London's Larder

Food and places are often linked when marketing restaurants.  It is not just the building's interior that is used to sell the dining experience, but the location as well.

London's Larder is not a photographic image, but an illustration by Cajsa Holgersson, that serves as a guide to London's hottest and tucked away foodie delights.  Holgersson uses bright colours to re-imagine London's landmarks as food items, for example, Tower Bridge is a giant cake.

Image courtesy of Herb Lester

Instagram is also a popular marketing device for restaurants and food shops.  Finding creative ideas for their use of this particular image-based social media tool.

The most common use is through encouraging the flaunting of "food porn," which can be defined as a delectable meal that customers take and upload to social media to share, brag about and drool over.  Many restaurants encourage customers to post pictures with a particular hashtag.  For example, #marivanna, a Russian restaurant with branches around the world, has nearly 10,000 posts linked to that hashtag on Instagram.  There are photographs of the food, but also of the plush interior, demonstrating the overall feeling customers may have by dining here.

Image courtesy of @bullinka

This is my own favourite food porn image.  It is from a recent holiday to India and reminds me of watching the sunset on the beach in Palolem, Goa, and the many delicious curries I savoured on that trip.  This was also the last night of my holiday, so for me, it is quite poignant as I knew I would soon be returning to the UK's cold weather and inferior tasting food.

Restaurants and food shops also use social media, particularly image-based posts, to create a personal bond with customers to make them love the brand.  They aim to establish a community or culture where the brand is a movement or way of life.  Starbucks introduced a campaign called "what do you want five more minutes of this summer?" and produced the video below to conjure images of ideal summer activities.

Images courtesy of Starbucks

People were encouraged to post their own images of summer, creating a positive link in their minds between them and Starbucks.  When they think of Starbucks they have positive thoughts and are more likely to buy this brand of coffee.  Images can have powerful connotations for people, marketers use this to prompt action, such as buying their product.

Using social media can be a powerful marketing tool, but what if the service was unsatisfactory?  Poor customer service in a restaurant, or badly cooked food, can be instantly snapped and shared with the online community instantly.

The act of sharing a photograph of your delicious, or disgusting, looking meal can be popular with some diners, but it is not liked by all.  It is seen as a breach of etiquette by some restaurant customers, especially when the photographer uses a flash, moves the furniture or even won't let their companions eat until they have 'foodstagrammed' it.

Love it or hate it, Instagramming food porn is here to stay.  What do you think of customers posting these pictures?  Please share your answers in the comments below.