Restaurant Marketing Blog

Sunday, March 29, 2009

This Italian restaurant now gets a number of catering orders just from looking for sales outside the bottle. Great restaurant marketing.

In a recent workshop I gave on Restaurant Marketing, an attendee who had an Italian restaurant said they get a tremendous amount of business from a local funeral home. He went on to explain… he approached the director of the home and inquired if there was ever a need to provide food for a wake or a similar event, to please consider us as your caterer.

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Thursday, March 26, 2009

If you’ve got “CEO” as your title on your business card, it’s not a good way to market your restaurant. The CEO title is out. Long gone. Ill feelings. Negative perceptions.

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

When will the day come when restaurants start publishing the calorie count on their menus. Are customers being deceived by ordering what appears to be “healthy salads” when in reality, the calorie count may be as high as 1300 calories? What a great restaurant marketing tool it would be to differentiate your restaurant from others by letting your guests know what they’re eating.

For example, this from HungryGirl.com—Ruby Tuesday Carolina Chicken Salad - 880 cal, 62g, fat, 31 net carbs (w/out dressing!)
Chili’s Southwest Cobb Salad - 1,186 cal, 86g fat, 44 carbs
Macaroni Grill’s Grilled Tenderloin Salad - 979 cal, 74g fat, 8 carbs

Wow! Hold the salads, please.

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Thursday, March 19, 2009

I’m seeing a lot of restaurants in this economy working inside a bottle … that means shaving expenses, cutting out the little extras—sacrificing quality, thinking their guests aren’t going to notice it.

My local Backyard Burger just changed the chicken in their Blackened Chicken Salad. They went from huge tender chunks to small cubes that tend to get overcooked and burn easily. The price was the same. The quality wasn’t.

Result: they gave me something to talk about. I’m pretty sure it’s not the kind of talk they would prefer. The point is that if you believe that your frequent guests aren’t going to notice these cuts, then you’re living inside the bottle.

The restaurants that will be successful in this economy will be those that live for their guests. Don’t take shortcuts. Now is the time to go the extra mile.

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Monday, March 16, 2009

1.  In tough times like these, you are much much better off to go the extra mile to maintain valuable relationships.

2.  If you really want to be successful in these tough times, you simply must strengthen the loyalty of your guests.

3.  In these tough times, every time you are about to initiate a new policy, ask yourself, “Will this help me keep my best guests?”  If the answer is no—don’t do it!

Posted by jcohen in • Restaurant Marketing
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