Technology’s constantly changing – and so should you when it comes to doing business. If there’s one thing technological advancement has given consumers, it’s convenience and less admin, so shouldn’t you be using this to your advantage?
Local Italian eatery PRIMI is using state-of-the-art kitchen equipment, architecture and gamification to drive customers to their tables in droves. Why not take a leaf out of the company’s book?
They embrace local context and personality
The first thing that arguably attracts customers to your store is how it looks, followed by what’s on offer. If you get the former right, customers are more inclined to investigate the latter:
- A unique look and feel creates distinction
PRIMI recently underwent a facelift of its store design. “With the redesign of the restaurant, each store also creates its own visual identity, including graffiti art, which embraces its local context and the personality of the restaurateur,” says Sean Holmes, marketing director at PRIMI.
If it works for Starbucks, which has over 25 000 stores worldwide, it can work for a countrywide franchise. Starbucks opened 18 design studios around the world allowing store designers to visit key international locations and design stores incorporating local culture.
In line with PRIMI’s values of honesty and integrity, the kitchen forms part of the restaurant’s key features as an open area where patrons can watch their food being prepared.
- Not just a pretty place
In addition to making every location feel like home to its customers, changes to PRIMI include a new state-of-the-art pizza oven imported from Italy combining traditional wood-fired baking with gas-burner technology.
“The result is an oven than that reaches up to 450 degrees Celsius and a perfectly baked pizza,” says Cesco Zanasi, co-founder of PRIMI. “The new menu is a celebration of heritage and craftsmanship, and an exploration of flavour, depth and texture,” he says referring to the new offering which now includes a Spuntini section, referring to the Italian communal dining style as and banting options.
“The dishes are fresh, colourful, nutritious and joyous and we hope will inspire a family-style, shared eating experience.” It seems pizza doesn’t need be cooked in a wood-fire oven for Italian authenticity.
They’re using technology to their advantage
Businesses are forced to think out of the box in order to become more operationally efficient and at the same time drive sales, says Holmes. PRIMI’s done this by introducing an interactive mobile device game making using of a one-click engagement platform.
“Consumers nowadays want to interact and engage in real time, and the gaming platform enables us to facilitate this interaction in-store at table level. Not only can we interact this way via the consumer’s mobile device in a fun way, but we can also reward the consumer in real time,” says Holmes.
“This will be in the way of a voucher or coupon, which in turn will be received by the customer whilst at the table, enabling it to be redeemed instantly.”
That’s one way to address the consumer who is constantly changing. Keep up with the introduction of innovative products, unique store customisation and technological interaction as means to attract and keep your customer base loyal to you brand.