This paper will compare two local restaurants in San Diego, California that specialize in the Mexican food industry that is native to Southern California due to the proximity to Mexico. The restaurants chosen will be El Indio and Old Town Mexican Café. The reason that these two restaurants have been chosen is that they are known as San Diego’s best restaurants for Mexican food that are publicized to many tourists visiting the area. Additionally, these restaurants have been chosen because strategically they were in the same position of turning a landmark restaurant into an establishment that was going to be marketed in the modern era.
Old Town Mexican Café, is a slightly different story. Old Town Mexican Café is known for providing a traditional Mexican meal of sensational quality to the San Diego local or tourist, (“Old Town Mexican Café Restaurant,” 2016). Where this differs from El Indio is that Old Town Mexican Café was less of a caterer and more of a restaurant where locals and tourists enjoy margaritas as they watch local sporting events or are sightseeing in Old Town for the day, (“Old Town Mexican Café Restaurant,” 2016). Old Town Mexican Café, like El Indio, also had the challenge of being a local favorite that had gained its reputation by word of mouth. Thus, Old Town Mexican Café had to be creative in how to join the social media marketing world to gain more notoriety for locals and prospective tourists alike.
Both El Indio and Old Town Mexican Café had to meet with restaurant marketing experts to explore their options and to remain a landmark properly while still keeping up with the “marketing times,” (Frisch, Eleanor, 2015). This is precisely why they had to make their websites navigable for users and have social media accounts to publicize their special happy hours to attract the customers in the younger generation, (Marrs, Megan, 2015). One major strategy for both restaurants was to get viable website content that showed the impressive photos of their incredible food. Given that both restaurants were iconic in the San Diego area, their food was surely their asset to showcase to their prospective customers, which is precisely why photographs were pivotal.
When considering the websites of both businesses, Old Town Mexican Café needed to have a very strong website and their website does look professional, polished, and modern. That being said, El Indio had a different consumer, but still, their website leaves something to be desired because it looks dated like a true local restaurant. Given that El Indio is catering to a similar customer who wants landmark San Diego Mexican food, they need to keep up their technology on the same level as Old Town Mexican Café does.
Additionally, El Indio needs to showcase their catering business better on social media. The reason for this is that social media could do a great deal for attracting more local businesses to order their foods. Honestly, having eaten at both restaurants, El Indio has the better tacos and that is why they need to increase their branding quality and awareness to their prospective consumers. One way to do this would be to instigate a loyalty program, (Marrs, Megan, 2015). Even though this has historically happened in chain restaurants, it could also benefit El Indio as well because the bulk of their clients are for their catering business. By inspiring loyalty, it would make El Indio a sure choice for the local business that wants authentic Mexican food for their next corporate event.
Referring to both restaurants, they should absolutely keep building their presence on Yelp, (Marrs, Megan, 2015). Yelp is a key element for both businesses to attract the tourists that come to San Diego and want the real Mexican food. Yelp gives the opportunity for users to share their experiences and also allows the tourist who is searching for their kind of cuisine to be successful in their search. Expanding upon Yelp, both businesses would also be benefited by increasing their presence and rating on a site such as TripAdvisor, (Marrs, Megan, 2015). If they are targeting tourists, TripAdvisor is the way to go because it is another forum opportunity that is essential free marketing for both establishments.
El Indio could greatly benefit from adding a newsletter to their business model due to their catering clients, (Marrs, Megan, 2015). Having a corporate newsletter would allow El Indio to showcase their monthly menu and specials to their corporate clients. It would also be an ideal addition to their loyalty program because it would keep those customers coming back to utilize the catering component of their business.
The next aspect to strategy for both restaurants would be to enter the blogging world and make their niche about Mexican food, recipes, and culture, (Frisch, Eleanor, 2015). This is an excellent way to create a following, foster more industry connections, and also, to promote their business. By merely posting once per week and then tying the blog to social media, both El Indio and Old Town Mexican Café would have a great potential platform for more potential business. This could lead to a book deal for a coffee table book on how to make homemade Mexican food for tourists to purchase in the shop at both establishments, for example. What both of these restaurants have to offer is their historic landmark status. This is an ideal way for both businesses to do great things with what they already do have in the local community due to their long term presence, sensational food, and word or mouth reputation.
All in all, El Indio and Old Town Mexican Café are entirely different business models due to the catering component that El Indio has over Old Town Mexican Café. That being said, both businesses do have the potential to utilize similar restaurant marketing strategies through social media and website development. By doing this, it both restaurants can grow even more in their corresponding niches in both the San Diego and international community. By blogging, writing a book, having a loyalty program, utilizing social media, establishing a presence on Yelp, and publishing monthly newsletters, both businesses have several viable options to grow their brand without becoming another chain restaurant. Thus, it will be fascinating to see in the coming years how these two historic landmarks adapt their business and branding strategy to be competitive in the modern world where there is so much blogging and overall social media presence as a way of reaching out to new prospective business customers.
References
“El Indio Mexican Restaurant and Catering.” El Indio Homepage. 2016. Web. 22 May 2016.
Frisch, Eleanor. “Target Marketing for Restaurants.” Food Service Warehouse. 14 July 2015. Web. 22 May 2016.
Marrs, Megan. “25 Restaurant Marketing Ideas: Tips & Strategies to Win in the Food Business.” Word Stream. 14 January 2015. Web. 22 May 2016.
“Old Town Mexican Café Restaurant.” Old Town Mexican Café Homepage. 2016. Web. 22 May 2016.
