To create my own educational experience I created a business plan & watched a whole lotta TedTalks.
Calzones are the game. Zoning is the name.
Because of my love for food and DC, it’s only natural for my product to be a restaurant. I mean, what do I know like the back of my hand? Food. What is the thing I spend the most money on? Food. What makes me happier than food? More food.
My business proposal is a fast casual, locally sourced, calzone restaurant that operates Chipotle style- down the line, quick and easy. It will be called “Zoning” and menu recommendations will be named after areas of DC. My business plan for it revolved primarily around social media and marketing because that is what I know and love best. As for financial and expansion reports, I plan to collaborate and build a diversified team to help me sort all that out.
So let’s talk about Zoning. The restaurant will focus on three main concepts, community, transparency, and affordable luxury. There are so many trendy fast casual, higher end stops to chose from, and all of them are delicious, but there’s nothing that combines two of the world’s favorite things, pizza and burritos, and does it fast. That’s where Zoning comes in and changes humankind’s approach to food forever.
Basics:
-Open one small shop in Dupont Circle because of the high office and living traffic in the area
-Locally sourced ingredients from regions that surround DC, such as Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania
-Serve seasonal ingredients and seasonal juices on the menu
-Hire employees with versatile skills instead of specialized so that the company works as efficiently as possible
-Have aesthetics of restaurant be inviting and trendy with local artist’s art displayed and an industrial feel
-Focus on promotion from grassroots level and building community
-Work with urban gardens as community partners to demonstrate our love for DC and loyalty to the community
Social Media:
Before we break it down I want to start by saying that as Zoning expands I hope to hire a copywriter, social media content strategist, in house photographer, social media coordinator, digital marketer, and customer experience specialist. I also plan to invest in getting Percolate for the marketing department because it makes the social media monitoring process so much easier by consolidating it all into one platform.
-Create an official website for the restaurant called zoning.com where menus, all information, and special updates will be posted and regularly
-Start a separate site styled as a blog to create supplemental content to keep users engaged and active with the brand
----Optimize searchability and publicity through strategic planning and use of SEOs (search engine optimization)
----Run employee interviews to build the sense of community
----Create recipes inspired by in house ingredients to allow customers to bring Zoning back home with them
----Compile weekly article round ups and monthly spotify playlists to provide constant fun, interactive content for viewers and keep them engaged in Zoning
-Run an Instagram account for the purpose of creating a dynamic page (lifestyle and food posts), finding user generated content to share (UGC), engaging with customers, and building relationships with local influencers
-Run a Twitter and Facebook account primarily to encourage sharing our content by regularly posting share-worthy news, photos, and comments. These platforms will be used for outreach and interaction with customers
----Use promoted posts to reach more viewers and maximize engagement
-Create a Pinterest account because pins travel faster than any other type of sharing
----Create boards for our seasonal ingredients and ideas that match our brand image
----Share blog posts photos with links back to website
----Source recipes that use our seasonal ingredients
----Build boards that engage users and draw people to the profile
----Use promoted pins to reach greater audiences
-Use Snapchat for quick sharing and creating easy content
----Produce weekly cooking videos that resemble BuzzfeedTasty’s called “Beyond the Zone” using seasonal ingredients that are being used in house
----Share information on restaurant’s happenings and how to customize the restaurant experience to each person (vegan, vegetarian, paleo)
----Eventually have an in house geo-tag for users to add to their Snapchats
Now, because I’m have zero knowledge and zero experience in any fields except for marketing, I think it’s only fit to look for investors and partners that can advise me on that side of the business. I think that the best business models revolve around passion and collaboration. I have the passion for food, as exhibited through the thousands of food photos on my personal Instagram account and my willingness to run all across DC in search of the next best meal, but I think the most important part to my innovative business plan will be assembling a team of individuals that think innately differently than I do and establishing a healthy, collaborative environment from the very beginning. How am I going to do that? I’m going to start by holding brainstorm sessions once I’ve pulled together a team and apply concepts from IDEO’s business model, like the deep dive, to really empathize with the consumer and understand all aspects of a problem before formulating an approach. In the end, I just want to create a business that gets consumers excited and creates a brand rather than just brand profits.
My business proposal is a fast casual, locally sourced, calzone restaurant that operates Chipotle style- down the line, quick and easy. It will be called “Zoning” and menu recommendations will be named after areas of DC. My business plan for it revolved primarily around social media and marketing because that is what I know and love best. As for financial and expansion reports, I plan to collaborate and build a diversified team to help me sort all that out.
