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This articles discussed a synergistic partnership for technology investment by New York City restaurant owners. This is intended to encourage investment in technology in ways attuned to the needs of avidly Actual restaurants in practical ways.

Juice it Up's new CEO started right before the corona virus hit. And while at first that seemed to be a daunting task, her goals ended up aligning with the needs of this new era: get better technology. For a mostly franchised brand, Taylor new that getting this tech up and running was going to be difficult, but also that it was going to be necessary to the success of the company. The "brand didn't need to change it's business model because most of their business came from to go order already," but Taylor found the company to be seriously lacking in technology. Her goal: a mobile POS system that would offer menu information, nutritional elements, the ability to order ahead, leave a tip, and schedule a pick-up. What is unique about this app and this system, is that it is not through a third-party system, which is what most restaurants are currently using. It opens up the potential for more companies, specifically large brands, to begin to do a similar thing. This will be an incredible save for profit margins if it proves to be successful, as the current crisis of third-party delivery and POS systems is wreaking havoc on our nation's restaurants.

The eMenu has many potential to improve your business. This device you can create unique banding to highlight what makes you outstanding, grow social media and have opportunities to run ad's on specialties.

This article focuses on ways that eMenus can be beneficial to restaurants. With so much competition in the restaurant business, restaurant owners must constantly find ways to improve and make it more notable. An eMenu is a way to keep things fresh. For starters, it offers a sense of personal branding in a way that one is able to personalize the menu with a branding that sets apart from competitors. In addition, social media integration also helps with the branding by enhancing reach to possible customers. Finally, advertisement is a big part of the eMenu. Specialties within the restaurant may be advertised which will feel personal to the guest.

L'Oreal Canada is now utilizing OSF Global Service's eCommerce solutions to further their luxury skin-care brand, Biotherm. Their new e-boutique is based on the Demandware Commence cloud-based platform. This new solution will offer their target consumer a personalized shopping experience with the "integration of responsive designed webpages, comprehensive analytics and a new product reviews platform." With online shopping behavior constantly changing, integrating the appropriate platform is key for store and web-based companies. With added control over the products consumers view and purchase, shoppers are provided with deeper insight into Biotherm. I believe that L'Oreal Canada's advance approach to consumer shopping will bring added success to their products while enhancing their 30 brand portfolio. While meeting their customers' expectations, they are able to evolve their image.

IT investment is one of the most necessary cost for most hospitality properties and play more and more important role in today's hotel or restaurant operation. For this reason, some of the large hotel groups have started to invest in this field and achieved a favorable result sine the increasing of profit and brand value. On the other hand those small properties can work together to develop and share resources in their operation. I believe a hotel without IT investment may rapidly lose the position in the market.

A property management company is investing in diversifying their technology portfolio to tailor specific brands and to it's market, while maintaining standards. One of their main focuses is on guest feedback on hotel stays, and ways to improve in real time solutions. By collecting data from social sites properties are able to provide actionable responses to guests concerns. For instance taking care of a problem after reading a posting on Twitter and the issue being resolved by the time the guest returns to their room. Instantaneous info and reacting to that info creates a satisfied guest and a well a maintained brand and image of the property.

In the article "Investing in Hotel Technology- Guest Needs Versus Franchise Demands" it talks about how hotel owners follow brand standards while managing potential conflict with guests and are making sure they are getting their moneys worth on this investment. Technology is a huge part of hotels today, everything is done from the Internet and it even helps employees organize all of their information in an easy, user friendly way. Over the past years many hotel owners have opted to become franchisees of big name industries. "By joining a major hotel chain, these individual owners benefit from the brand association they get from being under such a well-known corporate umbrella, broader consumer recognition, plus access to well-established centralized reservation and booking systems." When hotel owners opt to become franchises of these bigger hotels they also give up their right to make certain decisions for their own hotel. Although this could be a downfall for the owner, "these investments have a negligible impact on the ability of the hotelier to bring in additional revenue," which is something that the hotel needs help with. Overall, when small hotels opt out and decide to become franchisees of big name hotels like the Hilton, it has both its advantages and disadvantages.

The element by Westin brand for extended stay have revolutionized the market and found a niche for travelers who are environmentally conscious and eco-friendly. This brand uses green initiatives from design to construction and eventually during operation. Element hotels use this as a branding strategy but more hotels should adopt this model for conservation and to reduce expenses.

http://www.capetown.travel/blog/entry/real-world_e-marketing_implementation_insights_from_global_agencies/ This article is a summary of a roundtable meeting between four top online agency leaders. It introduced their thoughts and insights about e-marketing. These marketing, communications and creative agencies help build brands, find customers, manage reputations and convert awareness into profitable purchases. They discussed the key advantages of online media, difference in marketing tourism products and services compared to those in other industries, how it is different to market to a travel consumer as opposed to other consumers, the primary challenge facing in creating online experiences in tourism, whether branded company websites are on longer the most valuable online presence or not, the relation between video and conversion rates and the ways companies monitor and track their brand appearing in cutting-edge social media.

Trying to go beyond the limitations of the "Like" as a standard metric for social media, a new Compete study combines a variety of measures to assess the success of online travel brands on Facebook. While the analysis focuses on the travel category, the approaches taken could apply to other industry verticals on Facebook.

Article discusses ways in the the practice of measuring social media success based on likes canbe misleading for travel sites and brands. The argument made is that the like is a cumulative metric rather than a current. Meaning You have an indication of what people think of your brand in general, but not at that moment. Unique visits is a metric that is a better indicator of engagement as it lends to give you an idea of how users/travelers are reacting towards your brand on an ongoing basis...

