Have you ever heard of "bad publicity is still good publicity"? Believe it or not.. THAT'S TRUE!
It's true IF you know how to turn bad publicity into GOOD PUBLICITY. In today's post I am going to use the famous DARIUS COOK as an example. For those of you who don't know, Darius Cook is a renowned chef and food critic that travels the world feeding people with food from his soul and expensive dining. He also visits black owned restaurants and give professional reviews on the taste of the food, the cleanliness, customer service and the aesthetics of the establishment.
Now as we ALL know. Black people DO NOT LIKE PEOPLE TELLING THEM ABOUT THEIR FOOD. Especially if it's a family owned restaurant and grandma still in the back cooking. With that being said, Darius has gotten A LOT of backlash from some restaurants he's went and visit during his tour due to his reviews. Granted everyone has an opinion but being that he is a PROFESSIONAL I would think that his opinion well.. matters.
Mr. Cooks is not only a professional chef and critic but he is also an INFLUENCER! Yes that's right a social media influencer and he's big on ALL PLATFORMS! Now being that he is a critic AND A SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER restaurants "should" know to use his critiques (good or bad) as a marketing propaganda, BUT UNFORTUNATELY from what I've been seeing as I follow his journey online that restaurants have absolutely no clue how to.
Darius Cook is a GREAT example of this. Granted most people find him messy and rude however I find him honest and straight to the point. During recent events, Darius has been in the NEWS & THE BLOGS about putting St. Louis an uproar when he visited the city's most "finest" black owned dining establishments. Well unfortunately, Darius didn't label them as the finest .. in facts some were treacherous!
Some restaurant owners refused servicing him because they were scared of his reviews and one restaurant owner even BOUGHT A TICKET to his "Dining with Darius Cook" evening dinner event and stated she came to "Review the Reviewer" but instead got EMBARRASSED & HUMILIATED for lying after she said she ate a piece of raw chicken (she even posted a picture to "backup her claim") and got food poisoning directly after and ended up leaving early.
While others were still dining she went home and went live to tell her followers about her "experience". Well it didn't go as planned. In fact people started rallying for Darius in the comments and some of them were people whom she was just sitting and eating with at the table a couple of hours before she went live. They informed Darius and it was MURDER SHE WROTE from there.
After his dinner event, he (of course) went live to address his fans and followers and during the live the restaurant owner CAME BACK to the Airbnb where the dinner was hosted and asked to talk to Darius in private after being FLAMED online for trying to bash Mr. Cooks. Darius refused and instead finished talking to his followers before ending the live saying it isn't over. Well in fact it wasn't..
Typical Darius Cook went LIVE the next few evenings promoting HELLA DISCOUNTS using the restaurant name as the discount code lol (see picture above). Yes it messy and yes it it's considered as "bad publicity" BUT Darius did what he do best turn the situation into a MONEY MAKING OPPORTUNITY!
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With just going LIVE and talking to the people as he cooked and utilizing the QR CODE he made over $30,000 in one night from people shopping on his website www.shopdariuscook.com . I mean the whole time you could hear the "CHA CHING" each background of the live each time a new order came in! THAT'S HOW YOU TURN BAD PUBLICITY INTO GOOD PUBLICITY. Plus... GOD DON'T LIKE UGLY!
So here is some tips to take from today's posts.
MIND YOUR BUSINESS THAT PAYS YOU! Don't be like the restaurant owner and waste your money, time and reputation on trying to bring someone down.
You can turn bad publicity into GOOD publicity with an effective marketing and PR strategy.
Don't give up... YOU GOT THIS! if you've recently been blasted or shamed about your business, pick your chin up and GO! The embarrassment won't last forever and people forget.
Stay consistent in your content. If you're going to turn around a bad review.. you must show people WHY THEY SHOUDL TRUST YOU AGAIN!
My advice to the restaurants that gets a bad review from Darius is to LISTEN & ACT. In other race's establishments critics are seen as "gods". They want to impress them because most of those restaurant owners feel like a critic can MAKE OR BREAK THEIR REPUTATION. They understand that consumers and followers LISTEN to professionals and people they like. They listen and ACT accordingly to what the critic says. Some use their reviews as advice to turn the restaurant around full circle and with a great marketing strategy and plan will in return create a better reputation for them. DO NOT GO ONLINE TRYING TO FIGHT A CRITIC because as Darius has proven IT DOES NOT WORK ❌.
Dont forget our Marketing Plan 101 Workshop EARLY BIRD TICKETS END OCTOBER 1st. If you're needing assistance with creating an effective marketing plan then meet me there and LET'S GET STARTED!
Click the link to register https://www.kaylaurice.com/event-details/marketing-plan-101
Thank you so much for reading and as always STAY RELEVANT! - Kay 💜
Kay Laurice Business Design & Print
Office Telephone: 904-372-3631
"Empower your business growth with our marketing, design, and print expertise."
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