Restaurant Marketing: The Grab Effect
Your Biggest Competitor Might Be the Customer’s Sofa
Grab isn’t killing restaurants. But it is changing the way people decide where — and whether — to eat. And Phuket restaurants need to understand what that means.
There was a time when Google became so embedded in everyday life that the company name became a verb.
Don’t know something?
Google it.
I think something similar has happened with Grab.
Hungry?
Grab it.
Need a taxi?
Get a Grab.
Forgot something?
Grab it.
It has become part of everyday life, especially here in Southeast Asia.
And that isn’t a criticism of Grab.
Quite the opposite.
Grab has become incredibly successful because it solves a problem brilliantly.
It makes life easy.
And that is exactly why restaurants need to pay attention.
Because your biggest competitor might not be the restaurant next door anymore.
It might be the customer's sofa.
The Decision Has Changed
Think about how we used to decide where to eat.
You got hungry.
You thought about restaurants.
Someone suggested Italian.
Someone else fancied a burger.
You remembered somewhere you'd been before.
Maybe you Googled restaurants nearby.
Eventually, you chose somewhere, got dressed, drove there and ate.
Now?
You get hungry.
You pick up your phone.
You open Grab.
And start scrolling.
That's a very different customer journey.
The restaurant isn't necessarily the starting point anymore.
The platform is.
Instead of thinking:
"I fancy eating at that restaurant tonight."
We increasingly think:
"I fancy pizza."
"I fancy Thai."
"I fancy a burger."
Then we open Grab and see what's available.
That tiny behavioural change has enormous consequences for restaurants.
Because Grab has inserted itself between desire and purchase.
And whoever sits between those two things has a lot of influence.
Grab Isn't the Enemy
Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I'm not anti-Grab.
Far from it.
Grab is useful for customers and incredibly useful for restaurants.
It gives businesses access to customers they may never have reached otherwise.
It can generate orders during quiet periods.
It allows restaurants to serve customers far beyond the people walking past their front door.
It provides logistics.
It provides technology.
It provides discovery.
And for some businesses, it can form the basis of an entirely different business model.
I recently met someone whose restaurant philosophy was essentially built around delivery.
No beautiful dining room.
No expensive frontage.
No army of waiting staff.
No huge fit-out.
Basically a kitchen, a collection point and delivery.
And you have to ask:
Is that a glimpse of where part of the restaurant industry is going?
For certain types of food, possibly.
Pizza.
Burgers.
Noodles.
Bowls.
Fast casual.
Food that travels well and doesn't necessarily require an elaborate dining experience.
Why pay enormous rent for a beautiful restaurant if most of your customers don't actually want to sit in it?
It's a very interesting business model.
But it also creates a difficult question for traditional restaurants.
If you're paying for a physical restaurant, what is that physical restaurant actually adding?
The Economics Are Difficult
This is where things get complicated.
Delivery platforms can take a substantial chunk of the value of an order depending on the restaurant's commercial agreement, promotions and advertising.
At the same time, food costs have increased.
Staff aren't getting cheaper.
Rent isn't getting cheaper.
Electricity isn't getting cheaper.
Ingredients certainly aren't getting cheaper.
Margins can already be tight.
So giving away another significant percentage of an order hurts.
But there's another problem.
Can you afford not to be there?
Because if that's where your customers are looking, disappearing from the platform doesn't necessarily mean they'll come directly to you instead.
They might simply order from someone else.
Which creates the restaurant version of being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Being on the platform costs money.
Not being on the platform can cost visibility.
And then there's another problem.
What Happens When Everyone Is on Grab?
Being on Grab isn't necessarily a competitive advantage when everybody else is there too.
Now you're competing against hundreds of little rectangles on someone's phone.
Restaurant.
Photo.
Rating.
Price.
Discount.
Delivery time.
Restaurant.
Photo.
Rating.
Price.
Discount.
Delivery time.
Scroll.
Scroll.
Scroll.
How do you stand out?
You can discount.
You can advertise.
You can pay for additional visibility.
You can optimise your photographs and listings.
All perfectly legitimate strategies.
But suddenly you've moved from paying to access the marketplace to potentially paying even more to stand out inside the marketplace.
And that is where restaurants need to start thinking much more strategically about what Grab actually is to their business.
Grab Can Turn Restaurants Into Commodities
This is one of the parts I find most interesting.
Imagine you've built an amazing restaurant.
The owner is there every night.
The chef is brilliant.
The bartender knows everyone's favourite drink.
The staff remember your name.
There's great music.
People laugh.
The smell coming from the kitchen is incredible.
Your steak arrives sizzling.
Someone orders that ridiculous dessert everyone turns around to look at.
It's someone's birthday at the table behind you.
You've created something special.
Then you put the restaurant on an app.
And suddenly you're:
Photo. Price. Rating. Delivery time.
Most of what makes your restaurant different has disappeared.
You're being compared with everyone else using a very limited number of variables.
