Digital Marketing Campaign for Zao Asian Cafe 1

Digital Marketing Campaign for Zao Asian Cafe

Kaleigh Comish Gardner

PRT 5460 - Digital Marketing for Parks, Recreation, and Tourism

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Digital Marketing Campaign for Zao Asian Cafe

Introduction
I have spent the last few months researching and investigating various ways on how to improve
Zao Asian Café through digital marketing. This document contains several suggestions on how to
increase sales using digital marketing strategies.

Company Description

Zao Asian Café is an Asian Fusion restaurant with eight locations from Salt Lake City to Orem,
UT. They believe in serving fresh, healthy food with a smile. Zao believes in creating a place to escape
the hustle and bustle of everyday life and give clients a moment to practice mindfulness (living in the
moment). Each restaurant is a reflection of Dave Duffin, the founder and owner of Zao. His life’s
philosophy: “Eating well is the path to a happier mind and more balanced existence.” Each restaurant
truly feels like a place of peace and tranquility. The employees are happy and always have smiles on their
faces.
The menu is a modern, healthy concept incorporating lively Asian inspired flavors. It’s a fast-
casual dining experience where clients can customize and create their own flavor combinations from the
simplified menu. Zao offers a small variety of menu options: rice bowls, tacos, banh mi sandwiches,
salads, and soup. They also offer a variety of house made drinks and Asian inspired guacamole. They
cater to people with many different food allergies with gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, soy-free and dairy-
free options. Unlike other Asian restaurants, Zao does not use MSG in any of their products. This
restaurant has wonderfully executed the modern Asian fusion concept.
Zao was founded in June 2014 in Salt Lake City, UT. They have approximately 150 employees
and growing. Last year annual revenue was roughly four million dollars. Expanding into parts of Northern
and Southern Utah are in their plans for the upcoming years. Eventually expansion into surrounding states
such as: California, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada are goals this company would like to achieve. Zao is
growing so quickly and they will need to implement a marketing strategy if they want the business to
continue operating successfully.
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Market Research – External Analysis

Market Research

According to IBISWorld, the United States’ most comprehensive collection of industry market
research, fast-casual restaurants are expected to grow 1.6% annually from 2018-2022. Consumer
spending has been on a steady increase from 2009 and is projected to keep rising. Over the past five
years, consumer preferences have been moving away from unhealthy, saturated food. Consumers are now
seeking out healthy and convenient meal options. Companies offering customizable and healthy food will
experience the strongest growth. This is good news for Zao because consumers want what we have to
offer them.
According to the Washington Post, “From 2011 to 2016, fast- casual restaurants saw their sales
grow between 10 and 11 percent annually, according to market research provider Euromonitor
International. By contrast, sales in the fast-food industry rose annually in the 3 to 4 percent range, while
full-service restaurants saw growth rates between 1.5 and 2 percent.” Zao is in the perfect position in the
restaurant industry. Fast-casual restaurants are on the rise and will not be going away anytime soon.
Competition will likely intensify over the next five years in the fast-casual restaurant market
according to IBISWorld. Consumers are looking for well-priced items along with a regular introduction
of new products. They are also interested in companies who keep up with technology trends such as
online ordering systems, delivery systems, and multiple POS options.
There are multiple “megatrends” happening in the restaurant industry this year. Consumers are
looking for healthier options and seek out restaurants that cater to dietary restrictions such as gluten free,
vegan, vegetarian, keto, and dairy free. They are choosing restaurants who feature local food (locally
sourced produce and meats), farm-to-table, and sustainably sourced ingredients.
Using Facebook Audience Insights, I have narrowed down what I think to be our target markets.
We should target: people living within a 15-mile radius of each restaurant, health-conscious individuals,
ages 25-44, food allergen conscious, upper-middle class, married with (and without) children, and
individuals with an annual salary between 50k-150k. People in our target market area (from Salt Lake
City to Orem) are spending 75% of their disposable income on food and drink.

