Foursquare and how to get a Michelin guide star

Again, I am more and more convinced of how much new technologies and cookery have in common. This reinforced belief comes from a recent discovery which is called Foursquare. But let’s start from the beginning. Being the owner of a cafe, even if a virtual one, I am very concerned about making sure that my establishment becomes very well known and popular . More, I am particularly interested in ensuring that my customers are so happy that they will return to visit me bringing with them also their friends and families. Even more, I aim at becoming one of the coolest restaurants in town, therefore I want to attract real trend-setters, those guys who are always the first ones in trying something and everybody wants to know what they do and, especially, where they do it, possibly in real time. But how could I achieve this without spending too much time and money and, above all, being able to reach my customers in real time, at the right moment and place?
Standard and traditional ways of advertising would be putting an ad in ad-hoc magazines and newspapers whose readers belong to the cluster I am longing for; getting a superb review from the culinary expert of El Pais or The Financial Times ‘How to spend it’ or, even better, getting a Michelin Star. And I could set up a loyalty card system offering special discounts to returning customers and encouraging my habitué to post reviews in my or their blogs becoming some sort of ambassadors. Nonetheless all of this would require a huge investment in terms of money and time as I would have to use different partners and channels. Moreover, it is not sure I would obtain my result, i.e getting a trendy, loyal and evangelising customer base. While putting an ad into a magazine is pretty easy it can be very expensive but it does not guarantee I will attract the right clients. Again, creating a loyalty reward program is not an assurance that they will be returning customers and they would recommend Cafe de Genes to other people via the classical word-of mouth - giving for granted that my cookery skills are awesome which is obviously the case. On top I want to offer my customers a special and unique experience which classical marketing channels would not realize.
The more I thought about my perspective promotional campaign the more I was feeling I needed a revolutionary approach that could give me a competitive advantage. Competition is very tough out there and customers are more and more demanding nowadays. So how can I kill 2 birds (or more) with one stone?
After a bit of research the answer has appeared in front of my eyes: its name is Foursquare. Yeah, exactly like the game for children many of us have played when kids. But here we talk about what Wikipedia describes as a ‘location-based social networking website, software for mobile devices, and also a game.’ In origin just another social game, as even some successful business men have defined it, Foursquare has attracted the attention outside the IT circles in the last months because of its huge potential as location-based mobile advertising. In other words, tell me where you are and I will offer you what you want and maybe also what you don’t know you want yet. For those of you who haven’t heard about Foursquare here a quick user guide which can help in understanding why it can be the right solution for my advertising problem. Each time you go to a place (e.g. a restaurant, bar, shop or museum) you check in via your smart phone and your friends will immediately know where you are. Next to this there is a real social competition as you will earn points for visiting repeatedly a certain venues with the possibility of becoming mayor of the establishment or collecting special badges, thus beating your friends. I think he doesn’t require having an MBA (:-)) to understand the vast business opportunity companies have in front of their eyes. The sign that things have changed for good has been when last January a company of the size of Pepsi has teamed up with Foursquare for charity purposes raising 10000$. As an interesting article explains ‘Pepsi gets some positive publicity, foursquare gets positive publicity and potential increase in user interaction, users enjoy competing and probably a few extra nights out to rack up extra points (to further the cause, of course) and Camp Interactive gets $10,000’. With a web traffic which quadrupled in the first quarter of 2010 to 2.1 million unique visitors monthly and a growth rate around 60% per week there is no doubt that Foursquare is not a game any longer as proved by the fact that companies have started queuing at its door asking for its business services. It could look quite amazing but so far Foursquare is not making any revenues from its users – in line with the fact that it was a social game/network and what has become today was not its initial goal according to its founder Dennis Crowley- and many think that it should continue like that. Surely users should not be charged but, on the contrary, they should be pampered, the reason being that the new technologies have increased and broadened the decisional power customers have and they are willing to participate to the Foursquare game in exchange of some tangible (frebbies) or intangible (becoming mayor) rewards. Otherwise why would they engage in the promotional activity? On the other hand companies and advertisers appear to be as the natural source of revenue of the company. As a shrewd businesswoman, I am willing to pay to get access and exposure to such a high value customer base in a timely and tailor made fashion. Some may argue that Foursquare is just the current darling among the social networks (it has competitors like Brightkite, Gowalla, Booyah and the French Dismoiou similar in the offer but not as succesfull) and, in short time, the general enthusiasm will deflate. Nonetheless I am convinced that, if its founders will be able to successfully manage the transformation which is taking place by creating synergies with companies, users and other social networks there is a bright future lying ahead. This position is somehow reinforced by the fact that companies like Yahoo and Facebook have showed a clear interest in acquiring Foursquare. If you still have doubts about it, just read this article ‘5 ways Foursquare is changing the world’. I have found it pretty inspiring and convinced me that my Café de Genes would enormously benefit from going Foursquare.