The owners of a popular Rutherglen restaurant have claimed a marketing campaign of their Cambuslang rivals is pasta joke – and accused them of trying to deliberately poach their diners.
The Freeman family, who own The Bistro, claim Fratelli’s have used “underhand” and “black hat” tactics in an attempt to snatch a pizza their customer base.
The dispute centres around online results using the search engine Bing. When the words “the Bistro” and “Rutherglen” are typed in, a result linking to an offer on the deals website Groupon is among the top results.
The offer is headlined The Bistro Rutherglen – Amazing Deals From Only £24. However, clicking the link takes web users to a deal for Fratelli’s.
The Bistro’s owners insist Fratelli’s deliberately chose bistro and Rutherglen as key words for their advert, knowing that it would create confusion – and that it could hurt their sales.
In an angry post on its website, the Bistro accuses Fratelli’s of trying to “steal their customers”. Owner Derek
Derek Freeman told the Reformer: “It’s totally out of order and a really low thing to do.
“I only spotted it by accident, as I’d searched for the Bistro online to look for something and saw a Groupon offer come up.
(Image: RGR)
“We’ve never done anything with Groupon, so I couldn’t understand it, and when I clicked on the link it took me to the Fratelli’s offer.
“I was taken really aback. They are not a bistro and they are not in Rutherglen, so why are they using those words to try and advertise themselves?
“I’ve never had to deal with anything like this before.
“We’ve tried to contact Fratelli’s about it, but they have just been hostile and dismissive.
“It worries me that people will get confused over this – our numbers have been down in the past few weeks and I worry that’s the reason why.”
Scott McPhee, of digital marketing company GAAP, carries out work for the Bistro.
(Image: RGR)
He said: “Mistakes can happen and I thought that might have been the case at first.
“But I got abuse when I tried to raise the issue with Fratelli’s, so as far as I’m concerned it was clearly ‘black hat’ tactics, and done to target the Bistro’s business.
“They have used SEO (search engine optimization) keywords to confuse the two restaurants.”
The Bistro opened in Rutherglen 25 years ago, and is regularly ranked highly on the likes of Trip Advisor.
Fratelli’s is also very well-established, with the Cambuslang restaurant, which acquired new ownership last year, trading for almost two decades.
Mr Freeman added: “Rutherglen and Cambuslang is a small area but there is plenty of room for different restaurants.
“I just don’t think there’s any need for this. They should be focusing on improving their food rather than anything else.”
Fratelli’s declined to comment.