May 20, 2008 at Chateau Elan, Braselton, GA. For more information, visit www.southernfoods.com.

May 20, 2008. For more information, visit www.garestaurants.org.

May 19-20, 2008 throughout Gwinnett. For more information, visit www.gcvb.org/restaurantweek.

May 18, 2008 at Zoo Atlanta. For more information, visit www.zooatlanta.org, or call 404-624-5820.

May 17- 20, 2008 at McCormick Place, Chicago, IL. For more information, visit www.restaurant.org.

Marketing With Technology

May/June 2008

By Joye Hopkins

For business owners, connecting to customers is a top priority. The ongoing evolution of internet technology makes it easier and cheaper for restaurateurs to reach their target customers. More and more owners and chefs are learning to put email marketing, the internet, customer databases, blogs and social media to work for them. The ultimate goal of marketing with technology is to maximize customer information while minimizing inconvenience and intrusion for loyal customers.

BUILDING A BASE

“Deciding how you will use customer information and building a foundation for collecting and storing that data is the first step to any database-driven marketing program,” explains Stacie Hanna, an independent marketing and public relations consultant. While Hanna was the Director of Marketing for Buckhead Life Restaurant Group (BLRG) launching an e-mail marketing program was one of her first major projects.

“First, we analyzed our objectives and how the program could help us accomplish them. One important goal was to build our customer database for regular e-mail communications and for other direct marketing programs. Then, we found a technology partner to help us build the back-end functionality,” says Hanna. “It’s important to consider a program like as a part of an overall marketing strategy – especially in the context of what else you are doing to boost your presence with customers online.”

Starting with a relatively small list of customer e-mail addresses collected in various ways, Buckhead Life Restaurant Group sent an e-mail offering a $25 Ultimate Card as incentive for joining the company’s new e-mail program. Signing up for the program and receiving the incentive required guests to input information about themselves into an online database. It also encouraged viral growth by allowing recipients to forward the invitation to friends and families. Within a week, more than 20,000 people had signed up for the e-mail program – an astounding response by any measure. “The key to the long-term success of the program was to use the customer information respectfully, with relevance,” says Hanna. The program launched in 2001 and still remains a powerful marketing resource for the restaurant group.

Buckhead Life Restaurant Group’s Ultimate Gift Card

Restaurant owners want to collect information not only from a la carte diners but also from patrons at private parties and special events. Customer comment cards are another option from directing individuals to your website. Whenever possible, secure a second piece of identity information, such as a birthday or anniversary. And clearly, in this internet age, obtaining a customer’s email address is key. Once this information is obtained, the restaurant employee can enter the details and preferences into the database. “Ask for contact information in whatever ways are appropriate for your business whether offering a card at the table, providing the ability to sign up online or when a guest calls for reservations,” adds Hanna. “It’s important to respect the customer’s privacy and priorities. Some will eagerly offer a few minutes to share information but others may be turned off. It’s best to offer multiple avenues to suit a variety of preferences.” Tell your customers that you appreciate their loyalty and would like to add them to your database. Ask customers to fill out “keep in touch” cards, so that you will be able to keep them informed.

More and more restaurants are using mutually beneficial online reservation companies such as Open Table (www.opentable.com). From the customer’s standpoint, Open Table is an easy way to check on current availability and reserve a table. And a booking automatically provides the restaurant with the customer’s name and email address.

IMPROVING THE SEARCH

Like it or not, the internet has become a vital part of doing business. In order to maximize opportunities via the web, restaurants must focus on designing and updating their web presence, ensuring search engine optimization. Chief Experience Officer of Sherpa Web Studios (www.sherpawebstudios.com) David Felfoldi explains, “there are a number of tricks to improve your web presence. Most restaurant websites are in a flash format, which allows for fancy visuals and multimedia. That may create an appealing atmosphere, but it is bad for search engines and your website might be overlooked during a search, in favor of another non-flash option. Also, whenever possible, the restaurant name should match the domain name. Finally, content is king. If your key phrase isn’t in the website content, then your site won’t be listed.”

MAKING IT WORK FOR YOU

Once customer information is gathered, it needs to be used in ways that are most beneficial to your restaurant. “Obtaining the customer’s name and email is important for general communication but when possible figure out how else you can serve them,” says Hanna. “Find out if a weekend a la carte customer is also the person who organizes the monthly luncheon or dinner events for his firm.”

