Restaurants Can Serve Up More Effective Customer Relationships Online, According to New Digital Element Industry Brief

ATLANTA, Nov. 30, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Element, the leading provider of IP Intelligence solutions, announced the release of a new restaurant industry brief, "How Major Brands Can Serve Up Effective, Restaurant-level Customer Relationships Online." The paper summarizes the challenges national restaurant brands face in creating a local presence online and outlines how they can apply IP Intelligence, with its strong geolocation capabilities, to create more relevant, community-based customer relationships.

In May alone, 58 percent of consumers ages 18-24 and 44 percent of those ages 25-34 admitted to using the Internet at least once to find a new restaurant. With these types of numbers, major U.S. restaurant brands have given their online channel new attention. But, for major chains that have always understood the importance of taking their bricks-and-mortar presence to the customer, many have been put at a disadvantage with non-local online presences.

"What chain restaurants say online to customers is: 'Here's our brand, and if you'll tell me where you are, I'll tell you where to find us,'" said Rob Friedman, executive vice president, Digital Element. "But, what savvy local competitors say online to customers is: 'We're as local as you, and here are all the reasons you should visit us. There is a tremendous disconnect between major restaurant brands and their local online communities. Fortunately, our IP Intelligence solution can easily and affordably help them bridge that gap.'"

IP Intelligence is a non-invasive, privacy-sensitive technology that provides comprehensive information about an online user such as geographic location (country, region, state, city and postal code), as well as connection speed, Internet Service Provider (ISP), language, domain name, demographics, and more—all based on a user's IP address.

Restaurants that adopt IP Intelligence gain the means to actively reach out to a previously unidentifiable online audience—unregistered visitors—and begin to build a solid relationship by offering dining options, promotions and other useful information that appeal to consumers where it matters most: close to home. With IP Intelligence, restaurants can automatically target the consumer in a way that is relevant, beginning with the very first visit, by delivering localized menu items and promotions; community-based information on events; catering and delivery services; and, if the user is identified as having a high-speed connection, rich media content such as cooking demonstrations and interactive wine selections.

The full industry brief is available online at the Digital Element website.  

About Digital Element

Digital Element delivers the de facto standard in IP Intelligence, providing coverage for 99.9999 percent of the Internet and collecting more than one million points-of-view daily from different online vantage points. Taking advantage of its patented technology and a team of dedicated data analysts, most of the world's largest networks, websites, video portals and social networks, access the most comprehensive set of IP data available to deliver targeting advertising, content localization, geographic rights management, video streaming localization and analytics. Through Digital Element's industry vision and leadership, this non-invasive technology has evolved into much more than geographic information and now includes other intelligence factors such as connection speed, domain name, ISP and language.

For more information on how to uncover new levels of insight about online users, please visit www.digitalelement.com. Digital Element is a business unit of Digital Envoy.

SOURCE Digital Element