2011
Executive Summary Online and digital marketing at Zomato.com In partial fulfillment of summer internship at Zomato.com
Keerti Singh MBA(ISM) 7/2/2011
UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM AND ENERGY STUDIES DEHRADUN
REPORT
ON
³Online and digital marketing at Zomato.com´
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Information System Ma nagement (2010-12)
Project submitted to:
Rohan lilani Content and marketing head Zomato.com, Pune
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Project submitted by:
Keerti Singh MBA student UPES, Dehradun
DECLARATION
I keerti Singh hereby declare that the project work entitled online and digital marketing at Zomato.com is a bona fide work done by me under the guidance and supervision of Mr. Rohan Lilani. The work has not formed part of any earlier studies for the award of degree/ diploma/ fellowship.
Place: Pune
Date:
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Signature of the Student:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank, Mr. Rohan Lilani , for giving me the opportunity to do the project on ³online and digital marketing at Zomato.com ´. I express my thanks to, Mr. Saurabh Sengupta for mentoring during the project. His constant review and excellent suggestions throughout the project are highly commendable. I would like to thank all my friends, teachers and many websites that helped me to collect my matter for this report.
Name of the student KEERTI SINGH (500011919)
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Table of Contents
Declaration Acknowledgement
3 4
Synopsis
6
Objectives
8
Internship Roadmap
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Module1
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Module2
12
Conclusion
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References
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Synopsis
Title: Online and Digital Marketing Strategies at Zomato.com
Introduction of the Company:
Zomato is an online food guide, restaurant directory and menu-pages website for anyone who is looking to either dine out or order food. Currently operational in 10 cities in India - Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmadabad, Jaipur and Chandigarh, Zomato lists menus, ratings and contact details for all r estaurants listed and reviews (both editor a nd user) & discounts for a large percentage of these. Latest a ddition to Zomato has been the launch of Chandigarh section of the website with ~450 menus and focus on user reviews for restaurants which showcases the collective opinion of a large number of foodies rather than that of a single person (the editor). Zomato was started in July 2008 by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, both alumnus of IIT Delhi and Bain, as a part time hobby with only 500 restaurant listings in Delhi NCR. The intention was to provide the people of Delhi NCR with as much information as possible about the food that they were about to order. So the site started with complete menus and contact information for the most popular take-out/delivery places in town. As the website got popular, the team added more content and now have 4500 restaurants in Delhi NCR listed on the website ranging from the swankiest restaurant to the desiest dhabas in town. The website is now the largest food portal in the country. It helps more than a million (that's 10 lacs) hungry souls every month make an informed eating-out or ordering-in decision with over 17,000 restaurants to chose from across Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Ahmadabad and Chennai. Initially, Zomato was mainly used by corporate and executives who have internet access all round the clock. But Zomato quickly got popular with the younger generation, and now people from all age-groups have started using it. The biggest marketing vehicle for Zomato is 'word-of-mouth' - not much money has been spent on marketing to reach the current stage. Zomato.com also acts as a very effective marketing engine for restaurants. It has helped many restaurants market their brand through promotions and advertisements on the website. A few brands that have been associated with Zomato include Yo! China, Vatika Hospitality, Republic of Chicken (Alchemist), Geoffrey's, Pind Balluchi, Orange Hara, Moets Group, Cinnabon (Dish hospitality) and many more. The winning value proposition for marketing at Zomato is t hat restaurants can only choose to market themselves to customers looking for restaurants in their catchment area. This ad
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Objectives 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
To understand the online customer base. Exploring the online marketing tools and techniques. Doing subtle digital marketing. Comparing competitor¶s work and techniques. To understand requirement of Zomato.com as a product in various parts of India under variable demographical tastes and inter ests. 6. Data analysis of traditional as well as digital food guides. 7. Getting more clients to sustain business and revenue.
Internship roadmap Module 1
# Content y y y
Times Food Guide analysis Burrp Portal Tasty Khana Website
Training: Social Media.
Facebook Twitter Four Square
Module 2
# Marketing y
Viral Marketing.
y
Food and Tech bloggers research.
y
Sticker reference in restaurants.
y
Generating leads through telecalling prospective restaurants.
Training: Adwords and Google Analytics.