The use of gift cards has increased dramatically in the last few years. Consider sending out promotional gift cards specifically to people who have employees of their own. Look for ways to tie promotions and events into opportunities for collecting information, such as offering gift cards that require activation, typically entering the user’s name and email, before being used. Ned Barker is the General Manager and Partner of My Panini, an Atlanta restaurant focused on lunchtime catering and office delivery in addition to serving their eat-in breakfast and lunch crowds. Barker explains “we promote our gift cards on the website. People then use the website to order a card, and activate them online. Once we have their email address, we send them a monthly newsletter with events and promos. Sometimes we add more credit to the gift cards, like on their birthday.”

BACK TO THE CUSTOMERS

The final, and most important stage of the marketing cycle is effectively communicating back to the customers. Once the database is established, customized emails are a good way to let customers know about any particular off-the-menu specials, events or other features.

Hanna also mentions the power of partners, “it is wise to form partnerships with other businesses who have a similar customer base. For example, a high-end restaurant and a high-end boutique located next to each other can cross-market by inviting customers to events, such as a shopping event at the boutique, catered by the restaurant. ” My Panini puts this into practice by working with Atlanta’s Eon Condominiums. For their Earth Day promotion they are handing out My Panini gift cards. Positive publicity and exposure increases for everyone involved.

Personal recognition also can have a very positive effect in the restaurant industry. Customers enjoy getting to know the staff and management, and vice versa. “People like to be recognized and they are more willing to part with their information if it ultimately gives them a better dining experience,” adds Hanna. Recognition often leads to a more personal touch from the restaurant’s staff, perhaps a better table and better service. However, it is important to strike a balance between what is appropriate and what quickly becomes too much. In this fast-paced information age, people can be a bit guarded with their personal information. And the type of restaurant plays a factor as well. Blanket marketing, especially at the fine dining level, can have a negative effect. Respectful subtlety is key.

Many restaurateurs hire professional mass email marketing firms such as Fishbowl Marketing (http://www.fishbowl.com/), Constant Contact (http://www.constantcontact.com/) or Atlanta’s Trend Influence, the company that initially helped Buckhead Life launch its program. Fishbowl’s Chief Marketing Officer Michael Murray explains “the restaurant business is the largest single industry that has very little real access to the consumers. Once they leave your restaurant, the connection is lost. Putting your restaurant name in front of your customer can lead to people in the seats.”

Fishbowl Marketing’s customized email.

Octane (www.octanecorp.com) is another company that helps people connect with their customers in an interactive setting. Social media is the latest trend in internet marketing and involves such sites as Facebook and MySpace. “The new potential is to connect with people daily and expose them to your promotions throughout the day, rather than just with a monthly email,” explains Brandon Sutton, president of Octane Interactive. By all accounts, internet-related marketing is fast becoming the most efficient way to connect to an increasing percentage of your customers.

Three top marketing and public relations professionals were asked: “What one piece of advice would you provide to a restaurant about marketing?” Here were their responses.

Melissa Libby of Melissa Libby and Associates

• Be open to new opportunities.
• Participate in community events.
• Find a non-profit organization that you care passionately about and focus your giving there.

Mary Reynolds of The Reynolds Group

• Great marketing always begins within the four walls of the restaurant.
• Skilled and defined hiring practices, excellent training, education and mentoring of your team should be the number one “marketing” initiative for restaurant owners and chefs.

Dean Trevelino of Trevelino Keller Communications Group

• Build a Marketing Calendar. Every restaurant needs to develop an annualized marketing calendar as early in Q1 as possible. Once identified, you can determine where to place your public relations emphasis, your online/social media initiatives, in-store creative and any traditional marketing vehicles such (direct mail, couponing). Also, your marketing calendar should identify your community based initiatives and sponsorships. That calendar should be broken down into several key areas:
• Product Features or Limited Time Offers
• Quantitative milestones
• Seasonal Specials
• Key Celebrations
• Promotions

Understanding the Risk 

May/June 2008

By Chris DiGiorgio, Esq. and Charles Y. Hoff, Esq., Taylor, Busch, Slipakoff&Duma LLP

THE GOVERNMENT WILL NEVER CHECK ME

With so many restaurants in Georgia it would seem Immigration and Customs Enforcement could never visit every restaurant to verify hiring compliance. If you are not in compliance, the issue is not that you may get caught, the issue is what are the penalties and risk if you do.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act employers may hire only persons who are authorized to work in the United States, i.e., citizens and nationals of the United States, legal permanent residents and aliens. The employer must verify the identity and employment eligibility of anyone to be hired and complete the Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9) within 3 business days of the employee starting work. The law requires that the employer view the original documents presented and complete the I-9 form. The I-9 form is to be kept by the employer the entire time the employee is employed and then for a certain period of time after termination.