Opportunities & Threats

Keeping up with technology trends is a huge opportunity for Zao Asian Café. Implementing a POS
system where customers can pay using Apple and Android Pay will be highly beneficial. Creating an app
where customers can order online will create a convenience that will keep customers coming back again
and again. The app can also be designed in order to create a loyalty program and retrieve customer’s
email addresses for future marketing purposes. When consumers are close to receiving a loyalty reward,
they spend more. Send them an alert to please review us on Yelp and Google.
Cheaper dining options are a big threat for Zao Asian Café. Consumers are always looking for cheaper
options to satisfy their hunger.

Competition using Porter's Five Forces

1. Threat of Rivalry
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Zao doesn’t necessarily have any direct rivals because the restaurant concept is so unique. Other fast-
casual concept restaurants are Zao’s main competition. They include: Café Zupas, Café Rio, Chick-fil-A,
and Oh Mai. Here is a table indicating what the competition is doing well and what they could work on.

Competitor What they are doing well What they could work on

Café Zupas The fast-casual restaurant Their ordering system can

concept, healthy food
options, reaching
their target market, they
offer catering, and
expanding quickly and
successfully.
Café Rio The fast-casual restaurant
concept, allowing customers
to customize menu items,
they offer catering, and are
expanding quickly and
successfully.
be confusing, long wait
times, and mixed reviews
on social media.
They are always late for
catering events, have long
wait times, have mixed
reviews on social media,
have limited healthy
options, and do not always
serve a good product.

Chick-Fil-A They offer exceptional They do not offer many

customer service, have good healthy options and do not
reviews on social media, offer many items for people
and they offer catering. with dietary restrictions

Oh Mai Good reviews on social Their website is not up-to-

media, offer healthy food date and they use a lot of
options, they cater, and plastic, but do not have
offer delicious Asian food. recycling bins.

2. Threat of New Entrants

There is a possibility of someone starting a company similar to Zao Asian Café. Fast-casual restaurants
are on the rise and Asian Fusion food is gaining in popularity. If Zao continues to grow, it will only be
beneficial because it will control more of the market.

3. Threat of Substitutes

Our guests may find other ways to eat Asian Fusion food. Food delivery services like Blue Apron deliver
ready-to-prepare meals straight to your door and they are gaining in popularity. People may also decide to
replicate Zao’s recipes at home.

4. Threat of Buyer Power

It isn’t very easy for guests to drive Zao’s prices down, but it is a possibility. The more locations Zao
opens will only increase the power over the buyer.
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5. Threat of Supplier Power

Zao has only a limited number of suppliers. The recent change to ordering most products through
Nicholas has its benefits, but if Nicholas decides to raise their prices Zao will suffer. Removing the
supplier by growing our own produce is a far reach, but it could work in favor of Zao.

Figure 1 – When asked the question, “Which do you dine at most often?” this is the response of Zao
customers.

Resources

Alvarez, Andrew. “IBIS World Industry Report - Fast Food Restaurants in the U.S.” IBISWorld, 1 Oct.
2017, clients1.ibisworld.com.ezproxy.lib.utah.edu/reports/us/industry/default.aspx?entid=1980.

“The Top 10 HOT Trends for 2018.” National Restaurant Association, 6 Dec. 2017,
www.restaurant.org/News-Research/News/What-s-Hot-Top-10-trends-in-2018.

Carman, Tim. “Fast Casual Nation: The Movement That Has Changed How America Eats.”The
Washington Post, WP Company, 29 Aug. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/fast-casual-
nation-the-movement-thats-changing-how-we-eat/2017/08/28/23f6d710-86c5-11e7-961d-
2f373b3977ee_story.html?utm_term=.ea3d896b4217.
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Market Research – Internal Analysis

Market Research

I conducted interviews with two people currently working for Zao Asian Cafe: Stefanie Green (Director
of Catering) and Gilberto Mendoza (General Manager, Sandy location). They gave me great insight into
the strengths and weaknesses within the company.

