Digital Marketing Plan for Epic Wings

Executive Summary

Epic Wings has been a San Diego restaurant since 1982 serving fresh wings to numerous communities in southern California. Growing as a family brand, Epic Wings has impacted the wing market with being authentic to their brand and putting their customers first. However, the business offers opportunities for a digital marketing plan. Relying on a digital marketing plan would give Epic Wings an additional push, making an impressive digital presence and establishing a competitive presence. With changing their digital presence, the brand would have a focus on servicing millennials and sports fans. Furthermore, focusing on implementing measuring/evaluating, content, and mobile marking to bring future success to the brand. Epic Wings has the potential to grow its level of notoriety and bring other outlets of marketing to achieve these goals. There is a countless number of places that offer buffalo wings and other food items. However, Epic Wings can surpass these franchises with an innovative digital marketing strategy.

Introduction

Staring long ago with a wing and a prayer Epic Wings is a family-owned brand that has manufactured authentic buffalo wings since the year 1982 in San Diego. The brand sells authentic buffalo wings and items like garden salads, buffalo chicken fries, buffalo chicken pizza sticks, and other sides. Since the companies grand opening in 1982, the award-winning wing restaurant has grown to have seventeen other locations in southern California and are planning to open more. However, with the brand being a growing success, there is a need for a digital marketing plan. A digital marketing plan is defined as “A document sharing the details for all the planning for your digital marketing campaigns or actions” (Peñalver, 2019). With using a digital marketing plan  Epic Wings can influence a broader audience and  have equal the playing field with competitors.

Situation Analysis

Strengths

Epic Wings has marketed themselves through the use of multi-social media platforms and search engine optimization (SEO). Epic wings are on social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The brand has fostered a community of fellow buffalo wings lovers through the use of multiple social media accounts, having 1,511 followers on Twitter, 6,299 followers on Instagram, and 12,000 likes on Facebook, In total, this brand contains a total of 19, 810 followers combined. According to Newberry (2018), social media makes a large impact on getting the word out about a company: As people start liking, commenting on, and sharing your social posts, your content is                                            okay exposed to new audiences—their friends and followers. Going viral takes this                                           concept one step further. As people share your content with their networks, and their                                           networks follow suit, your content spreads across the internet, getting thousands or even                                           millions of shares. (para. 10) Multi-social media platforms have helped the company reach large numbers of people, some customers are only on certain platforms, but since Epic being on multiple, it widens their network of customers. On each platform seen is the number of followers commenting on each post, communicating their thoughts on the companies fresh buffalo wings, and   sharing photos of the delicious food options. Besides, the use of multi-social media platforms epic wings has utilized search engine optimization (SEO). Search engine optimization is defined “as the process of editing a web site’s content and code to improve visibility within one or more search engines” (Roberts, 2018, p. 200). Using keywords like wings, buffalo fries or buffalo wings, the first results is the nearest Epic wings. In search engines such as google, bing, or yahoo using keywords produces the most organic results relevant to the search. Emma Knightley, a writer, for the digital marketing institute, stated the importance of this tool: "Consider this for a moment: nearly 33% of clicks go to the first ranking page, and the                                           first five listings get over 75% of all clicks. If you want more prospects to find your                                           website through a search engine, then you need SEO practices that will help you rank                                           among the top five positions, and ideally number one”(para. 15). This company has brought forth the use search engine optimization making website visitors experience simpler and gaining recommendations to improve the site. With 75% of clicks visiting Epic Wings will continue to generate more website visitors and make a proper analysis of monthly reports,  and website recommendations.