It seems they are really customizing the guest experience by offering guests the opportunity to take advantage of their relationship with Live Nation. I like how they get the guests involved in promotions by offering them a cash code, a benefit of being an SPG member.

This article discusses the liability for a cyber breach at various branded hotels between the franchise owner or the corporation. The Trustwave 2016 Global Security Report stated that the hospitality industry had the second largest amount of data breaches. Additionally, more than half of the breaches are from a corporate/internal network breach. According to a Ponemon study, the average cost of a data breach is $4 million. While this is alarming, it is a surprise since hotels store numerous amounts of personal customer data including guest's credit card information. The article states that cyber hacks are largely due to the gap in not knowing who is responsible for the cyber security. There is an issue of control of data versus franchise network requirements. The hotel brand places individual franchisees in control of their own cyber security. However; they must rely on many centralized corporate owned reservation systems that could be possible access point for cyber attacks. The article suggests that the individual franchisee should make more effort in protecting their customers information as the hotel brand will take most of the blame. This does not help either side. Also, it mentions that in order to protect the hotel franchise it is important to have updated systems and should consider investing in cyber insurance.

I liked this article because it actually discusses something I thought about for the discussion board. POS systems, can create ways for guests to easily access what they want, quickly get it and have the opportunity to receive loyalty perks and promotions via APPs. Fast casual restaurants such as Little Caesars just introduced a self service and mobile order pickup stationed called the "pizza portal" which i think is effectively reaching their target market. The usage of POS is restaurant brands are having a major positive effect and creating stronger brand loyalty, especially with the generation CX taret.

This article discusses the increasing demand for e-commerce and third party delivery in the food and beverage industry, as well as the costs associated with it. Restaurants are currently facing a growth problem in the United States as foot traffic has declined due to a "millennial generation shift" that sees diners doing more in their homes, while third party companies like Grubhub have seen it's stock rise 141 percent from a year ago. For many restaurants, it is a matter of opportunity cost. As explained in this article by Warren Solocheck, a restaurant industry analyst at NPD, "We're going to see more and more quick-service chains begin to try out delivery," he said. "The margins associated with third-party delivery may be slimmed down. But, the question for restaurants is, 'If I don't do it and I'm not delivering my food, am I in the game anymore? Am I in people's consideration? It boils down to being an opportunity cost. The hope is that at some point people will like the food enough to come in and sit down." I found this article very interesting as a General Manager. We recently decided as a brand to begin offering delivery through third party services as we noticed a decline in covers leading to a decline in revenue. This new revenue stream, although at a higher cost, still brings in revenue that we would be missing out on either way. We also offer free appetizer cards for a consumer's next in house visit to help attract new guests.

How Social Media is affecting E commerce. E Commerce is a growing business anyway we look at it. But like any business, how do you continue to grow it as times change. How do you market the business in a new way based on trends? This quick read article points out 5 great ways that social media is marketing e commerce and outlets on social media that are driving it.

This gift hunt utilized a mobile shopping assistant app, Nate, to engage customers with various brands. Using location based marketing through QR codes, players found brands and then received information or promotions about the brand.

This article discusses the benefits of utilizing influencer marketing to give your hotel/restaurant marketing strategy a more competitive edge. They noted that influencers inspire an already established audience and provide inspiration to followers to live more fully and "experience something out-of-the-ordinary." I learned that the key to a great influencer is finding someone who matches both your brand values and the values of your audience. They also discussed how influencers add authority and trust and how they are seen by their audience to be unbiased and objective. This puts the influencer in a position of great trustworthiness when it comes to purchasing decisions. The article also discussed how influencers help marketing departments by coming up with fresh and exciting content that their audiences will want to see. Lastly, the article touched on that since the COVID-19 pandemic social media has become more powerful than ever before. People are spending an additional 3 minutes on Instagram per day. The best way to leverage this new increased usage is to get an established influencer who understands your band and who already has a relationship with your targeted audience to work on your campaigns. Overall, influencer marketing is here to stay and if carefully researched you'll see a strong surge of engagement on your social media platforms.

4.15 billiion are active in social networks, this shows social network has a big impact on travelers' decisions. Keywords such as "safe travel" became popular after Covid 19. Hashtags are useful in order to create brand awareness in social media, put hotels on map, making them searchable and creating brand authenticity. Social cause campaigns improve how hotels interact with customers and it helps generate leads. Influencer marketing is a form of word of mouth on social media platforms. Collaboration with influencers in Youtube, TikTok, etc is a good idea since they have their own follower base targeting some of the biggest customer segments in hospitality. The holdbacks of incfluencers marketing should be considered.

SUMMARY: This article by Bernard Ellis talks about the benefits of cloud computing and how it is being used in the hospitality industry. Hotels were previously wary about using cloud computing, but are slowly realizing that this technology has the ability to improve not only their operations, but also customer service and revenue. Ellis believes that limited-service brands, like a Courtyard by Marriott are part of the reason why hotels started looking into cloud computing. Brands like Courtyards do not have the means to spend significant amounts of money on technology, unlike their full-service counterparts. This sometimes means these hotels are at risk for not receiving necessary updates. Cloud computing enables hotel chains to offer access to systems, not previously made available to limited-service brands and also franchisees, both of which are crucial to the hotel chain's success. Hotels were previously concerned about their ability to maintain security and safety of systems within cloud computing. Now the concern has turned to change management. Changes and updates happen faster through the cloud platform and hotels have to figure out the best way to ensure staff is on top of all changes that take place. According to Ellis, the answer to this problem is learning management platforms, which are technology-based and more cost-efficient. Having technology-based learning platforms makes training easier and gives hotels the ability to update the training regularly based on any changes that take place. By utilizing cloud computing and learning management platforms, hotels will be able to improve operations, improve customer service, and streamline revenue.