Kulture Konnect Blog

Time is running out as January comes to a close. Valentine's Day is rapidly approaching and for many restaurants across the country, it's one of the busiest holidays. According to Reserve, couples are spending an average of $286.56 on a Valentine's Day dinner in the U.S. (Talk about a sales boost).

You still have a couple weeks left to plan your Valentine's Day promotion. If you're stuck trying to figure out what promotion to run, we have 8 restaurant promotion ideas that you'll fall in love with. You don't have a whole lot of time so, let's get right down to it.

Four of these restaurants have one thing in common. Each adds a unique twist and flavor to the Los Angeles and Orange County dining scene. Not to mention, each owner is doing it extremely well. 

There's no doubt people want delicious food but most of us want to try something different. Something out of the ordinary and restaurants who think outside the box are the one's getting a ton of attention.

Let's take a look at these 4 eateries and faces behind these successful spots.

Most of us do it every year. We vow at the beginning of each year to set resolutions or goals. We make promises to ourselves to focus on our personal well-being whether it might be our health, eating healthier, losing weight, lessen stress, travel more and etc. but what about your business?

As a business owner, this is a perfect time to make a list of ways to make positive changes and improvements. Here are 5 important new years resolutions every business owner should make.

Stop Wearing All the Hats 

No matter how hard you try it's nearly impossible to do everything and run your business on your own. One of the benefits of owning a business is that you don't have to work for someone else. You want to get to a point where your business can run without always being present. With that said, if you fall into this category than you might want to consider growing your team. Think of positions you need and want to fill. Of course, take your budget into consideration and be realistic on what you can afford.

Yelp has always been known to be one of the top review sites for restaurants. The site offers reviews, tips and photos to give potential customers a glimpse of each restaurant from a customer's point of view. Yelp has over 140 million people visiting the site each month, making it one of the strongest crowd-sourced review sites. 

Today, other restaurant review sites have received almost just as much attention. People are no longer relying only on Yelp, but taking their curiosity to other restaurant/food-related blogs that have taken off over the last several years. These blogs offer an inside look from a blogger's point of view. They have found creative ways to share their experience with food lovers, including video clips of each blogger's experience and more, giving you a real-life look.

These popular food blogs offer more than a good review. They are the perfect platform to market your restaurant. There are several advantages! Being featured on the best food blogs will be a major help to your restaurant marketing. It will also create buzz around your diner or eatery and most importantly, give you a sales boost. We have highlighted 6 of the hottest food blog sites that will no doubt help your restaurant gain exposure.

Whether you consider your restaurant as a lifelong passion or you honestly are simply using it as a way to make ends meet, a role in this dynamic restaurant industry can teach you a fair amount of valuable lessons. The restaurant industry is one of the most difficult industries to survive in with 59 percent of hospitality facilities said to fail within the first 3 years. 

Whether you are struggling today, just closed the doors on a restaurant or planning to open, the truth is some wish they had the resources or the advice from a professional to guide them along the way. Which is why we gathered 6 successful expert restaurateurs that will give the advice you wish you had from day one. 

There's only a few weeks left til 2019 kicks off and with that in mind, it's the right time to start planning your new Instagram strategy. But before doing so, let's take a look at which Instagram trends to expect this coming year.

Brands Will Work With More Micro-Influencers

Nowadays, micro-influencers are more prevalent and relevant than ever. They are present in all categories like health, food, fashion and sports. They have particular niche audiences that they are constantly and profoundly engaged with. Coupled with the fact that they like to collaborate with like-minded brands, these attributes make them great partners for other brands and businesses looking to improve their customer engagement.

When it comes down to wine, the older the better. But does this saying apply to the audience your winery should be targeting? 

It was found that 31 percent of consumers in the U.S. who drink wine at least once a week are millennials between the ages of 21 and 40. With these stats you might automatically think you should be focusing on millennials. Not so fast. 39 percent for ages 40-54, and 43 percent for ages 55 and up of alcohol consumption is attributed to wine. 

Here are more interesting facts about several generations and who you should be targeting for your wine marketing. 

(Source: It's A Grind)

Kulture Konnect is thrilled to announce our new client...(drum roll)...It's A Grind Coffee House!

For those of you who have never heard of the speciality coffee house, It's A Grind is famous for their high-quality Arabica coffee beans and operates more than 15 locations in 3 states and 3 international locations. We are confident to say they will continue to grow! We are honored to be a part of their future! 

Our creative team happily hopped onboard to take on their design work starting out with two of our favorite design pieces shown below, which is featured inside two of their locations. These designs are very much inspired by city landmarks such as the San Leandro Downtown Gateway, the San Leandro East 14th Street and MacArthur Boulevard Gateway.

Jorge Pacheco, who worked closely with the designs, shared how pleased he was that there were no limitations on how innovative we were allowed to be, "it's been so refreshing to have the liberty to design in such a creative way for the coffee house. Not only was the designs inspired by landmarks but the design style was inspired by ecclectic colorful South American regions."

Restaurant owners from the Palm Springs and Coachella Valley had plenty to look forward to last Wednesday at the Dine GPS Restaurant Bootcamp presentation at the Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort & Spa. The panel consisted of food produce giant Sysco, who revealed food trends and the latest restaurant concepts. Popular reservation system Open Table shared trends among diners from the Palm Springs area. Last but not least, our very own restaurant marketing expert, Jorge Pacheco, discussed the benefits and the most essential parts of social media. Let's recap some of the most important points of Jorge's presentation.

You already own a restaurant and it turned out to be a success. Your next goal is to expand and you're considering different locations. Do you want to expand locally? Or do you want to take it up a notch and open in a different state? And if so, which locations should you consider? New studies show there are 10 U.S. cities you'll want to explore. Let's take a look.