In many ways Leonardo’s Restaurants represent Gainesville pretty well: there’s a branch to serve the needs of the poor college student with afternoon munchies (the pizza place) and also a branch that would impress your parents when they come to take you out for graduation dinner (Leonardo’s 706). If you really think about, one wouldn’t really need to eat out at any other restaurant chain the entire time they lived in Gainesville and they would still have basic restauranting needs met. In many ways that makes Leonardo’s a lot like Google (side note: the head chef for Google was also chef for… the Grateful dead?!)
There was a Google ad during the Superbowl today that illustrated this: the ad simply features someone typing in searches into the search-bar and from that we can deduce a whole backstory of someone’s life. Google shows itself as an integral part of everyday life… something we interact with everyday. When marketing for Leonardo’s, this same kind of concept can be used. Make customers feel not just like Leonardo restaurants are an eating option, but that they are a part of Gainesville life. And to be fair there is already some of that mystique in Leonardo’s anyway. This can be taken further though; the company has virtually no substantive presence on social networks. For example Facebook pages can be used to increase visibility and also broadcast specials to customers, like Uppercrust does (best bakery in town!). The transition to customer interactivity is the next logical step for Leonardo’s. If Burrito Brothers can have a Twitter for guac availability, shouldn’t Leo’s have one for pizza specials. Google may be the global homepage, but Leonardo’s should be the Gainesville one.
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