Weaknesses

Epic wings represents an uncommon approach to digital marketing because the company is not resorting to strategies like commercials and email marketing. Epic wings competitor Buffalo Wild Wings produced a commercial streamed on both television and online, that has gained 26,643 views on Youtube. Currently, Epic Wings is sticking to certain strategies and are not exploring additional forms of digital marketing. Ball State University, in a recent study, mentioned, "Despite the Internet’s steady rise in popularity over the last few years, television remains the dominant medium in most U.S. households” (AllBusiness Editors, para 1). Not having commercials on television or YouTube, the brand is losing potential customers, that are not aware of their social media accounts. And those customers are going to competitors franchises because of those competitors additional effort in their digital marketing. Epic wings  second weakness is  not using email marketing to reach customers. Mary Lou Roberts, writer of Internet Marketing: Integrating Online and Offline Strategies mentioned, “With the popularization and commercialization of the Internet, an email caught on quickly is a way not only to communicate but also to communicate directly with prospective customers” (Roberts, 2018, p.173). Currently, Epic wings do not use this marketing strategy, only having a contact option on their website, leaving customers wondering what offers are available and if there are any events. Emailing has become a crucial tool of digital marketing that has helped inform customers on sales, coupons, and events, Epic wings only relying on being a community restaurant and leaving emailing out as a market strategy is resulting, in negative consequences such as ill-informed customers and little direct customer interaction.

Opportunities

Recently, with the growing number of people interacting on social media platforms, it has become an unavoidable aspect of digital marketing. Epic wings have the opportunity to transform the way they  are presenting themselves on social media. The brand having space for growth on all of their social media platforms results in new concepts on content that other brands have yet to try. People of social media are always itching for creative content that  moves the company forward and places them in a unique category from other food restaurants pages. And epic wings can capitalize on this clear opportunity to set themselves apart from food restaurant accounts that are not producing quality content. Another opportunity presents its self on Epic wings website, with adding more locations to order from, currently, there are seventeen  Epic wings locations but, they only do digital orders to eight of them. The opportunity to include more locations to order from can result in drawing additional customers to taste their fresh buffalo wings. Furthermore, having all locations available to order from online can provide supplementary aid to the employees, no longer having to deal with a rush of walk-in orders instead having  more time to prepare buffalo wings and service a large flow of customers.

Threats

Threats affecting Epic wings are social media presence and customer interaction. Most of the other wing franchises have an established social media presence with being verified on each social platform along with, a more significant number of followers compared to Epic Wings. Epic wings are concerned that their business will be unable to match the amount of social media notoriety that their two main competitors have manufactured, having a total of 6,296 followers on Instagram when their competitors have 333,000 followers and are verified on the same social network. Another threat is visible on Twitter with the level of interaction is low compared to its competitors. Buffalo Wild Wings, a competitor has chosen polls and various daily tweets to interact with customers. Epic wings have tweeted photos of the buffalo wings, their additional products, and announcements, leaving little space with customer interaction. It is recorded in an article that: "Advertising on Twitter enables you to promote individual tweets or entire campaigns                                           dedicated to specific objectives.Businesses can choose between eight different objectives                including app installs, video views, and website conversions -- and set audience targeting                                           criteria for each ad campaign they create" (Goliger, 2019). The brand is utilizing the platform to market; however, customers are not engaged in this platform compared to their competitor.  The market is challenging with the amount of different brands strategies, but,  not improving on interaction on Twitter can result in, these visible placing the company in a digital hole on this platform.

 Competitive analysis

Wing Stop Strengths

Wing Stop began as a small buffalo-style chicken wing restaurant in Garland, Texas and  now has 1,250 restaurants open globally. Wing sop has demonstrated strengths such as, using opinion leaders on their social space and adopting a responsive design. Opinion leaders have been a strategy that the brand has used in their digital presence, using leaders such as, Matt Mitrione a UFC fighter, Rick Ross a rapper, and actor Anthony Anderson. As a result, the opinion leaders have brought in their fans to Wing Stop. Wing Stop uses videos and commercials with influential leaders on various platforms to market their business  and  increase their number of customers. Another strength is the brand's adoption of responsive design on their website. Responsive design allows a webpage to be adaptive to each device, allowing any customer to have an easier interaction with the site. Currently, Wing stop website on mobile has easy access to the same amount of content as if on a desktop. The only difference is that the webpage is adjusted to the screen a customer is using. Implementing this tool has improved Wing stop website traffic along with a better browsing experience. Furthermore, responsive design ”Is a necessity if you wanna compete in today's digital marketplace. It'll greatly improve your customer experience as they interact with your site between various devices" (Batesole, 2018).

