Customer Spotlight: Restauranteur Niddal Abedrabbo of ZaTaR Trucks – SilkCards
Category: :: 01/08/2020
When it comes to restaurant business cards, there’s not many more unique than the one for ZaTaR Truck, a food truck service in Texas. The best part about this card is not the way the information is presented but rather the “big idea” on the back of the card and how it shatters the conventional rectangle shape to convey that big idea.
It says, “Ummm… can you calm down a bit? If you want our food that much, flip this over and contact us. Sheeshh…” in gold foil with an arrow pointing to a die-cut bite mark on the corner of the card. This message basically asserts that they know their food is good, and they’re not afraid to brag about it with playful banter on their marketing materials.
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About Niddal, the Founder of ZaTaR Truck
Niddal Abedrabbo was originally from New York with a business and finance background. He always knew he wanted to take a break from the corporate grind to venture into the food space. After residing in Texas for some time, he finally took the plunge, and so ZaTaR Truck was born. The goal: Bring famous New York street food to Texas: that’s where the food truck comes in.
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Because of his background, he knew how important marketing is, and that’s where his love of business cards came in:
“I have many business cards from people I won’t likely be doing business with anytime soon; I keep their cards because I appreciate their design. I wanted that for my own cards.”
—See his facebook post about being a nitpicky perfectionist.
We were lucky to steal him for a few minutes for a quick interview. Here’s how it went:
What are some of the unique marketing challenges you face as a restauranteur?
With a food truck, the fact that you’re very mobile is the main challenge. When people want to go eat at their favorite restaurant, they always know where to go because there is a fixed building and fixed hours.
Would you say that branding is really important to your company?
Because we don’t have a fixed location or hours, we’d be pretty much toast without a social media presence. If people aren’t able to go to your website or twitter to find your schedule, they have no way to find you and get your delicious food. That’s where the whole marketing aspect comes into play to stay relevant to the people.
We have fun with the videos we post online, the graphics, the jokes, and keeping everything fresh and light-hearted. It’s important to stay relevant to things going on in the news, too.
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And that’s why you need a fabulous card to get the word out about your online presence?
Absolutely.
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What’s the reaction that you get from people you hand your card to?
It’s funny you ask because over time, I’ve come to expect a certain reaction. I stand there for a few seconds because I always know it will solicit a positive reaction.
“It’s not your average business card, and it’s not your average food truck.”
They always say, “Oh this is clever.” We elevate everything on our food truck, and we want to elevate our marketing as well.
I actually had one person come and order our food and then say to us: “The only reason I came here is because I saw your business card online, and I wanted to come and get one.”
I love your card’s design. Did the SILKCARDS team design it, or did you?
I had a general idea of what I wanted, and I wanted the die-cut with the bite mark out of it. I wanted it to be thicker, but they were instrumental in helping me put these ideas into reality. They came with the spot UV and gold foil, and we used the same colors of our food truck, and they suggested where things would pop and give a 3-D feel.
What was it like working with their design team?
They have the expertise in the industry, and I had the expertise to say what I wanted. When you speak in your own words, they could translate it to their terms. I was very happy with the end result.