AVOIDING LIABILITY

Completing the I-9 correctly could protect the employer from liability if an employee has presented false documents. Completing the I-9 with actual or constructive knowledge the documents presented are false does not protect the employer. The failure to complete I-9′s could be constructive knowledge that the employee is not authorized to work in the United States.

RE-VERIFICATION

Any employee that gives you a time limited work authorization document must have their employment verification reverified at the time the work authorization expires. It is critical that the employer create a system for reminding employees about their expiration date and that you obtain the new documentation. 

PENALTIES

Restaurants are a favorite target as evidenced by the following sampling:

• A Chinese restaurant was indicted on federal charges of harboring illegal aliens, and could face up to 10 years in prison, $250,000 fine and forfeiture of property.
• The owner of local restaurant was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for harboring illegal aliens.
• Fifteen illegal alien restaurant workers were arrested as part of an ongoing criminal worksite enforcement investigation.

The following is a partial list of fines and penalties:

• For employers who fail to properly complete, retain, or make I-9 Forms available for inspection, fines range from $100 to $1,100 per individual I-9.
• For employers who knowingly hire or knowingly continue to employ unauthorized workers, civil penalties range from $250 to $11,000 per violation.
• For employers engaging in a pattern or practice of knowingly hiring or continuing to employ unauthorized workers, criminal penalties can be as much as $3,000 per unauthorized employee and/or 6 months of imprisonment.

Is it worth the risk?

May/June 2008

By Pattie Baker

Terroir, most often, refers to the discernible taste of specific characteristics in wines resulting from differing climates, locations and soil. The length of the day, the slope of the land, the mineral content. It all matters. Yet terroir, or a sense of place, can also mean the length of conversations, the meandering slope of memory or the content of relationships. It can mean not just nuance that you taste, but that you feel, deep in your being.

As Georgia’s landscape cascades from the hills of the north to crashing coastline waves, the food changes with the scenery from apple butter, turnip greens and field peas, sweet potatoes and sweet tea, pecans and pit barbecue to shrimp, rice and okra. The majority of traditional southern cooking is derived from its history of the Native Americans, the European colonists, and the African slaves. Yet to say that the cliché of corn grits and peach cobbler sums up Georgia’s terroir would be missing half the equation because Georgia is no longer a land of the past. It is a land of possibility.

Building Flavor from the Ground Up
As Daron “Farmer D” Joffe, creator and director of the biodynamic farm at Hampton Island Preserve near Savannah, says, “farming in Georgia today comes down to two things. One, what do we have to work with? And, two, what do we want to create?” Farmer D has created a southern farm that includes traditional crops as well as ginger, lemongrass, green tea and a tuberous vegetable called dasheen in a nod to the changing flavors of our region. As for terroir, he believes that our state’s predominantly clay soil serves as the mediator between lime and silica, the opposing ends of the soil pH scale.
Angie Mosier, Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Southern Foodways Alliance explains, “to say you are a southern restaurant used to mean that you served only traditional southern dishes. But today, if you’re buying fresh, local ingredients and you are in the south, you are a southern restaurant. The influx of influences from immigrants and others changes our taste, creating something beautiful, interesting and distinct.”

The Southern Foodways Alliance documents the changing heritage of the region for preservation. It has created the Fellowship of Southern Farmers, Artisans, and Chefs in order to foster camaraderie and mentorship, honoring the bounty of the south and the hands that grow, nurture, and interpret each harvest. Two of the three fellowship inductees for 2008 hail from Georgia: Scott Peacock, Chef of Watershed restaurant in Decatur, Georgia, and Jeremy and Jessica Little, artisan cheese makers at Sweetgrass Dairy in Thomasville, Georgia.

