Presence across mediums helps build your credibility: Valadares

How do standalone restaurants market themselves?

Marketing is a lot more exciting with our brands because we can do a lot of community tie-ups, and be it not just art, music or comedy, but other community events as well. We celebrate a lot of local subcultures and are partnering with the Koli Seafood Festival in Versova. For us, community also means celebrating local heroes. We will also tie up with dabbawalas in Mumbai (Dabbawalas, rendered jobless by the pandemic, are being hired by impresarios for direct delivery from some of their restaurants.)

How do you maintain the identity of each of your eight restaurant brands?

We take this whole “handmade restaurant” very seriously. Generally, with QSR (Quick-Service Restaurant), it’s all about uniformity, and a restaurant’s look and feel. But we are hyperlocal in every way. For example, in our Brand Social, most of the people would have noticed that each has a different personality. It matches the pin codes of that area as they borrow heavily from that area in some way or the other from local influences.

How important is content to a marketer?

Content is very important, and so is collaboration. Ultimately, you can’t just advertise; You have to engage the customer. So we started our first content series with a LIIT session called Social with electronica duo Nucleya and Ritviz – a series of video interviews. For our brand Smoke House Deli, we have daily classes where we teach people how to make the perfect egg white omelet, for example, or various tips and tricks when cooking. So the idea is to add value to our customers; It is a good two way relationship.

Are you also creating Intellectual Property (IP)?

We are building strong IP. Our community events have become really important. The idea is to create strong IP that engages the customer with new content online. These are new opportunities for our partners to speak to a similar audience. For example, we have an arts program called Deluxe Thali.

We also have an event built around the LGBTQ community called Satrangi Mela. There is Optical Asylum, a monthly art showcase project curated by Revolution Art Theory and Social. These give us a chance to get sponsors on board, such as an LGBTQ event sponsored by Tinder. We have also brought brands like Cred with us.

How have you changed your marketing during the waves of the pandemic?

We focused on developing our delivery brand or cloud brand.

That’s when our entire Boss Burger launch took place. At that time delivery is the priority and for us, it is about giving you the same experience at home as we can… bringing that “social feeling” at home.

In this era every marketer has to change and be agile. While the focus continues to be on delivery, we also need to make sure the sentiment is right so that customers can return to the restaurant. It’s about making sure we’re advertising how safe our restaurants are.

Do you use traditional media or stick to social platforms for ads?

We have a heavy social media slant. But we also use traditional media. We use print with QR codes because the biggest comeback in 2021 has been QR codes. We also use billboards and radios. In a normal month, 5-7% of our entire budget is spent on marketing. I don’t think any form of marketing is doomed because it will eventually lead to a conversion, but may not convert at that point. You have to be present in all mediums, which adds to your credibility.

Does social media make life easier for a marketer?

I don’t know if it makes it easier, but it certainly makes life more happening. For our company, at least eight brands are active on social media at all times, and each brand has a different language and language. Sometimes it’s about food, sometimes about an event, sometimes about pop culture.

Social media is wonderful because it gives us access to what the customer feels at a particular moment.