So let’s talk about Zoning. The restaurant will focus on three main concepts, community, transparency, and affordable luxury. There are so many trendy fast casual, higher end stops to chose from, and all of them are delicious, but there’s nothing that combines two of the world’s favorite things, pizza and burritos, and does it fast. That’s where Zoning comes in and changes humankind’s approach to food forever.
Basics:
-Open one small shop in Dupont Circle because of the high office and living traffic in the area
-Locally sourced ingredients from regions that surround DC, such as Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania
-Serve seasonal ingredients and seasonal juices on the menu
-Hire employees with versatile skills instead of specialized so that the company works as efficiently as possible
-Have aesthetics of restaurant be inviting and trendy with local artist’s art displayed and an industrial feel
-Focus on promotion from grassroots level and building community
-Work with urban gardens as community partners to demonstrate our love for DC and loyalty to the community
Social Media:
Before we break it down I want to start by saying that as Zoning expands I hope to hire a copywriter, social media content strategist, in house photographer, social media coordinator, digital marketer, and customer experience specialist. I also plan to invest in getting Percolate for the marketing department because it makes the social media monitoring process so much easier by consolidating it all into one platform.
-Create an official website for the restaurant called zoning.com where menus, all information, and special updates will be posted and regularly
-Start a separate site styled as a blog to create supplemental content to keep users engaged and active with the brand
----Optimize searchability and publicity through strategic planning and use of SEOs (search engine optimization)
----Run employee interviews to build the sense of community
----Create recipes inspired by in house ingredients to allow customers to bring Zoning back home with them
----Compile weekly article round ups and monthly spotify playlists to provide constant fun, interactive content for viewers and keep them engaged in Zoning
-Run an Instagram account for the purpose of creating a dynamic page (lifestyle and food posts), finding user generated content to share (UGC), engaging with customers, and building relationships with local influencers
-Run a Twitter and Facebook account primarily to encourage sharing our content by regularly posting share-worthy news, photos, and comments. These platforms will be used for outreach and interaction with customers
----Use promoted posts to reach more viewers and maximize engagement
-Create a Pinterest account because pins travel faster than any other type of sharing
----Create boards for our seasonal ingredients and ideas that match our brand image
----Share blog posts photos with links back to website
----Source recipes that use our seasonal ingredients
----Build boards that engage users and draw people to the profile
----Use promoted pins to reach greater audiences
-Use Snapchat for quick sharing and creating easy content
----Produce weekly cooking videos that resemble BuzzfeedTasty’s called “Beyond the Zone” using seasonal ingredients that are being used in house
----Share information on restaurant’s happenings and how to customize the restaurant experience to each person (vegan, vegetarian, paleo)
----Eventually have an in house geo-tag for users to add to their Snapchats
Now, because I’m have zero knowledge and zero experience in any fields except for marketing, I think it’s only fit to look for investors and partners that can advise me on that side of the business. I think that the best business models revolve around passion and collaboration. I have the passion for food, as exhibited through the thousands of food photos on my personal Instagram account and my willingness to run all across DC in search of the next best meal, but I think the most important part to my innovative business plan will be assembling a team of individuals that think innately differently than I do and establishing a healthy, collaborative environment from the very beginning. How am I going to do that? I’m going to start by holding brainstorm sessions once I’ve pulled together a team and apply concepts from IDEO’s business model, like the deep dive, to really empathize with the consumer and understand all aspects of a problem before formulating an approach. In the end, I just want to create a business that gets consumers excited and creates a brand rather than just brand profits.
A Classroom in Cambridge
To create my own educational experience I found and binge watched a bunch of Ted Talks and reflected on the key lessons from them. Best. Sunday. Ever.
First, I started with the topic of social media development and digital marketing. I started by watching the 2009 TED Talk called "How To Make a Splash in Social Media," given by Reddit co-founder, Alexis Ohanian. The talk featured the story of Greenpeace's campiagn to name the whale they placed a tracking chip in. While many options were culturally diverse and thoughtful, the option of "Mr. Splashy Pants" became an internet craze. In the end, not only did Greenpeace have their whale's name, but they also launched a full out marketing campaign around it, complete with t-shirts and mugs, and achieved their goal of diminishing whale hunting in Japan. Ohanian highlighted how the internet levels the playing field, making anyone with a browser equal. Your link is just as good as my link. It costs nothing to publish and maintain except for time, and if you're going to purse this, the most important thing is to be genuine and upfront. It's okay to lose control of a campaign, for example the explosion over "Mr. Splashy Pants," as long as you don't take yourself too seriously and realize social media isn't top down, it's sometimes unpredictable.
