Purple Cafe & Wine Bar isn't winning any Oscars anytime soon

When it comes to online video marketing, Purple Cafe and Wine Bar is lacking. On YouTube, the restaurant is only featured in two video features, one that I described in an earlier post by Northwest Wine Night, and another by a reporter with a special on Seattle Restaurant Week back in 2010 (see video on left, starting at minute 2:05). That being said, no direct video marketing is coming out of Heavy Restaurant Group.

I don't actually know much about how restaurants use online video marketing to help their business, especially when their business is generally aimed at an older target market who may be less inclined to watch regularly posted videos. Therefore, I started thinking about some of the restaurants located near Purple Cafe and Wine Bar in Bellevue: Blue C Sushi, Boom Noodle, Joey's, and Earl's. Examining their websites, Blue C Sushi and Boom Noodle both lack YouTube sites. However, both Earl's and Joey's are YouTube all-stars. Earl's makes regular posts in response to fan-based requests from the restaurant's social media sites; and Joey's recruits its executive chefs from its several locations nationwide to post videos about making delicious food to share with friends. One example is shown below, from Joey's, in which their Chef Chris Mills shows fans how to make zesty fish tacos:

 

These videos engage customers and fans, and they also show that the restaurant cares about its fans as much in the restaurant as out of the restaurant, in terms of their enjoyment of good food. These videos that show how to make great food also subliminally tell the restaurant's fans that it is confident enough in its recipes, that even if it shares its recipes with its customers on YouTube, that the restaurant will still have its fans coming back in to enjoy their restaurant experience. 

Joey's and Earl's do what Purple should focus more of its time on. Purple's atmosphere in its restaurants is not far off from that at either Joey's or Earl's restaurants, but its lack of online promotion via a video medium puts Purple behind Joey's or Earl's in terms of online presence for a restaurant. Purple Cafe and Wine Bar, and its sister restaurants Barrio and Lot 3 could all do well by having similar types of videos displayed on the internet. Each of these restaurants gives off a different vibe, and they have very delicious wine and food options unique to each of the restaurants. By using video to promote its newest recipes or wine, HRG would certainly invite more fans into its restaurants.