Weakness

Wing stop digital weakness include, not using email marketing and not marketing with Pinterest. Email marketing is a strategy that can bring interaction and revenue,  one beneficial aspect of digital marketing. Wing stop currently, only post their new deals or events on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, however, if someone doesn’t check their social media daily customers are not aware of the brand's updates. In comparison to other food competitors that have used email marketing, they are informing the customers on new products and keeping them integrated with the brand. Wing Stop needs to understand that, ”Email is very much alive in today's online marketing landscape, so it's worth building a strategy around" (Batesole, 2018). Another weakness is Wing stop having accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, but not a Pinterest account. Pinterest, allows any brand to reach more people and inspire them to create with the brand's recipes, for instance, other competitors in the wing industry have used this platform and customers have enjoyed creating their version of the companies wings. Wing Stop not being accessible on all platforms have limited the number of customers that they can engage with. Consumers that usually enjoy dining at certain restaurants wish they could emulate the recipes at home and, Pinterest is a platform that shares several different food chain recipes. And unlike Wing stop, other food chains are using Pinterest and have seen beneficial results from another range of customers.

Buffalo Wild Wings Strength

Buffalo Wild Wings started thirty-five years ago by Jim Disbrow and Scott Lowery, offering authentic buffalo wings. The strengths include having a mobile app and using video marketing. Buffalo Wild Wings mobile app provides each downloader, with two options Either Blazing reward and B-Dubs.  Blazin’ rewards show each reward that can be redeemed and B-dubs lets a customer order and view different locations. After downloading B-dubs given is the option to sign up for emails and see the current wait time for a possible order. Using B-dubs makes many customers experience easier with placing orders and present beneficial information for its application users, while blazin’ rewards keep each customer interacted with the brand and motivates them to return to use their rewards. Video marketing is a technique that Buffalo Wild wings have implemented on their website and social media accounts. Video marketing allows a brand to grow its awareness and traffic.  Buffalo Wild Wings has released several videos on YouTube along and on social media. The videos are both informative and appealing to their target audience, drawing customers to join the experience at their local Buffalo Wild Wings. Buffalo Wild Wings has been able to share video content on television having produced a thirty-second playoff season commercial that has been shown numerous times on sports channels. Video marketing has helped the brand show off their products and help customers decide where their next buffalo wings should be ordered from. Weakness Buffalo Wild Wings presents a strong digital marketing strategy; however, there are areas for improvement. The brand doesn’t have strong customer service interaction and doesn’t target a wide range of customers. Buffalo Wild Wings social media accounts are hosts of numerous comments left by customers regarding bad experiences at restaurant locations and quality of food. In a post made June 23, 2018, on Instagram was flooded with several comments concerning food quality and wait times. The company didn’t comment or show any concern for the customers that didn’t have a pleasant time at one of their franchises. Customer service is key for a business, Buffalo Wild Wings having numerous negative comments covering wait times and food quality doesn’t help the brand's image instead, it results in bad ratings and association with bad customer service. Another example is seen on Twitter, with customers asking questions about different offers and Buffalo Wild Wings tweeted in response with a sarcastic and un-genuine tone. As of result, customers are not pleased with the customer service the brand has provided on their digital platforms. Buffalo Wild Wings have branded themselves with being a place for fellow buffalo wing lovers and sports fans; however, the content produced is leaving out potential customers. Currently, the brand's video ads, photos, and tweets are solely targeting one range of customers. Having a target audience is a needed factor for any plan but, not offering a possibility to include others is a downfall. In the content associated with the brand, there is no view of this wing restaurant being either family friendly or marketed towards young adults. This weakness can hinder their possible outlook for additional customers that are not sports fans, men, or under twenty- one , leading to possible issue of customers settling in other wing shops that they can receive that same atmosphere and provides service to additional customers such as non-sports fans, young adults, and nondrinkers.

