Restaurant Marketing Blog

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Here’s part 2 of the 3-parter on how you can crack the restaurant marketing code.

11. Do you have at least 2 favorites in each category to recommend to guests?
12. Do you know what your guests think of your food? Have you ever asked them?
13. Have you tried your competitors’ food?
14. Do you know who your best guests are … by name?
15. Do your guests know who you are by name?

16. Have your rewarded your best guests for their loyal patronage?
17. Have you ever called your restaurant to ask for directions to get there?
18. What community events or groups do you participate in and support?
19. What local charities do you get involved with and support?
20. How many networking groups do you belong to and speak at?

Posted by jcohen in
(1) Trackbacks • Permalink

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Can You Answer These 25 Critical Restaurant Marketing Questions? If so, you’re on your way to having a successful restaurant with real profitable growth.

1. What is your restaurant famous for?
2. What do your guests think you’re famous for or known for?
3. Do you advertise or actively tell your guests what you are famous for?
4. If you are famous for a product, is it a high profit product?
5. Are your famous signature products graphically emphasized on your menu?

6. Do you know what the dollar and cents profits are for all of your products?
7. Are your servers familiar with what’s profitable and what’s not?
8. Have you ever dined at your own restaurant before as a “guest?”
9. Would you recommend your restaurant to your own family members?
10. Have you sampled all the items on the menu?

Posted by jcohen in
(1) Trackbacks • Permalink

Friday, June 18, 2010

Restaurant Marketing: It used to be there were just a few things to do to increase sales. Then, we heard about online and we had to be there. But even that got more complicated as we went from websites, to blogs, to articles, to videos, to Twitter and to Facebook … and that’s just naming a few.

Restaurant owners are trying to do everything … jumping on the next hype du jour bandwagon that’s going to lead them down the instant road to riches, diluting their energies, diluting their message ... diluting why they even got into this business.

So, with six months down and six to go, it’s time to take a deep breath. It’s time to simplify things.

Understand that you’re in the best business in the world. Besides just satisfying a human need, you’re the place where families can be families and friends can be friends. You’re the place where smiles are made, love begins, business decisions are solidified and events are planned. You’re the place where your guests go from kids to teens to graduates. And soon they’re bringing in their own sons and daughters.

You’re the place where life begins and endures. You’re the place where communities come together to mend, to solve and to rebuild. You’re the place where life happens. And memories last.

You’re the owner of your restaurant. The quarterback of life. It’s no wonder people want to meet you and talk to you inside the restaurant and shake your hand at social events in the neighborhood. The restaurant business is fascinating to the world. And you are the face of the restaurant business.

You’re the one that puts (and sometimes holds) our lives together. And in a lot of ways, when we’re craving a great pizza … a great steak, a great sandwich, a great salad, a great burger, a great shake … whatever we’re craving … there’s no other place in the world that’s giving us an opportunity to share that craving with family and friends than your restaurant.

Whether it’s dine-in or take-out, you give us an opportunity that no other business gives us. In a busy and fragmented world, you bring a modicum of peace to our lives and make us whole again.

Wow! The next time someone asks you what you do, now you know what to say.

Posted by jcohen in
(0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Friday, June 11, 2010

Restaurant Marketing: A lot of restaurants (and companies in other categories) have looked at social media marketing as an easy way to connect to a lot of people and be “friends” with them. Ironically, some restaurants are busy “connecting” and “friending” online, when most don’t even do it to their “real” guests inside the restaurant or in the neighborhood. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take “real guest connecting” over “online connecting” any day.

Posted by jcohen in
(0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Restaurant Marketing: Per my previous post, I guess it wasn’t a stupid question after all. The LA Times says, “It’s bad enough that about 12 million potentially toxic “Shrek” drinking glasses were recalled by McDonald’s last week. But what should really get people’s alarm bells ringing is the fact that nobody seems to know, or is willing to say publicly, how the carcinogenic metal cadmium got into paint used to depict Shrek, Donkey and other characters. Worse, federal law allows cadmium to be in a product marketed to children as long as the product isn’t a toy, raising questions as to how many other goods may be out there that also pose a health risk.

Posted by jcohen in
(0) Trackbacks • Permalink