Georgeanna Chapman, who served as the administrator for the Fellowship, notes “it is significant that the Fellowship seeks to induct people who practice sustainable farming methods. They help preserve southern food ways by nurturing the land and livestock from which it comes.” The Littles prove this point. Not only do they produce exquisite artisinal cheeses, but their rotational grazing system cares for both the land and the ruminants that allow them to produce their cheese. Says Chapman, “inducting the Littles also speaks to the Fellowship’s embracing an evolving south. Southern cheese makers are a relatively new breed of artisans. Prior to the introduction of the refrigerator, the climate simply didn’t allow for it.”
“People are warming up to a reinterpretation of Southern classics,” says Marc Sommers, Co-Owner of Parsley’s Catering Company. “A lot of chefs are incorporating the diverse face of Georgia in their flavors, and what’s happening is that the result is going beyond fusion, or intentional blending of flavors from different cultures. A new culture is emerging.”
As increasing numbers of chefs and consumers are discovering, if the taste of a place starts in the soil, then, ultimately, that soil must be farmed organically.

“Organic agriculture is essentially a farmer producing crops through a collaborative relationship with the soil,” states Judith Winfrey, Membership Coordinator at Georgia Organics and Partner of Joe Reynolds, Farm Director at Love is Love Farm, a new farm on an old homestead.

Maximizing Georgia Taste, Minimizing Distance
Visit a restaurant like Farm 255 in Athens, Georgia, or The Hil at Serenbe in Palmetto, Georgia, and you don’t have to wonder where the farm-fresh food comes from. At Farm 255, it’s Full Moon Cooperative, an organic farm affiliated with the restaurant and located just a few miles away. No, the restaurant owners don’t own the farm. The farmers own the restaurant.

 

Jason Mann of Full Moon Cooperative/Farm 255

More and more restaurants throughout the state are finding that customers are starting to appreciate what many chefs have always known-local, in-season ingredients have a unique quality to them that cannot be replicated any other way. Call it flavor, like the way Sweet Grass Dairy’s fresh chevre changes from citrusy to tart to woodsy as the grasses change each season on which the goats at this New Zealand-style dairy farm graze. Call it terroir, the unique combination of minerals and nutrients as well as time and place and experience that provide content and context to the food we eat and wine we drink.

Cheese aging at award-winning Sweet Grass Dairy in Thomasville, Georgia.

Paradoxically, consumers are leaving home in record numbers to come to the homes where the foods they love are grown or produced. Agri-tourism, or the offering of tourist-friendly on-farm activities, is booming in Georgia. Corn mazes, bonfires, hayrides and pick-your-own farms get folks out in the fields and help them see first-hand what it means for crops to be “Georgia-grown,” plus it gives farmers ways to build new revenue streams. Wine-tastings, tours and special events at Georgia’s wineries put terroir front and center as the local wine industry continues to explode from Statesboro to Folkston, Concord to Clayton.

I will taste the richness of this soil, this terroir, and the memory of this moment in the sun, and the intention with which I care for my little place of earth. And I will know that I am home.

Pattie Baker publishes FoodShed (foodshed.blogspot.com) and runs a writing studio named Fresh Baked Copy (www.pattiebaker.com). She provided this article for Georgia Organics, a member-supported nonprofit organization working to integrate healthy, sustainable, and locally grown food into the lives of all Georgians (www.georgiaorganics.org).

Carvel Ice Cream’s franchise support team is on a mission to visit roughly 440 Carvel Ice Cream locations to implement six new blended frozen drinks as part of their promise to keep the brand fresh, and maintain a leadership position within the ice cream category. Carvel, the nation’s first retail ice cream franchise, was acquired by FOCUS Brands in late 2001. Since then, they have been committed to promoting innovation to keep the 74-year-old brand current and relevant in the evolving marketplace. This year, Carvel is rounding out their existing beverage line by introducing new blended frozen drinks called Arctic Blenders and blended coffee drinks as part of their “Refreshing Our Image” program. The new flavors include cookie dough, peanut butter, fried ice cream, mocha freeze, caramel macchiato and coffee freeze. The company is based in Atlanta, with its supermarket headquarters in Rocky Hill, CT.

Julie Shaffer of Slow Food Atlanta and Dr. Miriam Vos, M.D., M.S.P.H., assistant professor of pediatrics at Emory University, are collaborating on a guidebook for parents who want to raise healthy children. Many Georgia chefs have submitted recipes and meal suggestions geared toward children. The focus of the book will be fresh, simple “real” food for children and lunchbox meals. The project is sponsored by the American Gastroenterology Association and will be sold in bookstores nationwide.