Next, I explored digital marketing TED Talks and watched "How To Start A Movement," where Derek Sivers explains how to start a movement (duh). He highlighted the importance of the first follower because while a leader is crucial and standing out and embracing risk is necessary, it's more about the first active follower that takes a "lone nut" and makes it a movement. Being a follower is an underestimated form of leadership and it's important to embrace followers and nurture them as equals. Overall, his main message was that leadership is over glorified and that to create a movement it's all about the following.
Third, because of my genuine interest in the fast-casual restaurant industry I decided to learn more about what goes into creating a fast-casual restaurant. I watched a TED talk given by Aaron Pool, the owner of a fast-casual enchilada restaurant, Gazooks Enchiladas and Soup, in Phoenix. His topic was "The Anatomy of Fast-Casual" restaurants and how purposeful every part of the structure is. To start, fast-casual is the sweet spot between casual dining and quick service. It has the core competencies of the casual dining experience with high quality foods mixed with the high volume of fast foods. He discusses his own restaurant, from subtle design elements to customer interaction in order to explain how crucial the relationship between restaurant and customer is. It's about being transparent and honest while making sure the customer feels like they add value to the meal. In the end, the customer's loyalty comes from interaction and hospitality.
And last, because this section wouldn't be complete without some innovation, I watched Charles Leadbeater's TED talk on "The Era of Open Innovation." He dissects innovation from the perspective of the user and discusses the importance of collaboration in today's world. His view is that when the internet combines with passionate consumers who are knowledgeable you get an explosion of creative collaboration. This is huge challenge to the way people think creativity comes about. It is no longer special people connecting their ideas with the customer, it's now a two way street. Radical innovations come with a huge amount of uncertainty, the payoffs being greatest when the uncertainty is highest. This when you need innovation in use to really see what the invention is for. Users are the source of big disruptive innovations because companies operate at higher risk. Emerging new markets are the breeding grounds for passionate users, making users into producers and producers into designers. There is a huge conflict in sustaining open sourced innovation (consumer innovation) because it is the greatest competitive force against monopolies. The entire domain of creativity is expanding.
THE POINT: There are takeaways from each video I watched to create my educational experience. For "How To Make a Splash in Social Media," it's about letting go of control and taking advantage of online opportunities as they come. From "How to Start a Movement" I learned the importance of followers, even greater than the importance of leaders. In "The Anatomy of Fast-Casual" I was able to see the application of fast-casual restaurant principles to the speaker's experience and see the value of the customer interaction. These three are super relevant to my life as I want to be a social media digital marketer and right now I work at Cava. I can apply these takeaways to my work there and use them to brainstorm ideas that follow those principles- taking opportunities, valuing followers, and creating an amazing customer experience. The final TED talk I watched was most relevant to BMGT289B and I took a lot away from it, especially the rise of consumer created products and how powerful of an industry that can become. I think it relates a lot to social media because social media provides grounds for collaboration and organization at a grassroots level. The speech reminded me of the Disruptive Innovation reading we did where companies were not willing to cannibalize their products because Leadbeater spoke a lot about how companies will never be able to reach the creative potential of users because they're more concerned with performance and risk. One big takeaway from the TED talk was that open innovation is where the business world is moving and the two way street of innovation is only growing. I think I can take this idea and bring it to everything I do. Instead of expecting higher ups to initiate change I can take matters into my own hands and seek collaboration to make things happen. For example, at Cava all the people on the team are encouraged to bring their own ideas to the table and not expect certain roles to monopolize that opportunity. From that, I created an Instagram post for Cava that advertised for their Snapchat. I found an inspiration post while scrolling through Instagram and took initiative in asking a graphic designer to mock up what I envisioned (see it below).