Objectives

Epic wings two objectives are to grow their social media presence and establish a competitive presence with other competitors. Social media has become a ceramic artist molding the way society functions and is influenced. In an article discussing social media and business Ansuman, Dans (2014 ) is quoted saying: “Today it is impossible to deny the power of social media and what it has in store for all                                            of us. Whether it is Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or any other social media site; they have                transformed the way our society functions, the way we connect and influence the choice                                            of others within seconds” (Dans, 2014). Epic wings have the lowest amount of followers across several platforms compared to their competitors. Social media has become the biggest influencer on various aspects and its users are waiting to see the next brand that is going to influence their next decision. Currently, the brand is not utilizing all the components that social media has to offer to target specific demographics, age groups, or wing lovers. Growing their social media presence would increase engagement and interaction with new customers that are curious about the brand and want to see what the brand has to offer. Growing Epic wings social media platform can result in these benefits along with establishing credibility among their competitors. Establishing a competitive presence with other competitors is Epic wings next objective. The brand is built on being a family-owned community restaurant however, competitors have chosen to do the same. As of result, Epic wings are not the only wing restaurant serving the community, instead, it has become one of multiple making that their business objective. A competitive presence is created with improving customer service, providing solutions, and having the correct target audience. Epic wings can use the weakness that their two main competitors have and turn them into strengths for the company moving forward. The current competitors are striving in important areas, but the additional digital marketing strategies are unfolding, leaving space for Epic wings to bring a competitive presence.

Target Market

Epic wings are targeting millennials and sports lovers that want to find a place that has great food and atmosphere. Yue Frances (2019), writer for USA today stated: "Millennials are more engaged with food, Bloom said. According to a report published by               Mintel in May, 58% of the millennials surveyed consider themselves a "foodie" and 57%                think planning meals takes more time than they would prefer they tend to eat out                                                         more"  (Yue, 2019). Millennials wanting to eat out compared to planning meals is a great opening for Epic wings.  Epic wings locations, such as Escondido, Phoenix Arizona, and SDSU campus are areas near millennials. The brand's accessibility to millennials has become an easier target for Epic wings to cater to and attract additional customers. Besides, millennials, Epic Wings is wanting to target sports lovers. Currently in each location epic wings has implemented beers along with with televisions, hosting sporting events. Sports lovers are constantly looking for areas where they can meet with friends and family and enjoy the game while enjoying delicious food. In an article, produced by NPR, Dan Charles, mentions," The magical pairing of humongous athletes and itty-bitty chicken parts got its start with the rise of sports bars a few decades ago. Sports-watching demands cheap munchies, and wings were both convenient and cheap" (Charles, 2013). Targeting to sports lovers is an audience that will rarely change or have to implicate unaffordable advertising. Sports lover’s need two things a place to watch the games and provide cheap munchies, with targeting sports fan Epic wings can see benefits all year round because of the various sports season and the growing amount of sports communities.

Strategies & Tactics

Measuring/evaluating

Epic Wings can implement measuring/evaluating. The brand's website is inviting and informative; but, they need to evaluate each outlet. According to Roberts (331), evaluation is an important piece of measuring/evaluating a website: "The evaluation metrics will provide information that points to areas in which it is                              possible to refine and improve site effectiveness. Possible improvements that surface as a                result of site evaluation range from infrequently accessed pages to abandoned shopping                                           carts to navigation paths that indicate difficulty in locating content" (Roberts, p. 331). Epic wings have presented the option to order online from certain locations. Having introduced this tool it is necessary to evaluate each interaction that a possible customer can have with online ordering.  Since the brand is only implementing online orders in certain locations, it could mean that it’s a test run for possibly expanding to other locations in the future. For this tool to succeed, there would be a need for measuring/evaluating tool that can support the brand to observe the results of this new way of ordering.