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Module 1
Times Food Guide, Pune
Times food guide was the first source of information to compare and validate the list of restaurants covered on the Zomato.com. It¶s a handbook of food guide which covers restaurants, bakeries and night life of Pune. Dividing the restaurants by sorting them one wise was the useful strategy for validating the restaurants already listed on the restaurant and the restaurants which ar e yet to be covered.
Burrp Web Portal
The Burrp web portal was the second reference point for verifying and updating the restaurant listings. Burrp! is India¶s premier lifestyle guide with online as well as print presence. Burrp.com allows its users to search, r eview and recommend lifestyle related businesses and events in India¶s 8 major metros. Besides the online local product, Burrp! owns burrp!TV ± an online TV guide ± an online lifestyle maga ine and Know ± the recently launched printed travel guide for Mumbai as well. The pune city is again divided into old pune and rest of pune. Then it is categorised area wise, which is again divided into different verticals like restaurants, hotels, shopping malls etc. The restaurant section was helpful to get a fair idea that what restaurants are still to be listed on Zomato.com
Tasty Khana Website
TastyKhana is an online solution to customers who are looking to eat out in Pune. The site provides complete listing of restaurants, their servic es, facilities, price list and more. You can Book your table online (or by phone), with instant email or sms alerts. They offer services which includes Viewing menu and facilities of each resta urant, Ordering food and Reserving a table. TastyKhana also provide complete listing of party/banquet deals for the entire town. You can view, verify and book both online and offline modes. Your profile has a complete history of your reservations. There is a facility to estimate the amount you will spend on dining, which helps. You can also gift a meal to your friends and family.
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Social Media Training:
1. Facebook.com Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and co-workers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people's realworld social connections. Facebook has, without a shred of doubt, caught the attention of internet users from all over the globe. Many individuals are already interest ed about it and even entrepreneurs now utili e it for promoting their business.
1. Do you really need the page 2. How will you attract potential customers 3. Are you going to use Facebook to listen to the needs or criticisms of your customers 4. Do you have the r esources in order to manage your Facebook profile effectively
The official page of Zomato.com is liked by over 59,220 people, gaining popularity day on day. Zomato is doing very subtle marketing and promotion on social media platforms. posting regular updates and regularly rolling out review contests and giving away vouchers to become favourite of all foodies across the country. The module also covered how to create business page on facebook, how to promote and target the online audience. To give a fair idea what drives the business online and attracts more customers.
2. Twitter.com
Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting. Simply find the public streams you find most compelling and follow the conversations. At the heart of Twitter are small bursts of information called Tweets. Each Tweet is 140 characters in length, but don¶t let the small si e fool you²you can share a lot with a little space. Connected to each Tweet is a rich details pane that provides additional information, deeper context and embedded media. You ca n tell your story within your Tweet, or you can think of a Tweet as the headline, and use the details pane to tell the rest with photos, videos and other media content.
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key points I have learn
Twitter Promotion Tip #1) Don't sell - converse. Twitter Promotion Tip #2) Listen more than you tweet. Twitter Promotion Tip #3) Be helpful. Twitter Promotion Tip #4) Give your followers what they want. Twitter Promotion Tip #5) Don¶t just feed t hem feeds.
3. Foursquare Foursquare is a location-based mobile platform that makes cities easier to use and more interesting to explore. By ³checking in´ via a Smartphone app or SMS, users share their location with friends while collecting points and virtual badges. Foursquare guides real-world experiences by allowing users to bookmark information about venues that they want to visit and surfacing relevant suggestions about nearby venues. Merchants and brands leverage the foursquare platform by utili ing a wide set of tools to obtain, engage, and retain customers and audiences.
