Why I would not invite a Food Reviewer to review any restaurant.
A little insight into a marketers head, designing and selling restaurants in Delhi.
Our everyday at studio starts with one question, what new is it that we need to do to help rise our businesses and market them better. My partner and I start many such meetings with these looming questions to keep innovating. Ideas are thrown, validated and rejected with same feverishness.
What remains a part of our everyday issues are these unsolicited “offers for invitations”, “collaborative efforts”, and most irksome “review opportunities for your restaurant” thrown at us.
On setting the same tone, both of us get extremely sad too when restaurant owners, chefs and other people from the industry diss reviews or food blogging. Well most of the times we try to defend (I am a self proclaimed food blogger too) and sometimes we let this conversation pass into non responded abyss.
Having said that my responsibility towards brand is larger than a cause to defend a certain means of livelihood or passion, also(horribly gone wrong) lack of it.
Well I decided to put my head together this Sunday afternoon, to figure out this mass defamation and laughing stock/new swearing terminology “gali” Food Reviewer, also even more difficult to digest A certain platform — foodie.
Your numbers mean nothing to me
Most of these direct messages over Instagram/Facebook start with citing certain followers or levels on platforms with unclear or no demarcation of any readership-audience. Also, more than like a conversation, they sound like a very ill-composed cold sales pitch. Well, dear reviewer; may we consider talking about your audience, who reads your blog or may be an internet downloaded, sample blog kit would also not be bad. Pinterest is full of them too!
A certain arbitrarily thrown number is as bad as your comments with vocabulary of the “cash me outside howbow dah” young lady. More like “yummy mah collab howbow delish?” NO.
Pretty please, PLEASE.
We spend days, often weeks to go back and forth to make the beautiful most graphics and photographs, building a brand takes time and resources. It also does take a lot of expertise from people of different creative fields to make a brand look, sound and feel welcoming. Unfortunately, there comes a review post about an image taken in hurried indecorous manner. Often sometimes half eaten with no character. We don’t expect you to be hire a professional photographer(its not wrong at all if you want to) however a little diligence would make your look pleasing. Bonus you’d get more likes/followers. You’d genuinely like to see people appreciating your work.
Know(Remember) about food maybe?
We don’t want you to be a critic, someone who has studied food or is a culinary sciences expert or a mixologist, even a sommelier when it comes to talking about food and alcohol. However it would really tick a chef off if you ask for “strictly vegetarian sushi” in a Sushi Bar or even worse, have no idea if you forget what you ate when you sat at that table last Friday and calling me today to know if I could recall anything? Yes, of course the client has shared your NC labeled bill with me. I obviously can tell you what you ate. I can also try to sympathise with you for not remembering anything after those many Sangiras I wouldn’t remember anything either. :)
We don’t owe you anything but a general sense of good behaviour.
Ordinarily in our setup, Good behaviour is appreciated and highlighted, people are surprised, when people are constantly nice to them in all kinds of exchanges. I have got this many times “you not from Delhi” “You seem to be not from here” This is also a sign of willingness to negotiate and take someone for a ride. Well I wouldn’t compromise anytime and no I wouldn’t be not nice. Also, I would take your name off my so called “media list” no matter how influential you possibly could have been to this association. Please be nice at all times and also don’t confuse good behaviour as desperateness for a mention/feature, internet is quiet democratic that way.
Look at what brands may want to “collaborate” on?
I also am an avid blogger/follower, if nothing else I like to share my experiences on Instagram about the brands I work with or the brands I want to work with. I also write emails asking for food reviews and yes a lot of times they are FOC (Free of cost) Also a lot of times I explicitly mentioned that I am not going to guarantee them any out reach with my blogging efforts. I also am not explicit but articulate when I feel I could do the brand some good. I expect vis-a-vis I understand, hence offer value in terms of great photos I click, I let them use for marketing themselves, I also highlight that my readership is a small but serious audience of people who enjoy reading of a certain intellect against the general frivolity of “sensational -hysterical — swooning over melting balls of chocolate”
Our work as blogging could just be sharing our idea of food, (whether that be of strictly vegetarian sushi, or an invite to cocktail session of more than a few heady drinks and having a good time on free booze) Or our idea could be of engaging people real time while eating, it could also be about simply mentioning what new we tried at what place, without absolute no mention of your regard or disregard of taste for exchange of some monetary value.
For a lot of us this is our means of livelihood. For someone like me, I make my buck by designing, marketing and photographing food. On good days I also do talk about places I like(but those are few and need to fancy me tremendously)
My idea is to not add to the mirth of bashing restaurant reviews but trying to make some sense of what is left of it.
Take your job seriously, people may then take you seriously too.
Like many other industries, the internet of things is becoming part of our everyday life and we do depend upon the human part of it, for means and ends we are aware of. If we don’t take our jobs and livelihoods seriously, we cannot really blame people when they mock our seemingly preference of wine over beer and not knowing difference between a shiraz or chardonnay. Or we cannot expect people to pay for a review — without knowing what is actual worth of your outreach.
Also a rigged review will do us as much harm as it would affect the restaurants integrity as they spend all that money.
After all good value trumps all.
