A Study On The Communication Path Of Catering Brands Under The Context Of Social Media Marketing

As an important contributor of the tertiary industry,the catering industry,being labor-intensive,has not only alleviated the overwhelming employment pressure in China,but also play an important role in increasing China's economic income,improving people's living standards and fueling development of other industries.Along with development of economy and society,the branding trend has become growingly obvious in the catering industry.Apart from developing independent operation concepts and values,catering enterprises have paid increasing attention to shaping intangible assets,such as brands.At present,rapid development of Internet,science and technology has generated many emerging media.Being interactive,participation-oriented,and socialized,social media represented by Weibo and WeChat have turned into necessary tools for communication between catering enterprises and users.Therefore,under the context of social marketing,it is imperative for the catering industry to combine its brand communication with social media.On the basis of investigating into user demands,the catering industry should attract users' participation through novel and interactive communication methods,and meet users' expectations so as to upgrade their brand competitiveness.Major research methods adopted by this research include literature analysis method and case study.On the one hand,the author extensively collects relevant literatures and materials,and reads a large number of books,journals and papers.By summarizing and analyzing these literatures,the author attempts to apply relevant theories to this paper.On the other hand,the typical case,Diaoye Sirloin,is adopted to analyze the communication path of catering brands and to more vividly show the communication path of catering brands under the context of social media.Next,the author reflects on the brand communication of the catering industry according topre-warning of the social marketing.Several representative cases are chosen for an in-depth exploration.Chapter 1 summarizes relevant theories of social media marketing and brand communication.Based on the theoretical framework,Chapter 2 points out new characteristics of audiences of social media.Chapter 3 expounds on the communication path of catering brands from the perspective of advertising,public relation,sales,word of mouth,and culture.In this chapter,Diaoye Sirloin is adopted as a successful case of social media communication for further analysis.Chapter 4summarizes the previous chapters,and reflects on social media communication of catering brands by combining specific cases.It is hoped that this research can provide theoretical support for application of social media marketing to brand communication of the catering industry,and also references for research into the brand communication path of the catering industry under the future context of social media.By analyzing the communication path of social media adopted by catering brands,this research thinks that social media play an important role in terms of advertising communication,public relations communication,sales communication,world of mouth communication and cultural communication.However,the catering brands also have the following problems during the communication process in the Internet era.First,the communication concepts are outdated,and many enterprise owners have not yet got rid of shackles of traditional concepts.Second,many brand owners have ignored product quality but emphasized too much on catering brands.Third,the phenomenon of homogenization is serious,thus resulting in a low degree of identification.Fourth,their information communication effect is poor.Concerning these problems,the catering brands should make efforts in the following four aspects.First,their communication concepts should be transformed in terms of transmission models,characteristics of audiences,and marketing methods.Second,they should guarantee the cognition quality of audiences under the context of social media communication.Third,they should develop,position and promote core values of their brands.Fourth,they should reveal the story behind the brands so as to increase influence and appeal of their catering brands.