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Module 2
Viral Marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising are bu words referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increas es in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses or computer viruses. It can be delivered by word of mouth or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. The important requirements for effective viral marketing: 1. Messenger: Three specific types of messengers are r equired to ensure the transformation of an ordinary message into a viral one: market mavens, social hubs, and salespeople. Market mavens are individuals who are continuously µon the pulse¶ of things (information specialists); they are usually a mong the first to get exposed to the message and who transmit it to their immediate social network. Social hubs are people with an exceptionally large number of social connections; they often know hundreds of different people and have the ability to serve as connectors or bridges between different subcultures. Salespeople might be needed who receive the message from the market maven, amplify it by making it more relevant and persuasive, and then transmit it t o the social hub for further distribution. Market mavens may not be particularly convincing in transmitting the information. 2. Message: Only messages that are both memorable and sufficiently interesting to be passed on to others have the potential to spur a viral marketing phenomenon. Making a message more memorable and interesting or simply more infectious, is often not a matter of major changes but minor adjustments. 3. Environment: The environment is crucial in the rise of successful viral marketing ± small changes in the environment lead to huge results, and people are much more sensitive to environment. The timing and context of the campaign launch must be right. In term of strategy of viral marketing of Zomato.com, The company is doing a subtle strategical marketing through references in various companies. Just like sharing a reference Zomato promotional emails t o increase brand name and awareness.
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Food and Technical Bloggers A blog is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained b y an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of ev ents, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog . Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs a nd it is this interactivity that disting uishes them from other static websites. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave co mments in an interactive format is an important part of man y blogs.
Sticker Advertisement in Restaurants
Another extended marketing is indirect marketing through putting reference sticker in restaurants which have tie up with Zomato. Which says ³find more about us at Zomato.com. Which is win win for the restaurant a nd the company because customers can search about the restaurant and the website because website is getting promoted as well.
Generating leads through telecalling prospective restaurants
In this module the effort was to look for prospective restaurants to fix u quick meetings through telecalling. The objective to fix up meetings to update new changes (if any) in the menu, prices, facilities etc. in the resta urant. In this way, it not only helps restaurants to be updated on the website but the Zomato brand also gets marketed through meetings and word of mouth which may eventually benefit Zomato as these restaurants can be prospective clients of Zomato.com
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Analytics training 1. Adwords.
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Conclusion
Attract Customers and Spread the Word about Online Business: Broadcast your website address The first step to attract customers and spread the word about your online business is to broadcast / publici e your website¶s address.
Broadcasting your website to attract customers and spread the word about your business can be done in a number of ways; you can join forums and leave links to your website, post on online directories, write articles and submit them to article directories and link back to your website, participate in social media sites, etc. In doing these things you not only attract customers you also spread the word about your online business. Attract Customers and Spread the Word about Online Business: Start affiliate program As we all know affiliate programs are the most used on line marketing strategy. This is where you g et people to market and sell your product for a corresponding commission. Of course, if you have your own affiliate program then that means you have more people who will attract customers and spread the word about your online business. Your affiliates can attract customers and spread the word about your online business by means of banner ads, text links, letters of referral, and other methods of advertising. Attract Customers and Spread the Word about Online Business: Give them freebies Everyone loves freebies! I mean with everything going on with the economy nowadays getting something for free is like a rainbow on th e hori on after a storm. Providing people with freebies (like free information, free meal vouchers, etc.) is a great way to attract customers and s pread the word about your online business.
Now, something that you should remember when giving out free content to people you need to make sure that it is valuable and it is something that they cannot find elsewhere. What you can do is write an article that is highly relevant to your industry and then submit it to article directories. Be sure that you write a short biography and throw in a link to your website, in doing so people will go directly to your website the next time they need information. Attract Customers and Spread the Word about Online Business: Utilize the power of viral marketing The fourth tip that you can use to attract customers and spread the word about your online business is by utili ing viral marketing. B y the term itself viral marketing is simply spreading the word about your business like a virus.
In viral marketing you encourage people to spread the word about your business. So how can you go about that Here are some simple things you can do to start with viral marketing. ¡
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Provide customers with a free demo or trial version of your p roduct
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Include a ³share this butto n´ somewhere in your website
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Do a referral program and give incentives to everyone who refers someone to your website
Attract Customers and Spread the Word about your Online Business: Start a blog Blogging is one of the ch eapest ways to market your business on the internet. So, by creating a blog and updating it constantly you get the chance to communicate with people and hence you also have the opportunity to attract customers and spread the word about your online business.
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References http://pune.burrp.com/ http://tastykhana.in/ http://twitter.com/ http://www.facebook.com/ https://foursquare.com/ http://pune.thetossedsalad.com/ http://www.thebigbhookad.com/ http://www.wikipedia.org/ https://encrypted.google.com/ Times Food Guide, Pune.
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