The Flavor Tourism Experience

In one of the most buzzed-about blogger contests to date, Pei Wei Asian Diner recently sought someone to “Blog Asia ” – an individual to travel for 18 days across Pei Wei’s five Asian countries, eating everything from street food to five-star cuisine while recording the whole experience. 

Pei Wei Asian Diner, owned by P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, offers cuisine influenced by Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Thai cultures. When you Google “Pei Wei,” the first description under the website link is “Pei Wei is a place just outside of your usual routine where you can experience the vibrant flavors of dishes inspired from five Asian cultures.” Indeed, outside of the usual routine, they are.

Pei Wei’s Vice President of Marketing, Terry Haley, has more than ten years of marketing, brand management, and business experience and oversees marketing and communications across 168 Pei Wei Asian Diner restaurants in 22 states.

I sat down with Terry to learn about the thought process behind the blogger promotion, as well as their overall social marketing strategies. I was caught off guard by how young and mellow he is, but most noteworthy was how honestly and effortlessly he conveyed information, providing hugely valuable insight and sound advice for restaurants (or any businesses) looking to succeed in the social media world.

B L O G   A S I A

A key objective to Pei Wei’s engagement with consumers is what Terry refers to as “flavor tourism” – an affinity for trying and learning about the five cultures of their menu. The blogger search came about spur-of-the-moment when Chef Eric Justice mentioned he was going to Asia, and they thought it might be fun to find someone with a shared passion for flavor tourism to record the trip.

The idea wasn’t initially briefed as part of their social media agenda, but as a way to produce content that wasn’t directly from them. They simply wanted to find those who could relate to an idea that they participate in (flavor tourism), and the whole process organically took off from there.

Narrowing down the entrants was extremely difficult due to the quality of the participants and the passion they all exuded. While only one was chosen to travel to Asia (congrats to Alice!), Pei Wei opted to keep its four other finalists as a part of their first-ever blogger network: a network all about exploring new cultures through food.

They won’t just talk about Pei Wei’s dishes; instead, they’ll focus on this shared idea of experiencing different flavors. Through these people, the hope is to vastly broaden the passion for flavor tourism.

S O C I A L     M E D I A

On their social media launch, Terry emphasized that structure was hugely important before they took off; he’s not a believer in doing something just to do it. The marketing team spent a lot of time assessing which channels would be most productive for their objectives, and they proceeded very methodically. Once an overall social media plan was in place, they went through and assessed how each outlet – Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc. – would be immersed in the process.

They started by looking around and analyzing how competitors used each channel. As they got going, they considered how to level up by creating specific content for each portal. One of the first promotions they ran on Facebook was a “Redeeming Ramen” initiative in which participants got a coupon for ramen (Pei Wei ramen; not imitation Top Ramen!).

“People in each portal have different wants, needs and uses for information,” Terry noted, “we just felt our way through it.” He also pointed out that “you can’t monetize learning insights you can derive from people. Social media is a way to share into consumers in a way they want to receive information.” Businesses don’t need to depend as much on big, expensive things anymore. The human cost involved in certain programs is high, but it’s worth it. Blog Asia got huge buzz and PR, and the actual monetary cost to run it was relatively low.

Pei Wei learned directly from consumers what they wanted the blogger to cover, so they can better appease their audience.

Education amongst internal staff should also be a high priority. For example, Pei Wei hasn’t tried any Foursquare specials yet, but if/when they do, they’ll make sure that all Pei Wei employees are fully aware of the special and all the technicalities surrounding it. Staff also need to know how to craft response statements. Unlike traditional PR, where you have a schedule and know when something’s going to happen, you have little time to prepare when someone posts something online. The second it goes live, you need to address it promptly. Sometimes, if it’s a smaller matter, your community will take care of it for you.

Other times, you need to address it. If you do screw up, Terry says, “Be honest, straightforward, and say ‘we screwed up’!” Pei Wei ran a 10th anniversary offer that got forwarded among infinitely many people via email, Twitter, and Facebook. Demand ended up exceeding supply, and the system broke for a day. Many of the marketing staff, including Terry, went on personal accounts to talk to customers through the night, explain the situation, and apologize, then eventually sent a mass letter on behalf of the marketing team addressing the mishap. Learning from others’ mistakes is hugely important.

After witnessing a Facebook controversy surrounding another brand, Terry got on the phone and told his team he wanted a decision matrix in place. They discussed how they’d handle certain customer service issues so they’d be ready if something happened. They even had a plan in place for Blog Asia in case people responded adversely. Terry’s basic advice for restaurants new to social media or not yet involved includes:

1. Listen! Start small, and learn about what you’re doing before jumping in.
2. Set expectations throughout your organization about what consumer responses will look like. You WILL get negative comments, so build guest relations and know how to handle situations when they happen.
3. If you’re going to enter into this arena, participate and engage in it – you’re not “tapping the power” of social media if you’re involved yet being passive.
4. Don’t just do it to do it! Identify your objective for being there. Rather than an attitude of “we have to”, have one of “this is what we want to accomplish…”