When you see the red strawberries on the pink creamy cake, you know at instant that you are hungry. You can’t keep your eyes off. Your mouth starts watering. You can’t help but reach your hands to grab the food, but only to touch the screen and to realize that you’re landing on the website of Gelateria daRe, a family business located on the north side of Rome, Italy.
This is the power of marketing.
There are millions of businesses in this dynamic, vibrant hospitality industry. You can find hospitality in any corner, anywhere in the world. But what makes yourself unique?
The answer is to strengthen your brand identity. The way you present your brand will most likely make the first impression, and will probably determine whether or not your guests will walk into your door at the first place.
Jonathon Spada, the founder of SAYHELLO Creative, a boutique firm that offers web design, social media management, content marketing and graphic design consultation services to hospitality industry, shared his view on marketing with us. Having both hospitality and design background, he sure knows how to combine the best of both worlds.
”localization is the key, which means you should engage with the local community.”
He points out that localization is the key, which means you should engage with the local community. When advising for Gelateria daRe, he wanted to know more about the market. So he started from the nearby, and noticed that there was a university. He soon realized that this was a target market, and developed marketing strategies accordingly. In addition, to attract local guests, he also put emphasis on the fresh, mostly locally sourced ingredients. The transparency of the food-making process adds more authenticity to the nourishment. That’s also why the website employees a single-page carousal format that offers a strong sense of visual appeal. The images are simple yet self-explanatory, and will make you fall in love with the various flavored gelato in a heartbeat.
Jonathon also says that it is also essential to design proposals that meet the specific needs of a business. For instance, one of his clients in tourism and holiday planning, Personalized Italy, wants to scale globalization. Having half domestic and half international tourists, Personalized Italy would like to appeal to a wider audience. SAYHELLO Creative then has to ensure Personalized Italy has a global presence by making English the major language.
Jonathon thinks that the graphic design aspects, whether business cards, are the side products that should center around a cohesive concept.
As a restaurant or property owner, some key questions that you want to consider might be: What kind of experience do you want to bring to your guests? What kind of memories do you want your guests to keep even after they leave? Whether it is lodging or food and beverage, every business does not only offer welcoming service that makes guests feel like home, but also allow their guests to get a taste of the local culture and vibe. Design and strategies should focus on the message you want to convey to your audience, and developing marketing strategies will be the next step.
Photos Gelateria daRe