Strengths
Zao treats their employees very well. The employees are given opportunities to grow, potential bonuses,
and have strong leadership. Many of the employees started with the original store back in 2014 and are
still with the company today. They stayed because they are happy. Giving employees opportunities and
having strong leadership is a good backbone to any company. Happy employees will provide good
customer service which will keep customers coming back again and again.
This restaurant has very high standards when it comes to cleanliness and producing a quality product.
Internal audits of each store happen multiple times a month. This ensures all policies and procedures are
being followed and each store is being consistent with the products being served. All general managers
are obsessive about tasting food items throughout the day, checking temperatures of food, and making
sure to throw out anything they “wouldn’t serve to their mother.” (Mendoza)

Weaknesses
The website was recently re-designed, but there are a few things they missed. The catering page has no
pictures. This page would be much more user-friendly if there were pictures of the products. They also
didn’t create a page for each restaurant location. Creating a page for each location would help them rank
better when people are searching for places to eat on Google. There is no place to order online through
their website. Consumers are looking for easier ways to order and Zao is not providing this option for
them.
The POS system Zao is currently using works, but it is something they could improve. Revel, the system
they are currently using, does not allow customers to use Apple pay. According to IBISWorld, consumers
are looking for restaurants offering multiple POS systems and according to Gilberto Mendoza, “people
call and ask if we accept Apple Pay at least once every couple weeks.” If Zao could get a POS system like
Square, it would allow customers to use Apple Pay and give them the option to opt-in their email or
phone number for future marketing purposes.

Points of Difference
 Asian fusion menu
 Restaurant offers a place to escape from the hustle and bustle of every day life
 Employees who are knowledgeable about the products and provide excellent customer service
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Survey Data

Figure 2 - When asked, “How likely are you to recommend Zao to a friend?” this is the response of Zao
customers.
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Figure 3 - When asked to, “Rank items in order of likeness.” this is the response of Zao customers.
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Figure 4 - When asked to, “Rank items in order of importance.” this is the response of Zao customers.
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Key Brand Attributes (The core values of Zao)

 Healthy food
 Fast-casual concept
 Outstanding customer service / Friendly employees
 Being mindful
 Living in the moment
 Providing a place for friends and family
 Sharing happiness

Brand Bulls-eye

Modern

Main chef has 15+ years experience

Casual Good quality food Healthy

Fair price Delicious, healthy

food served fast with a
smile

Exceptional
Restaurants customer
provides an escape service
from everyday life
Unique menu
items

Training process for employees

Budha Mascot
Green Zao Logo
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Resources

Mendoza, Gilberto. (2018, March 1). Personal interview.

Green, Stefanie. (2018, February 26). Personal interview.

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Target Market

Using Facebook Audience Insights, I have narrowed down what I think to be our target markets. We
should target: people living within a 15-mile radius of each restaurant, health-conscious individuals, ages
25-44, both male and female, food allergen conscious, upper-middle class, married with (and without)
children, and individuals with an annual salary between 50k-150k. People in our target market area (from
Salt Lake City to Orem) are spending 75% of their disposable income on food and drink and enjoy eating
out 2-4 times per week.

Information About the Customers from Qualtrics Survey

60% are ages 25-34. This is the age group we should be targeting for future marketing.
When asked how much of their monthly income they’re willing to spend on dining out, 42% said $200 or
more, 28% said $100-$150, and 14% said $50-$100. This group was also asked how much they were
willing to spend on a meal. The answers varied, but 71% said they were willing to spend $15 or more.
Between these two questions, I think Zao could raise the prices of their menu items and people wouldn’t
be upset.
72% use social media multiple times a day and 42% chose Instagram as their favorite social media
platform. Zao should continue posting on Instagram, but they should consider creating a Pinterest and
YouTube account because 28% of their customers prefer these social media platforms.

Market Strategy

-Market Penetration: focus on selling your existing products or services into your exisiting markets to
gain a higher market share.
-Market Development: expanding the potential market through new users or new uses. New geographic
segments, new demographic segment, new psychographic segment.

Psychographic Profile

 Desires a healthy meal, but doesn’t want to pay too much for it
 Concerned with health and appearance
 Looks for high quality ingredients in food
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Current Digital Media Trends and Client Assessment

Current Digital Media Trends

Influencer Marketing is a huge trend in digital media. Tastemakers and influencers use social
media to make themselves (and the products they use) well-known. Inviting local food reviewers, Yelp
Elite members, local TV personality, Nicea DeGering from Good4Utah (she comes in often), athletes
from the Utah Jazz, Salt Lake Bees, and University of Utah teams would help get the word out about Zao
Asian Café. Giving influencers an incentive to write a review about Zao would go a long way for the
brand. Creating new menu items and inviting influencers to try it would be a good way to raise awareness.
Invite customers to suggest new ideas for menu items like Starbucks White Cup Contest and
Coca-Cola’s Share a Coke campaign.
Videos & images (professional live video) video is becoming the most popular and influential
form of digital content for business today.
Personalizing every step of the decision making process, personalized emails after they’ve been to our
sight, building a personalized connection with prospect customers.