First, I started with the topic of social media development and digital marketing. I started by watching the 2009 TED Talk called "How To Make a Splash in Social Media," given by Reddit co-founder, Alexis Ohanian. The talk featured the story of Greenpeace's campiagn to name the whale they placed a tracking chip in. While many options were culturally diverse and thoughtful, the option of "Mr. Splashy Pants" became an internet craze. In the end, not only did Greenpeace have their whale's name, but they also launched a full out marketing campaign around it, complete with t-shirts and mugs, and achieved their goal of diminishing whale hunting in Japan. Ohanian highlighted how the internet levels the playing field, making anyone with a browser equal. Your link is just as good as my link. It costs nothing to publish and maintain except for time, and if you're going to purse this, the most important thing is to be genuine and upfront. It's okay to lose control of a campaign, for example the explosion over "Mr. Splashy Pants," as long as you don't take yourself too seriously and realize social media isn't top down, it's sometimes unpredictable.
Next, I explored digital marketing TED Talks and watched "How To Start A Movement," where Derek Sivers explains how to start a movement (duh). He highlighted the importance of the first follower because while a leader is crucial and standing out and embracing risk is necessary, it's more about the first active follower that takes a "lone nut" and makes it a movement. Being a follower is an underestimated form of leadership and it's important to embrace followers and nurture them as equals. Overall, his main message was that leadership is over glorified and that to create a movement it's all about the following.
Third, because of my genuine interest in the fast-casual restaurant industry I decided to learn more about what goes into creating a fast-casual restaurant. I watched a TED talk given by Aaron Pool, the owner of a fast-casual enchilada restaurant, Gazooks Enchiladas and Soup, in Phoenix. His topic was "The Anatomy of Fast-Casual" restaurants and how purposeful every part of the structure is. To start, fast-casual is the sweet spot between casual dining and quick service. It has the core competencies of the casual dining experience with high quality foods mixed with the high volume of fast foods. He discusses his own restaurant, from subtle design elements to customer interaction in order to explain how crucial the relationship between restaurant and customer is. It's about being transparent and honest while making sure the customer feels like they add value to the meal. In the end, the customer's loyalty comes from interaction and hospitality.
And last, because this section wouldn't be complete without some innovation, I watched Charles Leadbeater's TED talk on "The Era of Open Innovation." He dissects innovation from the perspective of the user and discusses the importance of collaboration in today's world. His view is that when the internet combines with passionate consumers who are knowledgeable you get an explosion of creative collaboration. This is huge challenge to the way people think creativity comes about. It is no longer special people connecting their ideas with the customer, it's now a two way street. Radical innovations come with a huge amount of uncertainty, the payoffs being greatest when the uncertainty is highest. This when you need innovation in use to really see what the invention is for. Users are the source of big disruptive innovations because companies operate at higher risk. Emerging new markets are the breeding grounds for passionate users, making users into producers and producers into designers. There is a huge conflict in sustaining open sourced innovation (consumer innovation) because it is the greatest competitive force against monopolies. The entire domain of creativity is expanding.
THE POINT: There are takeaways from each video I watched to create my educational experience. For "How To Make a Splash in Social Media," it's about letting go of control and taking advantage of online opportunities as they come. From "How to Start a Movement" I learned the importance of followers, even greater than the importance of leaders. In "The Anatomy of Fast-Casual" I was able to see the application of fast-casual restaurant principles to the speaker's experience and see the value of the customer interaction. These three are super relevant to my life as I want to be a social media digital marketer and right now I work at Cava. I can apply these takeaways to my work there and use them to brainstorm ideas that follow those principles- taking opportunities, valuing followers, and creating an amazing customer experience. The final TED talk I watched was most relevant to BMGT289B and I took a lot away from it, especially the rise of consumer created products and how powerful of an industry that can become. I think it relates a lot to social media because social media provides grounds for collaboration and organization at a grassroots level. The speech reminded me of the Disruptive Innovation reading we did where companies were not willing to cannibalize their products because Leadbeater spoke a lot about how companies will never be able to reach the creative potential of users because they're more concerned with performance and risk. One big takeaway from the TED talk was that open innovation is where the business world is moving and the two way street of innovation is only growing. I think I can take this idea and bring it to everything I do. Instead of expecting higher ups to initiate change I can take matters into my own hands and seek collaboration to make things happen. For example, at Cava all the people on the team are encouraged to bring their own ideas to the table and not expect certain roles to monopolize that opportunity. From that, I created an Instagram post for Cava that advertised for their Snapchat. I found an inspiration post while scrolling through Instagram and took initiative in asking a graphic designer to mock up what I envisioned (see it below).