Tactics

Google Analytics can measure /evaluate the amount of interaction with online ordering. With creating a website that has calls of actions and introducing new tools google analytics can help the company. Roberts built  on this concept by stating,  "Google Analytics provides robust analytics that many users need. Google gives good explanations of how to use it, and a small industry of marketing services firms and consultants offers assistance" (Roberts, p. 391). Testing out the different locations to handle online orders is a new aspect that can be introduced into the company. Having a tool such as Google Analytics would bring a clear and concise explanation of the amount of  customer ordering online.  Having that information the brand and add more locations and improve their online orders because they are using a tool that measures/evaluate their website.

Video

Out of all of Epic Wing's competitors, the brand has not used video to expand tier digital presence. Currently, Wing stop uses opinion leaders in videos and has commercials along with Buffalo Wild Wings having commercials and video content on YouTube. Videos have become an innovative way to bring in a different type of customer to a franchise. Epic Wings would create videos to bring in those valued customers and show the experiences that others have in each of its seventeen locations. Brad Batesole (2018), In his video the impact of video marketing, it mentioned the importance of video marketing : "You can introduce videos that demonstrate your product or service, or feature team introductions. It's possible customers or competitors are already making videos about your product or services. If that's the case, there's even more reason to jump in and leverage the power of video marketing. The best impact of video marketing will come from building interesting and unique content"(Batesole, 2018). Marketing through the use of video can  improve Epic wings digital marketing against its competitors and equal the playing field.

Tactics

To improve Epic wing's digital marketing strategy, the brand will create videos to promote on YouTube. YouTube is the home of video content having, multi-channels that produce weekly videos that have become viral. Epic Wings videos need to be on a platform that has been proven to host great videos. In an article, produced by Grow, they mentioned, "Video-streaming platforms like YouTube have become so big you’re guaranteed to find a group of people who will become your raving fans and customers, as long as you educate, entertain, and provide solutions to their problems"( Inglis, 2017, para 2 ). In addition, YouTube has an insight tool that lets each account track interactions with each video. Having a tool like this gives implementing videos a better opportunity to observe the positive or negative results.  Other food chains on YouTube have been able to gain customers and illustrate what their brand is about. Doing this has given customers an eye inside the business and make a better decision where they would like to eat next. Knowing this information,  Epic wings use of videos can result in the same positive results and other results that  the company has not encountered yet.

Mobile marketing

With mobile marketing, there are countless amounts of strategies that can benefit Epic Wings digital growth. Digital applications are a creative way to pull customers into another platform.  A mobile application can transfer the innovative interaction that the brand has on its website  and produce another platform that has specific goals; such as, finding locations, ordering, or sharing feedback. Vividus (2019) published an article stating the importance of mobile apps, they stated: "Mobile apps reinforce your brand by increasing your visibility. An app gives a  business                                           more presence on a phone than a browser bookmark does because it is always visible on                                           the phone's screen. This helps build loyalty with customers because your business is in                                           front of them at all times"(Vividus, 2019). Having a mobile app provides a constant reminder of  a business because it's on an item that is used daily,  even if the application is not used every day it will still be seen when a customer is interacting with their mobile device.

Tactics

Epic Wings will create an innovative application,  that can compete with Buffalo Wild wings two applications. Epic wings mobile application will have different sections that focus on different elements; there will be a section that focuses on locations, mobile ordering, feedback, and community. On the application, visible will be an icon for location, which shows Epic wing locations in southern California and new areas that Epic wings will be coming too in the future. Furthermore,  an icon for mobile ordering, this will allow any customer to order and skip the hassle of long lines and wait times.  A section for feedback will be presented on the mobile application. This will allow customers to give  negative and positive experiences at Epic wings and send it directly to the company. Lastly, there will be an icon for community,  where visitors can share photos and comments of other fellow Epic wings community members.  This will advance into creating a small social media that is targeting its customers. A mobile application is another form of a business that can stand alone or join the rest of the platforms. Brad Batesole (2018) commented on the subject stating: "A mobile application can serve as a standalone marketing effort, a tool to help convert                                           customers, or as an extension of your business. It's one more resource that you can use to                                           gain even more exposure with your online marketing" (Batesole, 2018). Aside, from the new content that a mobile application will provide the important feature is the additional exposure, having more exposure a company can reach new audiences, grow faster, and possibly lead to international exposure. Epic wings gaining this exposure will place their business in a category that other businesses are trying to reach through the use of mobile marketing.