How Does the Target Market Use Digital Media?

Figure 5 - When asked, “How often do you use social media?” this is the response of Zao customers.
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Figure 6 - When asked, “What form of social media do you use most often?” this is the response of Zao
customers.

Zao’s Current Media Strategy

Website Strengths
Zao’s website is easy to navigate, loads quickly, and has a good choice of colors. The navigation bar at
the top makes it easy to find all the content on the website. Pictures of the food items are good quality and
look beautiful. The indication of a mobile app coming soon is helpful to the user and generates interest.

Website Weaknesses
The “Live Zaofully” button takes the user to a landing page that has outdated content and doesn’t really
explain what “Live Zaofully” means. The Catering page contains no pictures of catering items or events.
All the restaurant locations are located on the same page.

Social Media Strengths

Instagram posts are high quality and promote special menu items and deals. There is a large following on
Instagram.

Social Media Weaknesses

Zao is lacking a presence on Facebook and Twitter with little followers.

Social Media Presence

Application Content Frequency Response

Facebook New products, special Daily - Weekly Within 1-2 days
promotions, people
eating our food, grand
opening of stores.
Instagram Image and video heavy, Daily - Weekly Within 1-2 days
live videos, new
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products, special
promotions, grand
opening of stores,
people eating our food.
Twitter New products, events, Weekly - Monthly Within 2-4 days
grand opening of
stores, meditation
ideas, local events.
Email Discounts, updates on Daily or weekly Daily
new products,
reminders to dine with
Zao
Pinterest Food, meditation ideas, Weekly – Monthly Within 2-5 days
yoga ideas, blogs on
how to stress less.

Advertising & Marketing Campaigns

Consumers are looking for new places to eat all the time. Yelp is one of the biggest ways these
consumers are finding new places to eat and they are eating at the restaurants with the highest rating and
the most reviews. Utilizing Yelp would be very beneficial for Zao. Adding a sign at the POS station that
says “Review us on Yelp” would encourage existing customers to review Zao on Yelp. Customers could
be entered to win a contest if they rate us on Yelp to help incentivize them. I would suggest encouraging
employees at register to tell customers to review Zao on Yelp.
There are various ways to make people more aware of Zao. Below is a list of ideas on how we
can increase brand awareness.
o Online research with good SEO “best places to eat for lunch”
o Word of mouth
o Sponsorship of events
o Buying ads on Facebook – people won’t know about us if we only post things on
Facebook. They don’t know we exist so they haven’t liked our page or are following us.
o Loyalty program - getting customers email when they sign up
o Giveaways if they share our post and tag a friend
o Sign up for our email list and get 50% off next order
o Catering – Remind customers of busy times and create a sense of urgency. “Book within
the next 48 hours and receive 10% off order.”

Key Search Terms

The best keywords for Zao Asian Café are: “lunch Salt Lake City”, “catering Utah”, “pho”,
“asian food”, “tacos”, and “rice bowls”. These items have been searched for more times over the past 5
years. Other suggested terms were: restaurants in salt lake city, slc restaurants, best restaurants in salt lake
city, and places to eat in salt lake city.
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Digital Media Campaign

Brand Mantra
“Fresh. Simple. Asian.”, “Fresh food, served fast, with a smile”

Emotional and/or Narrative Branding and Storytelling (1-2 ideas)

Run an ad showing people dining around a table for dinner eating takeout from Zao. Zao Asian
Cafe brings families together.

