, the best of which was the Tandem Double Ale and Beechers Flagship cheese - a combo that will be served at many future parties in my home!

The last two stops satisfied our sugar cravings, as we visited Fran’s Chocolates and Gelatiamo. Fran’s, located in the Four Seasons hotel, sampled four chocolates for us, including a pair of the amazing salted caramels – simply a must-try if you’ve never had one! My favorite is the dark chocolate gray salt version, but I wouldn’t turn down the milk chocolate smoked salt variety either!

The Gelatiamo gave us – unexpectedly – my favorite moment of the tour. Why, you ask? While Angela only planned to take us downstairs to see the machines that crank out the luscious gelato and sorbetto every day (always at least 16 flavors!), we were treated to an impromptu appearance by the owner Maria Coassin, an authentic Italian if there ever was one! All at once, she was gracious, apologetic, edgy, proud and generous about her products – which is EXACTLY what I want from a food tour! I want to see the raw emotion of the chef/owner and experience their passion for their food, even if it’s by showing us a fallen cake that wasn’t “perfect”, all while dishing it up for us to sample anyway! I heard her speak of her love for what she does, the many trips back to Italy to learn and return with new inspiration, and her devotion to a perfect product for her customers.

I’m feeling a little hungry now, how about you? And did I mention the $65 tour fee includes a handout with recipes, restaurant details AND a special discount card for 10-15% off products/services at more than 40 downtown merchants (including those on the tour)?

So there you go – an insiders tour of Seattle, giving you the “everyone knows my name” insights and discounted services to boot! I dare you to resist!

Twitterpated about food

Karen Rosenzweig — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:33:47 +0000

Twitterpated? Yes, Twitterpated.

In the Disney movie “Bambi“, the friend Owl explains “Nearly everybody gets twitterpated…you’re walking along, minding your own business. You’re looking neither to the left, nor to the right, when all of a sudden you run smack into a pretty face. Woo-woo! You begin to get weak in the knees. Your head’s in a whirl. And then you feel light as a feather, and before you know it, you’re walking on air.”

Yup, I was minding my own (personal chef) business and I was abruptly Twitterpated by the “pretty face” of food and social media! For the past few months, I’ve been immersed in all things Twitter, following food bloggers, chefs, restaurants, food companies, critics – you name it. I’m completely Twitterpated with the incredible possibilities for food-related companies and I want to help.

You may wonder, why should food companies use Twitter? And my response is, why shouldn’t they?

As Scott Ginsberg, of “Name Tag Scott” fame says, “Be out in the marketplace with your ideas or be OUT OF the marketplace completely.” If you are a food-related company and you are not on Twitter now, you are invisible, to a degree, and here’s why.

It’s an incredible opportunity to turn what has been a monologue for restaurants et al into a dialogue with their community, current customers, future customers, media, etc. Food-related companies can now interact in an even more personal way and open up avenues for new business, along with increasing trust and loyalty.

For example, here are three key “wins” in using Twitter:

Visibility: Twitter is a great way to meet new customers who don’t know you yet, especially if you can do business outside your local area. You can also create stronger bonds with current customers, and offer special deals to drive traffic to your website or storefront. And, if your competitors are on Twitter, shouldn’t you be there too?

Opportunity: Twitter allows you to stay on top of industry trends and observe your competition (see above!). It also provides quick and inexpensive market research, giving you insight on what your customers think and want. Forget the expensive and time-intensive focus groups – ask your Tweeple (Twitter followers) and get answers now!

ROI: Twitter allows you to create considerable “buzz” for your company and positive, rapid word-of-mouth credibility, virtually for free. This is a hot topic of debate, since while the Twitter technology itself is free, there is the cost in time and effort for someone to manage it. However, many would point out that most companies already have marketing staff and expense, and this is just a reallocation of their focus. And the ROI on a free tool is pretty much “sky’s the limit”!

As my friend and business coach Sara Yao, recently pointed out, the relationship in this type of marketing effort is best seen as “correlation not causation”. At the end of the month, if your sales are up 50%, aren’t you happy - wherever that came from? Of course you’d like to know the exact source so you can replicate it, but you can’t accurately track advertising now (billboards, ad, tv) as it is. At least with Twitter you can use code words to track traffic and sales through special offers and the like. While you might not be able to finger Twitter as the “causation” of all these sales, it’s certainly “correlated!”

In my Twitterpated state, I could go on and on about this topic, but I think you get the point! And I’d like to close with a brilliant excerpt from a recent Wired article by Joshua Davis. While the content had to do with “whether to friend your boss on Facebook”, I think it’s a perfect analogy to why you – the food company- should even be on Twitter (and other social media for that matter)

“If the rules of the jungle are any guide, you should definitely follow the Twitter feeds of all your superiors. Dominant monkeys occasionally send out troopwide alerts (i.e., yelps and screams) about the state of the jungle. Sometimes it’s information about predators; other times it’s about the direction the troop will move that day. The expectation is that all of these pronouncements will be duly noted, and we all know that leaders can get extremely angry if they are not heeded. Our closest animal ancestors laid down the law—we have no choice but to follow.”

Now, you know I’m not calling us all monkeys (!), but you get the drift – you need to know what’s going on in your jungle! So tell me now, why aren’t you on Twitter?? And if you are, please share a success story from your efforts below.