‘Tech integration is playing an important role in the culinary industry’

Two years back, during the Covid years, the hospitality industry was one of the industries that was hit hard due to the sheer nature of the business, however, it started bouncing back when things started to become normal. Now more than ever, the hospitality industry is booming with consumers wanting to experience and post on social media about the same.

Experiential marketing plays a key role in attracting consumers, especially when it comes to this industry. At e4mRedCarpet Experiential Marketing Summit 2023, Sunil Chauhan, Founder of FabCafe & Chefs United spoke about the growing field of the hospitality industry. In his keynote address on ‘Made Alt Experiential Dining', Chauhan started his talk on a lighter note, saying that he could go on and on when it came to food as it is something that everyone connects to.

“Food is such a vast topic that you can go on and on, it is something we all connect on because it is a part of our daily lives. When we say experiential marketing, I would like to rephrase it as conscious marketing as you have to engage the person consciously therefore in food marketing, when we talk about cruising, and dining experience we have to not only look at the food but also the other aspects.”

Chauhan pointed out recent market trends that are helping companies to excel better in the industry. He said, “One of the aspects is giving an immersive experience. Today there is a lot of developments in this field, like dining in the air, under the water, or in jail. There is interactive dining, where one has to target customers’ senses as well, right from taste to hearing, it is a part of the immersive experience that engages them.”

“Today technology integration also plays an important when it comes to the dining experience, there is AR and VR. There is software that has face recognition and one can track their customers ' history. The other thing is a pop-up experience in terms of keeping the customers engaged and making it exciting”, he continued while talking about technology making a big shift in the industry.

Concluding his talk, Chauhan spoke about the shifts in the industry and how consumers are also evolving with the changing times. “The storytelling in the culinary industry is shifting, we are talking about being local, being from farm to folk, and using ingredients where you are talking about sustainability, about being responsible. People are becoming more conscious about what they are eating and where is it coming from.”