And when products start looking similar, customers naturally begin comparing the things they can easily compare.
Price.
Discounts.
Speed.
Reviews.
That's dangerous because you're slowly becoming a commodity.
And when you're a commodity, price becomes increasingly important.
Most independent restaurants don't want to win that race.
Grab + Netflix + Sofa
This is why I don't think another restaurant is necessarily your biggest competitor anymore.
For a casual restaurant in Phuket, the competition might actually be:
Grab + Netflix + sofa + air-conditioning.
That's a pretty powerful combination.
Think about it.
It's raining.
You've had a long day.
You're already home.
The air-conditioning is on.
You've found something to watch.
Someone says:
"Should we go out for dinner?"
And then someone else says:
"Can't we just Grab something?"
Game over.
Grab has made eating at home incredibly convenient.
Netflix and streaming services have made staying home entertaining.
Neither of those companies is technically competing with your restaurant.
But for that customer's evening?
They absolutely are.
The decision isn't always:
"Which restaurant should we eat at?"
Increasingly, the first decision is:
"Do we want to go out at all?"
That's a completely different marketing problem.
So Don't Compete With Grab on Convenience
You probably can't.
And you shouldn't try.
Instead, ask yourself a different question.
What can my restaurant provide that Grab can't put in a delivery bag?
That's where things get interesting.
Grab can deliver your steak.
It can't deliver the sound of it sizzling as it arrives at the table.
It can deliver a cocktail.
It can't deliver your bartender making it in front of you.
It can deliver dessert.
It can't deliver twenty people turning around when that ridiculous dessert arrives.
It can deliver dinner.
It can't deliver date night.
It can't deliver meeting friends.
It can't deliver your waiter remembering someone's name.
It can't deliver live music.
It can't deliver a sunset.
It can't deliver the atmosphere when your team scores.
It can't deliver a birthday celebration.
It can't deliver belonging.
Grab delivers food.
Restaurants have to deliver experiences.
And that's where I think a lot of restaurant marketing is going wrong.
Stop Marketing the One Thing Grab Can Deliver
Look at the average restaurant's social media.
Food.
Food.
Food.
Close-up of burger.
Close-up of pizza.
Close-up of steak.
Close-up of pasta.
Occasionally somebody gets adventurous and posts a cocktail.
Then back to food.
There's nothing wrong with beautiful food photography.
Of course people want to see what you serve.
But think about the irony.
Restaurants have all these incredible advantages over delivery...
and then spend their entire marketing effort promoting the one thing delivery can provide.
The food.
Where are the people?
Where's the atmosphere?
Where's the bartender?
Where's the chef?
Where are the regular customers?
Where's Friday night?
Where's Sunday lunch?
Where's the table of six friends laughing?
Where's the first date?
Where's Dad ordering another beer?
Where are the kids?
Where's the birthday?
Where's the experience?
If you want people to leave their sofa, stop showing them something they can eat on their sofa.
Show them why they should come out.
Stop Selling Carbonara. Sell Wednesday Night.
This is something I talk about constantly with marketing.
Businesses love selling products.
Customers are often buying occasions.
A restaurant posts:
Homemade Carbonara – 390 THB
Fine.
But what if instead you marketed:
It's Wednesday. Nobody wants to cook. Come down, grab a table, order something ridiculous and we'll take care of the rest.
Now you're selling an evening.
Think about the occasions restaurants can own.
Date night.
Sunday lunch.
Friday beers.
Family dinner.
After-work drinks.
Girls' night.
Football night.
Birthday dinner.
Lazy brunch.
Dinner before the cinema.
Dinner after the beach.
The customer isn't simply deciding what to eat.
They're deciding:
"What are we doing tonight?"
That's a completely different marketing opportunity.
Maybe Grab Should Have a Different Menu
Another mistake is assuming your delivery menu needs to be your restaurant menu.
Why?
They're different experiences.
Some food travels beautifully.
Some doesn't.
Some dishes have healthy margins.
Others don't.
Some dishes look fantastic after thirty minutes in a delivery box.
Others arrive looking like they've been involved in a traffic accident.
So perhaps restaurants should start treating delivery as its own product.
A smaller menu.
Designed for travel.
Designed for packaging.
Designed around sensible margins.
Designed around dishes customers are likely to reorder.
Designed specifically for the platform.
Stop treating delivery as your restaurant put inside a cardboard box.
It's a different customer experience.
Design it accordingly.
Restaurant marketing
How Much Are You Actually Paying to Acquire a Customer?
Here's another question I'd love more restaurant owners to ask.
If you're willing to sacrifice a significant percentage of an order to acquire a customer through a delivery platform...
how much are you willing to spend acquiring somebody who actually walks through your restaurant door?
I've seen businesses panic at the idea of spending 20,000 or 30,000 baht on a properly planned marketing campaign.
Yet they'll happily spend significant amounts every month on commissions, discounts, promotions and platform visibility because those costs somehow feel different.