Actions & Controls

For a digital marketing plan to flow seamlessly, there needs to be specific tools that can help the business with measuring and evaluating. To measure/evaluate a required tool would be Google Analytics that will produce a vast amount of instrumental information such as analytical insights, view your insights, and data. This tool can help Epic Wings website to produce credible insight that exposes any possible improvements. For Videos, YouTube provides analytics that provides Gender views, top geographic, watch time, average duration, and many more details. This tool can help Epic Wings evaluate the quality of videos and the impressions it's having on viewers. And, for mobile marketing using a mobile application will result in the company employing  Mixpanel to track customer interactions. Mixpanel is a code-free tool that produces behavioral analytics, data science, infrastructure, data governance, and message & experiments.  Having each tactic have a tool that measures/evaluate will supply Epic wings with a closer step to a stronger digital presence. Below is a table that illustrates the tools for each tactic and the metrics to track.

Tactic	Tool	Metrics to Track
Measure/evaluate	Google Analytics	analytical insights,  view your insights, and data
Video	YouTube	Gender views, top geographic, watch time , average duration, views, likes, dislikes, comments added, shares. videos in playlists, Top Videos, traffic sources, and Playback locations.
Mobile marketing	Mixpanel	Behavioral analytics, data science, infrastructure, data governance, and message & experiments.

Conclusion

Epic wings a family owned community business has reached great success from their starting point in 1982, accomplishing their goal of serving fresh wings to communities in San Diego and other areas in southern California. With that success there is room for digital growth using the provided information, the brand can grow their social media presence, and establish a competitive presence with other competitors. Having and utilizing this information can make Epic Wings continue to be your Wing Spot, for now, and for the future.

Work Cited

• Batesole, B. (2019). Connecting with customers online | LinkedIn Learning, formerly Lynda.com. [online] Linkedin.com. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/online-marketing-foundations-3/connecting-with-customers-online?u=2168252 [Accessed 27 Sep. 2019].
• Buffalowildwings.com. (2019). Buffalo Wild Wings®. [online] Available at: https://www.buffalowildwings.com/en?utm_expid=.JvngmTpUSTmPx7rKo_9qoQ.0&utm_referrer= [Accessed 27 Sep. 2019].
• Charles, D. (2019). Why Chicken Wings Dominate Super Bowl Snack Time. [online] Npr.org. Available at: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/01/28/170482118/why-chicken-wings-dominate-super-bowl-snack-time [Accessed 27 Sep. 2019].
• Das, A. (2014). Social media & business - time to embrace change. FIIB Business Review, 3(3), 20-24. Retrieved from https://nuls.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.nuls.idm.oclc.org/docview/1970209848?accountid=25320
• Editors, A. (2019). Television Advertising Pros and Cons | AllBusiness.com. [online] AllBusiness.com. Available at: https://www.allbusiness.com/television-advertising-pros-and-cons-2592-1.html# [Accessed 27 Sep. 2019].
• Epic Wings N Things. (2019). Wings-N-Things is Now EPIC Wings N Things - Best Chicken Wings Ever. [online] Available at: https://www.epicwingsnthings.com [Accessed 27 Sep. 2019].
• Goliger, S. (2019). Twitter Ads Campaigns: A Simple Setup Guide. [online] Blog.hubspot.com. Available at: https://blog.hubspo

   

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