Artificial intelligence marketing is becoming a staple in the retail industry. Companies like Amazon.com use algorithms to learn what individual customers like and then show them tailored messages.
Now an Indianapolis-based entrepreneur wants to bring that kind of marketing to the restaurant industry.
Matt Tait, a former attorney and software salesman, is about six months in leading a six-person startup called Füdē (pronounced foo-dee). It sells a software product to restaurants that mines existing customer data and automates personalized marketing messages. For instance, if a person's interactions with the restaurant suggests an affinity toward steak, he'll probably see an email about a new rib eye on the menu. 
Füdē has three restaurant customers so far. But Tait said the company has been able to raise nearly $500,000 in seed capital from investors—including Scott Webber, the former CEO of BidPal, one of Tait's former employers—and it plans to expand that client base in the coming months. He said his software is not just about personalization, but also analyzing responses so that restaurants can gauge their return on marketing investment
​"One of the big things we're trying to do with Füdē is tell these restaurants owners ... that they deserve something they can actually measure at the end of every month," Tait said. "You spent this much on marketing; it put this many butts in seats in your restaurant."
The product works like this. Füdē tracks online and offline data on customers, including interactions with the restaurant, social media data and more. It then builds tailored content for each customer, including emails that "capture the essence" of how a chef would talk to people individually, Tait said. 
The software also can predict the best time to remind people to make wedding anniversary reservations, based on last year's visit.
"I know there are a lot of people that run restaurants, and it's a really hard business to be in," Tait said. "So if we can provide them with consistent, measurable sales on a monthly basis, I know for me as a business owner that'd put my heart as ease."
Füdē was co-founded by Tait and two of his former colleagues at BidPal—Zach Myers and Jonathan Runes—who worked together from 2012 to 2014. The idea started a few years ago as an app that allowed people to share restaurant recommendations with people they knew, but market research and advisers steered them in a different direction.
Füdē is in a new accelerator program at DeveloperTown called DT Starts, which essentially surrounds portfolio companies with resources to grow. DT Starts participated in the investment round and is considered a co-founder, Tait said.
Source:​http://www.ibj.com/articles/61711-startup-aims-to-bring-amazoncom-experience-to-restaurants

By Business Wire

ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
A new research report released by the Winterberry Group proves that guest data is playing a critical role in the way the restaurant industry is responding to challenges like increased competition, declining guest loyalty, and measuring marketing effectiveness. More than 200 leading restaurant and hospitality brands participated in the research initiative co-sponsored by Fishbowl and The Coca-Cola Company.
“Actionable data insights continue to emerge as the real trade secret to success in almost every service-oriented market, and the restaurant industry is no exception,” said Dev Ganesan, Chief Executive Officer of Fishbowl. Fishbowl, the leading customer engagement platform provider, provides deep guest insights that enable restaurants to execute data-driven decisions and personalized marketing. “Being able to make informed, data-driven decisions and engage guests with a high degree of certainty and minimal amount of risk is an absolute must for our clients. This report underscores that requirement by demonstrating the results a data-driven approach delivers to brands that have made it an integral part of their businesses.”
Among the key findings in the report – which can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/winterberryreportdownload – is that an overwhelming 87.3% of marketers surveyed agreed with the notion that restaurant businesses stand to gain competitive advantages by initiating and maintaining strategies to support the collection and analysis of guest data.
The report also revealed that progressive marketers are collecting a broader array of data points that go beyond simple demographics and email addresses. Preferences, attitudes, lifestyles, buying patterns, and other guest behavior insights are informing the development of innovative engagement strategies and programs. Data on responsiveness to offers, redemption information, and mobile engagement are also increasingly relied upon to provide actual, real-time intelligence on the success of campaigns – and can offer even more value when aggregated by geographic market, date range, and individual store performance.
As one survey participant said, “Going into 2017, we are focused on being able to use customers’ preferences in order to deliver relevant content. We are aiming to understand our customers better to be able to deliver them something that will drive them to our website, and drive them to make a reservation. It can’t just be offers all the time anymore.”
Other marketing trends such as shifts in media budgets and allocations, mobile and app development, social media participation, and performance metrics are unveiled in the report, with notable changes to digital media approach being reported by more than half of respondents.
Jonathan Margulies, Managing Director of Winterberry Group, notes, “Data insights enable companies to be more nimble and adept in responding to challenges and changing trends and empower them to rise above competition. Understanding and embracing the shifts currently underway in the restaurant industry from the marketers’ perspective can have monumental impacts on the future of any brand.”
Download a complimentary copy of the full report here.
About Fishbowl Marketing
Fishbowl empowers restaurants to become best in class marketers. Through its intelligent multi-channel customer engagement platform, Fishbowl drives sales and traffic by revealing powerful insights used to execute more effective campaigns across multiple channels. Fishbowl’s big data platform aggregates and enriches data from a myriad of sources to drive more effective marketing, and uncover guest and business insights that can be leveraged across the entire enterprise. Relied on by more than 70,000 restaurant locations, Fishbowl is headquartered in Alexandria, VA, with offices in Silicon Valley, UK, and India. For more information, please visit our website or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

​Source:http://finance.yahoo.com/news/guest-data-serves-roadmap-restaurant-190000607.htmlhttp://finance.yahoo.com/news/guest-data-serves-roadmap-restaurant-190000607.html

Research from Winterberry Group found that guest data plays a key role in the way restaurants handle challenges, including increased competition, declining guest loyalty, and gauging the overall effectiveness of marketing efforts, according to a news release from study co-sponsor, Fishbowl. More than 200 restaurant brands took part in the study, which was also sponsored by the The Coca-Cola Company.
"Actionable data insights continue to emerge as the real trade secret to success in almost every service-oriented market, and the restaurant industry is no exception," Fishbowl CEO Dev Ganesan, said in a news release. "Being able to make informed, data-driven decisions and engage guests with a high degree of certainty and minimal amount of risk is an absolute must for our clients.This report
underscores that requirement by demonstrating the results a data-driven approach delivers to brands that have made it an integral part of their businesses."
Among the reports key findings are: 

• 87.3 percent of marketers surveyed agreed that restaurants benefit by collecting and studying guest data.
• Progressive marketers go beyond basic demographics and email data, to include customer preferences, attitudes, lifestyles, buying patterns, and other behavior insights to increase customer engagement. 
• Responsiveness data on offers, redemption information, and mobile engagement are increasingly important to gauge campaign success in real time. 
• Many marketers are also using geographic market, date range, and individual store performance data to gauge campaign success.

The report also included other data relative to marketing trends, such as shifting media budgets, mobile and app development, social media participation and performance metrics. In fact, Fishbowl said more than half of the respondents reported that notable changes have occurred in the overall digital media approach in foodservice. 
"Data insights enable companies to be more nimble and adept in responding to challenges and changing trends and empower them to rise above competition," Winterberry Group Managing Director Jonathan Margulies, said in a news release. "Understanding and embracing the shifts currently underway in the restaurant industry from the marketers' perspective can have monumental impacts on the future of any brand."

Source:​http://www.pizzamarketplace.com/news/study-shows-customer-data-is-growing-player-in-restaurant-marketing/