Maybe they shouldn't.
Don't just look at advertising costs.
Look at customer acquisition costs.
How much does it cost you to generate a Grab order?
How much does it cost to get someone into your restaurant?
How much does that customer spend?
How often do they return?
Do they bring friends?
Do they follow you?
Do they recommend you?
Do they become a regular?
Those are much more useful questions.
Orders Aren't Necessarily Customers
This might be the biggest long-term issue.
There's a difference between getting an order and building a customer relationship.
Someone opens Grab.
Searches "burger."
Sees your burger.
Orders your burger.
Eats your burger.
Throws away the packaging.
Did you gain a customer?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
You definitely gained an order.
But those aren't necessarily the same thing.
Compare that with someone who sees one of your videos.
Follows your restaurant.
Visits.
Talks to your staff.
Has a brilliant night.
Tags you in a photo.
Comes back two weeks later.
Brings friends next time.
Now you're building something.
That's why restaurants still need to build audiences they have relationships with.
Social communities.
LINE.
Email databases.
WhatsApp.
Events.
Regulars.
Birthday clubs.
Special nights.
Chef's tables.
Wine evenings.
Sports nights.
Sunday traditions.
Local offers.
Whatever fits your restaurant.
The point isn't to get everyone off Grab.
It's to stop Grab being the only relationship you have with your customers.
Build Something Grab Can't Own
This is where the idea of a tribe becomes incredibly important.
The strongest restaurants aren't simply places people eat.
They're places people identify with.
"That's our Friday place."
"That's where we always watch the football."
"That's where we go for birthdays."
"The owner always comes over and says hello."
"The kids love going there."
"That's our Sunday brunch."
That's powerful.
Because suddenly you're not competing purely on price.
You're competing on connection.
And connection is much harder to put into a search filter.
But here's the catch.
You actually have to market it.
Having an amazing atmosphere isn't enough if nobody knows about it.
Having brilliant staff isn't enough if your social media never shows them.
Having hundreds of loyal regulars isn't enough if every Instagram post looks like a stock photograph from a food catalogue.
Show people what it feels like to be there.
And What About the Restaurants With No Restaurant?
This is where the next few years become really interesting.
If you're selling a product that travels extremely well, do you actually need an expensive physical restaurant?
We're already seeing delivery-first businesses and ghost kitchens challenge that assumption.
Smaller premises.
Lower rents.
Fewer front-of-house employees.
Less furniture.
Less decoration.
Less air-conditioning.
Lower fit-out costs.
A business designed around production and delivery.
For certain concepts, the economics could make enormous sense.
Which means physical restaurants need to justify their physical existence.
And I don't mean that negatively.
Actually, I think it creates an opportunity.
Because restaurants that understand hospitality will become even more valuable.
If I'm leaving my comfortable house, putting on something vaguely respectable, getting into a car and travelling across Phuket...
give me a reason.
Make it worth it.
Give me something I couldn't have got by pressing three buttons on my phone.
The Restaurant Industry Isn't Dying. It's Splitting.
I don't think we're heading towards a world where every burger restaurant disappears and only Michelin-style fine dining survives.
But I do think we're seeing different restaurant models becoming clearer.
Some businesses will be built primarily for delivery.
Some will combine delivery and dining.
Some will become incredibly experience-led.
Some will thrive because they're community hubs.
Some will become destinations.
Some will be tiny kitchens producing incredible food with almost no traditional restaurant overhead.
And some traditional restaurants will struggle because they're stuck somewhere in the middle.
Too expensive operationally to compete with delivery-first businesses.
But not interesting enough experientially to persuade people to leave home.
That's the dangerous place to be.
The Grab Effect Isn't Really About Grab
That's the important point.
Grab didn't create people's desire for convenience.
It recognised it.
It made it easier.
And customers responded.
The Grab Effect is really about changing consumer behaviour.
We want things faster.
We want fewer steps.
We want less friction.
We want convenience.
And businesses can't simply complain that customers have changed.
Marketing has to change with them.
Use Grab where it makes sense.
Build a delivery menu that actually works.
Understand your margins.
Measure customer acquisition properly.
Build direct relationships with customers.
Create a community.
Give people reasons to visit.
Create experiences worth leaving home for.
And then actually show those experiences in your marketing.
Restaurants spent years worrying about the restaurant opening next door.
Maybe they were looking in the wrong direction.
Because today, one of their biggest competitors could be sitting in their customer's pocket.
Grab has made ordering easier.
Netflix has made staying home better.
The sofa is comfortable.
The air-conditioning is already on.
So don't try to beat convenience at convenience.
Give people something convenience can't give them.
Give them atmosphere.
Give them service.
Give them stories.
Give them people.
Give them connection.
Give them belonging.
Give them an experience worth putting their shoes on for.
And then...
Market the hell out of it.
Because if all you're showing people is a photograph of your burger...
they might as well Grab it.
Got it? Good.
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