Digital and Social Media Marketing Strategies of American and Canadian Restaurants in a Pandemic

Abstract

This paper examines the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on restaurant marketing practices and outlines a two-pronged approach of analyzing digital marketing and social media platforms that restaurants use to market their product. The presence of COVID-19 information and practices in these marketing platforms is explored in a comparison model of restaurants between the United States and Canada. Understanding the marketing impact of these practices during a global pandemic can provide actionable insights to promote development and sustainability in the restaurant industry. Since very little research has examined the marketing strategies of restaurants during a pandemic as well as exploring a country comparison model to shed light on the global aspects of it, this paper is one of the frontier studies looking critically at the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the restaurant industry.