Strategy for Using Various Digital Platforms: FB, website, Instagram. Explain how and why I used
them

Run paid Facebook ads, Yelp ads, and paid Google ads in order for new people to find Zao. Paid
Instagram ads are not as useful because consumers don’t necessarily go to Instagram for places to eat.
Making the ads targeted towards people in a specific area will make them more relevant. (Target Zao’s
Murray location to people located in Murray.) Using keywords on Zao’s website will help the website
rank higher on Google through organic search. Linking Yelp listing to individual landing page instead of
the main website page will make for a better user experience.

Examples (ads created for FB, Instagram, video)

See examples on Adobe Portfolio Website

How Will Zao Use Digital Platforms for Customer Response and Service – Explain best practices
for Zao to follow..

Encourage customers to review Zao on Yelp and Google by incentivizing them with BOGO
deals, giveaways, and freebies.
Our target market relies heavily on Yelp reviews for places to eat
Responding to customers in a timely manner is extremely important.
 ½ of adults under 50 routinely check online reviews before buying new items
Lasting Bad Impressions

 Bad experiences tend to stick more than positive experiences

 Psychology research finds that bad experiences require more cognitive processing and make a
stronger impression
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Figure 7 - Review Statistics by Yelp as of December 2017

Identify Strategies for SEO

Creating a landing page for each store will give Zao more keyword opportunities to target relative
terms. Using specific keywords will help Zao’s website rank higher on Google when users are searching
for things such as: “places to eat in Murray” or “lunch spots in Lehi.” Using Google map locations in
order to pinpoint each restaurant location will also help Zao’s website rank better.
Using wording such as, “We’re located in the same parking lot as Nordstrom Rack, 5 min from BYU, and
10 min for UVU. Zao Asian Café in Orem is right next to university mall, so stop here after working up
an appetite shopping.” Make each page hyper-local (city and zip code).
Creating a landing page for each location will help showcase each individual store. This gives
Zao the opportunity to show photos of employees at each individual store, inside of the store, and help
customers truly understand what Zao Asian Café is all about.

Zao can make the website more relevant by using the relevance basics: Title tag, URL structure,
headings, alt tag, body text.
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Events and Online Advertising

Real-time Social Media Marketing for Events

Zao can use social media platforms to react to ongoing events. Organizing events such as a Yelp
Elite and local food reviewers (launching a new menu and invite them to a soft opening) would increase
brand awareness. Live streaming events like attendance of healthy food and lifestyle conferences and
sponsorship of local events would enhance the customer experience. Promoting big catering events and
new store openings would get customers excited about what we’re doing at Zao. There are 4 main aspects
of social media and events:

1. Organizing events
2. Promoting events
3. Enhancing the live experience
4. Extending the life cycle of an event

Ideas for Social Media

Here is a list of the ideas I have for social media posts:
1. Grand openings for stores – build awareness and excitement by posting about grand
openings on Instagram and facebook weeks before, during, and after.
2. Post about special promotions to get them to the new store.
3. Suggest customers tag photos of them in the new stores using a specific hashtag.
4. Giveaways for Superbowl Sunday
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5. Thanksgiving – tag us in a picture of something you’re thankful for (use a special hashtag
#livezaofully)
6. Sponsorship events

How is Zao Going to Reach Their Target Market?

Google adwords, sponsored posts, ads on other websites

Evaluation Plan

I will evaluate my marketing strategy through the number of coupon codes used, sales numbers increased,
loyalty program accounts set up, and conversion numbers for catering.
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References

Mendoza, Gilberto. (2018, March 1). Personal interview.

Green, Stefanie. (2018, February 26). Personal interview.

Alvarez, Andrew. “IBIS World Industry Report - Fast Food Restaurants in the U.S.” IBISWorld, 1 Oct.
2017, clients1.ibisworld.com.ezproxy.lib.utah.edu/reports/us/industry/default.aspx?entid=1980.

“The Top 10 HOT Trends for 2018.” National Restaurant Association, 6 Dec. 2017,
www.restaurant.org/News-Research/News/What-s-Hot-Top-10-trends-in-2018.

Carman, Tim. “Fast Casual Nation: The Movement That Has Changed How America Eats.”The
Washington Post, WP Company, 29 Aug. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/fast-casual-
nation-the-movement-thats-changing-how-we-eat/2017/08/28/23f6d710-86c5-11e7-961d-
2f373b3977ee_story.html?utm_term=.ea3d896b4217.
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