Upmarket Restaurants and Motivation to Post Content Online | By Stefanie Wijono and Hilary Murphy

Chart 1: Motivation behind blog posts about up-market restaurants

Chart 2: Motivation behind reviews of up-market restaurants in consumer review sites

Upmarket Restaurants and Motivation to Post Content Online | By Stefanie Wijono and Hilary Murphy

The rise of social media continues with individuals sharing content and opinions, in the form of comments, pictures and video and other new more entrants in the supply market e.g. the arrival of Twitter. This has consequences for traditional marketing tools like advertising and word of mouth, tools that restaurants have traditionally relied on to promote their products and services.

Social media has also gone mobile with applications like Twitter and Facebook, particularly suited to the customer on the move. This user generated content serves as reference points to advice seeking consumers, in the absence of other social cues, providing authenticity, authority and risk- reducing information for the customers. Some food companies have slowly joined these online social spaces, from the small independent bakeries that use Twitter to alert its customers of freshly baked bread (Springwise, 2009) to global chains such as Burger King with its large scale Whopper Sacrifice and Whopper Virgins viral marketing campaigns (Balwani, 2009) using social media.

Recent research at Lausanne Hotel School investigates the content of blogs and consumer review websites in up-market restaurants in Singapore. One key finding shows that the majority of the reviews and blogs are positive in nature, proving that social media is mostly advantageous to these restaurants (see chart 1 and 2 below). Additionally, online content related to high-end restaurants’ focuses more on service, the chef and portion size in comparison to low-end restaurants, where content focuses on price, speed and location. The findings suggest that the main motivations of posting online word-of-mouth about restaurants are to express positive emotions, to benefit other consumers, to achieve “expert status”, to help the company and to vent negative feelings. Motives such as achieving social benefits only apply to blogs and advice-seeking motivations (pre-purchase, as post-purchase is less applicable for restaurants) are more prevalent in up-market restaurants’ reviews websites.

Understanding the motivations behind the conversations online, either in the form of restaurant reviews or any related discussion, is a logical step towards understanding and managing the social media content. For restaurateurs, there can be some positive benefits to provide a means whereby customers can share positive emotions during and after their dining experience. By engaging in conversations online with customers, they can, at least, listen to their customers’ opinions and concerns. Furthermore, it may be a way to let the company influence and manage the conversations about its products and services to their benefit.

Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) offers a university education to students with both talent and ambition, who wish to access leading-edge careers in the hospitality professions at international level. With its emphasis on training the future high achievers of hospitality management, EHL regularly adjusts the content of its three programmes in line with new technologies and market trends. Since its foundation in 1893, Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne has educated over 25,000 hospitality executives, representing today a valuable network of contacts for all the members of the EHL community. 1,800 students from over 80 nations currently enjoy the unique study and living environment of Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne.