Saturday, March 24, 2007

Last Thursday, Starbucks ran a nationwide “free cup of coffee” promotion. It was a stroke of genius. Free coffee between the hours of 10am and 12 noon. But most restaurant people would probably say one of two things ... I can’t afford to do that ... or ... I couldn’t do that because I would lose money giving away cups of coffee.

The fact is that Starbucks doesn’t do advertising. Have you ever seen them on TV, radio, billboard? The free cup of joe IS their advertising. And it’s the type of advertising everyone ends up talking about ... for days. Trust me—there was a real strategy here and much more to this than just giving away coffee for 2 hours.

I call this “Invest In Your Guest Marketing" ... a strategy where you’ll get a huge return on your investment.

And here’s another example—Dunkin Donuts celebrated the first day of spring yesterday (Wed. March 21) by running a day-long, free iced coffee giveaway. Objective? Get more people into their units to try their product and see their large selection of coffee drinks, both iced and hot.

You can run a similar promotion! Maybe not on the same vast scale, but what about using your customer list? Invite those on your list into your restaurant for a special offer. Encourage them to invite their friends. “Invest In Your Guest Marketing” is a great investment.

Posted by jcohen in • Restaurant Marketing
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