About the Business
Grata Café, located in Carrboro, is built upon the principles of gratitude, love and inclusivity. The Italian-inspired café is a new addition to Carrboro and offers home-cooked-style courses, which are said to have been cooked with love.
Customers can enjoy breakfast all day, as well as a selection of different Italian classics, from Caprese salads to creamy rigatoni.
Problem at Hand
Grata Café is a relatively new business, having just opened in July, so marketing is a big part of the business start-up. The restaurant has a very large space and is currently working on getting more group events planned.
Student organizations, such as clubs and Greek Life, are a large target audience for events and catering.
Grata Café also wanted to emphasize the importance of its values, such as inclusivity and paying workers a livable wage. Humanizing the business was a primary goal of Grata’s, and this needed to be showcased in the business’s marketing efforts.
For these reasons, Grata Café contacted 1893 Brand Studio for help in humanizing content and marketing towards college groups.
Our Strategy
Since Grata Café wanted to market towards groups and focus on hosting events, it was necessary to develop a strategy that would target these audiences at UNC and the Chapel Hill community.
The Brand Studio decided to craft templates that could be used for benefit nights. For instance, if a Greek organization was to plan an event at the Café, there would be a template that could be edited with their date and event name. The Brand Studio also reached out to local student organizations directly to plan events. Furthermore, all PR news updates for Grata Café are run through the Brand Studio.
The next goal was to humanize the business. In order to humanize the Grata Café content, the Brand Studio developed short video reels of the staff for social media posts. These videos showcased some behind-the-scenes content of the Café and helped highlight the staff’s cooking, as well as general staff introductions. For instance, some of the video reels produced by the Brand Studio were wine introductions, which included a staff member describing some of the bottle options.
The Brand Studio decided that marketing towards college students with the event templates would make for easier and more organized event planning. This approach would also increase the presence that Grata Café has in the community. If people were to come there for an event, it is more likely that they could become regulars at the café.
Similarly, people would be more likely to visit Grata Café if they were already familiar with the restaurant. Crafting the video reels of the staff introductions or menu explanations helps bring the menu and business to life and better explain some aspects of the Café.
In addition to crafting video reels, the Brand Studio worked on getting high-quality images of the food and restaurant, which could also be used for social media posts. Humanizing the content increases the connection Grata Café has with their clients, as customers are typically more trusting of companies that sell a story, rather than just pushing a business.
Outcome
Gearing Grata Cafe’s advertising towards college students is beneficial for Grata because of the number of student-planned events at UNC, such as those planned by clubs. The Brand Studio has already been able to book several events for the restaurant since the start of the campaign.
The Brand Studio was also able to help Grata Café with its marketing on social media by highlighting the values of the restaurant. Grata Café prides itself on its familial and warm environment, which creates an inclusive environment for both staff and clients.
Humanizing the content through the video reels allows for potential clients to meet the staff and get to know the restaurant before ever even stepping inside. A recent reel posted to Grata Cafe’s Instagram has nearly 2,000 accounts reached, which is an overperformance of 90% of Grata’s other posts.
Some of the images taken of the Grata Café are included below and help showcase the warm and inviting feel of the café.
For the video reels, Brand Studio aimed to showcase the staff and some of the specialty drinks.
