The restaurant chain owned by Heavy Restaurant Group has so far only utilized Facebook and Twitter, though the Twitter account is owned by HRG; LinkedIn, too, is not "linked" to Purple aside from its owner HRG. Any presence that Purple has on YouTube comes from independent video blogs, like Northwest Wine Night, which filmed its "Pilot" episode at the Purple Café & Wine Bar in downtown Bellevue, Washington. Though the video blog probably brought some attention to Purple due to its focus on good wine, but the episode's attempt to be similar to Food Network's "Unwrapped" with Marc Summers made the episode seem tacky--not classy--like the image Purple tries to give off in the physical ambience of its restaurants and style sheet of its website.
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| A screenshot of the Purple Café & Wine Bar's website |
Purple's website is actually very user-friendly and easy on the eyes. The top menu bar sends visitors to sub sites for the restaurant chain's locations, menus, press mentions, FAQ, and blog. If someone visited the site looking for options for groups (i.e., an onsite event or catering services), links for that information is also on the top menu bar, along with a link to the online store for purchasing restaurant gift cards over the Internet.
Also on the landing page for the website are links to "Reserve a Table Online" for all of the Purple locations, powered by OpenTable.com. This makes visiting the restaurant easy for customers, because they don't even have to take a break between glasses of wine (hehe) to pick up a phone to make a dinner reservation.
The website features Purple's qualities of differentiation, by using large slideshow-style pictures on the main page that showcase the resturants' metropolitan, stylish atmospheres that pair wines from all over the world and the Northwest with a casual but classy gourmet dining experience. The composition of the photos alone make one's mouth water, and it's easy to find one's mouse pointer hovering over the "Reserve a Table" buttons.
Clearly, whomever designed the website for Purple was more of a webpage designer than a social media follower, however. On the main page, Purple invites its visitors to "stay connected" by following the restaurant on Facebook and Twitter. Going from Purple's site to Facebook, one is initially shocked by the change in appearance of the sites. Facebook's very different style sheet unfortunately lowers some of the classiness that Purple hopes to convey to its customers. Furthermore, Purple's underutilization of the Facebook site makes it clear to its Facebook-using customers that Purple hasn't totally figured out its social media strategy yet. That's not to say that it isn't trying.
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| A screenshot of Microsoft's Facebook page |
The cover page of the Facebook site is the same photo as displayed above in the website screenshot. While the photo conveys to Facebook users that Purple Cafe & Wine Bar is a wine-centric dining location, it's almost too busy for a Facebook page (at least in my opinion). A better chosen photo for its cover page may be similar to Microsoft's cover photo that focuses on the individual or shared experience of its customers: a zoomed-in shot of one of its absolutely delectable-looking entrees, to make the customer's mouth water, or better yet, a close up shot on a group of people dining, drinking wine, and enjoying conversation over one of the candle-lit tables against a rustic-looking background, all other customers in the restaurant blurred away using deeper depth of field in the photograph. Focusing on the individual's experience draws in diners, because they could imagine how they might feel, or what they may experience if dining with their close friends at Purple.
The social media connoisseur for Purple seems to be trying to post about every 2-5 days, which is acceptable, but some of its posts lack follow-up. For example, a post made on March 16 advertised a special Walla Walla Valley Wine Dinner at the Woodinville location on March 22, but on March 22, no further posts were made about the evening's event, or after March 22 about the evening's success. Had the social media marketer for Purple posted the day of about the event, many more visitors of the Facebook page may have posted about the event or shared the event with friends. In today's world of fast-paced internet, the saying "out of sight, out of mind" holds true, and may have an effect on the restaurant's performance.
Other features that the restaurant hasn't picked up on has been utilizing the events feature or Facebook Deals. The events page for Facebook has been used sporadically since the page was created in 2009; no deals exist on the Facebook page; and there are only three pictures have been posted to the site since November (of which all were posted in the last month). Therefore, there is quite a lot more that Purple could be doing to beef up its Facebook page so that customers have more reason to engage with the company.
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| Purple (a.k.a. Heavy Restaurant Group)'s Twitter page |
The company's Twitter, being owned by Heavy Restaurant Group, was confusing at first. When the main Purple website invited me to follow the restaurant on Twitter, I expected to land on @PurpleCafeandWineBar, but instead, I landed on @HeavyRestaurant. At first, I thought I was sent to the wrong site! But then I read the fine print, and realized that the owners of Purple had chosen to use just one site to market for all of their restaurants at once. My first question was: "Can you really be listening to all of your customers at once like that?" Then I took a closer look at the tweets HRG would post and I found my answer: in order to not be too "tweet-happy," HRG would only post about one restaurant location per day of tweeting (notice my language there - HRG doesn't actually tweet daily), and it would only alert its followers about deals that exist on their own. Nothing special was being offered to its Twitter followers.
Furthermore, although HRG shows signs that it's listening to its customers, it does this infrequently with its tweets. I would have expected that the company would post more about topics that HRG expects its customers to enjoy: did a new winery open up in Washington? Has the oncoming of spring resulted in the availability of spring fruits or vegetables in its menu items? Going a bit further, what about some style or decorating tips? I would imagine that many of HRG's customers come for the atmosphere, aside from the good food, and a lot of that comes from Purple and Barrio's characteristic interior décor.
I do not wish to go on too long of a diatribe about Purple's insufficient use of social media, though I've probably already done that. But it's clear from the restaurant's efforts so far that it has the potential to significantly improve its online presence; however, to do this, the use of the restaurant's unique Twitter account may be ideal so that deals are specific to Purple locations (Barrio is only located in Seattle, so why would someone in Redmond or Woodinville necessarily want to drive 30 minutes to go drink half-priced tequila on Capitol Hill on a Sunday?). Furthermore, utilizing some of the features of the sites, specifically Facebook, to help Purple promote its restaurant may be helpful for its business. It could remind its customers that happy hour is starting at 3 PM, or it could announce the specials as they come available, in order to attract customers right away. The restaurant's Twitter feed could then be streamed on the restaurant's website, and if a customer was unsure to reserve a table, he or she would only benefit from knowing what deals would be available that night.
Ironically, the restaurant's social media presence has already improved in the last week, with more frequent posts than ever (it's almost like they knew I was coming to critique them…), so it gives me hope that the restaurant will pick up in its social media popularity in coming months. But I'd say it will take them some brainstorming regarding their tweeting content, their Facebook curb appeal, and their utilization of everyday social media tools to make sure my lips are turning purple from their wine instead of from holding my breath.
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