Buca di Beppo bankruptcy shows need to advertise

The restaurant chain Buca di Beppo has closed 12 restaurants and declared bankruptcy. This should teach all other restaurants, chain or personally-owned, about the need to advertise rather than to seek free publicity.

Buca di Beppo hired Allied Global Marketing for a public relations campaign. The Allied representative sent electronic messages to media members about upcoming holiday packages. The media members receiving the e-mail communications were journalists rather than advertising representatives. Buca di Beppo wanted free publicity rather than to pay for advertisements.

The writers and editors had other priorities. They had no desire to feature a restaurant which didn’t advertise, nor did it make good business sense to give publicity to that restaurant rather than ones which advertised with the publication.

Without the additional advertising revenue, many newspaper and magazine issues weren’t large enough to add the content of a non-advertising restaurant to higher-priority editorial content. The writers and editors decided that the Buca di Beppo promotions weren’t worth any stories.

The Fallbrook/Bonsall Village News has been Fallbrook’s weekly newspaper since December 1997. After Fallbrook’s previous weekly newspaper was consolidated into a zone of the suburban daily, Fallbrook businesses were reluctant to advertise in a paper with a shelf life of one day rather than a full week and Fallbrook residents wanted news which focused on their community. Many local businesses signed advertising contracts with the Village News.

One of those businesses was a pizza restaurant. A few months after the Village News began publication, that restaurant hired a public relations professional who decided to use press releases rather than advertise in the Village News. The Village News did not run those press releases. The owners soon sold that restaurant. Seeking free publicity from a media outlet the business didn’t support wasn’t successful.

Ironically Buca di Beppo is now receiving free publicity, but that is due to the bankruptcy filing and the closing of restaurants. That free publicity does not feature menu items. The previous Buca di Beppo campaign seeking free publicity rather than support of publications did in fact result in free publicity but not the kind the restaurant chain wanted.

The criteria whether or not to write a story which publicizes a business isn’t whether that business advertises but whether the story is newsworthy. Even if that business is publicized, the writer will address what is newsworthy and not necessarily the elements the business desires to have publicized. Even when articles mentioning a business are written, some items are more suitable as advertisements than as a story.

Relying on press releases or other free publicity rather than advertising didn’t work for Buca di Beppo. Other restaurants along with other businesses with customers should learn from that situation.