How do restaurants present themselves online? : a content analysis on Christchurch restaurants.

Abstract

The use of content marketing among businesses has substantially grown with technological advancements and with the hit of the COVID-19 pandemic. The hospitality industry was immensely affected and businesses needed to change the way they normally operate and market themselves to their consumers. Therefore, this thesis explores restaurants’ online platforms in a content marketing context. The aim of this research is to gain insight into restaurants and cafes’ content strategies and identify and assess the different forms of content uploaded by businesses on several different online platforms. In particular, it explores how they present their brand to the consumer online and which content they use to do so. The research begins with an overview of the digital marketing literature with a specific focus on restaurants where applicable. The literature review indicated an important research gap regarding content marketing in a restaurant context, whereas the researched areas on this topic mostly take a consumer perspective instead of viewing what restaurant owners and marketers are doing on their online platforms. The research took a content analysis approach. The study analysed the content posted by 188 restaurants and cafes in Christchurch, New Zealand, on five different platforms, websites, Instagram, Facebook, Uber Eats and YouTube. The results showed that restaurants utilise different platforms to share different information and that the majority of restaurants are not highly active on all platforms. In addition, the platform with the most active restaurant accounts was Facebook, and restaurants use it to share general information about the business. In contrary to Instagram, which is the second most popular platform within Christchurch restaurants, and restaurants use it to promote their business. Overall, the results provide a clear indication of what Christchurch restaurants are utilising to present themselves to their consumers and provide insight to future restaurant owners and marketers to create a tailored content strategy for their business.