The power of social media as a marketing tool is helping one of China’s largest seafood restaurant chains to recruit customers in regional cities, where it’s opening buffet seafood outlets.
In an illustration of the power of social media, Suzhou ShenHai Ba Bai Mi Food & Beverage Management Co., offered customers discounts and free meals over a three-day period to promote its new restaurant at the Tianfa Mall in Tianchang, a city in Anhui province.
Customers who post four to nine photos as well as a “positive critique” on a social network are given a CNY 50 (USD 7.28, EUR 6.90) voucher for the restaurant, while those who post on Weixin (Wechat) microblog to 129 friends or more get a free meal, and customers aged 68 and over are given half-price meals.
The outlet in Tianchang – considered a third-tier city – is the firm’s 41st nationwide. Suzhou Shenhai – its name translates as “800 Metres Under the Sea” – runs spacious seafood buffet restaurants which serve a wide range of live, fresh and chilled seafood to consumers for prices ranging from CNY 138 (USD 20.08, EUR 19.05) for lunch to CNY 168 (USD 24.45, EUR 23.19) for dinner. The offerings include abalone and oysters (both locally produced and imported) as well as sashimi and live freshwater crab.
