CONTEMPORARY METHODS OF RESTAURANT ADVERTISING

The coronavirus pandemic and related lockdowns have forever changed the restaurant business in terms of service delivery, issues of safety and security, reengineering of certain business processes, namely, the need for an electronic menu accessible via QR code, personalization and tailoring of services, door-to-door order delivery, mobile applications, online promotional activities to popularize establishments and increase the number of orders for takeout and consumption out of the premises. Social media marketing, that became the restaurants' main instrument of advertising during pandemic, comes to the fore during the war due to the possibility of being used as a free tool as far as its basic content can be created or updated through the efforts of both owners and visitors and in this way increase the flow of visitors. Thus, in the paper the effective contemporary methods of restaurant advertising on social media have been outlined; the specifics of the content plan creation and features of affiliate programs have been analyzed, technicalities of the targeted advertising have been provided. Furthermore, levers that encourage and discourage consumers to visit restaurants along with the social media influence on the visitors' decision-making have been identified, the problems of the target audience formation and the specifics of maintaining communication with this audience have been analyzed, recommendations on restaurant advertising on social networks as the most effective advertising tool at the present stage of development of the country have been proposed.