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THE POWER OF A GOOD PROMOTION
When your cuisine is worth communicating, take note of the right ingredients for a powerful promotion. Perhaps you want to spotlight a new addition to your menu or resonate a reason for new clientele to visit your restaurant. Begin by building an effective promotional plan.
“A good promotion will allow you to show off your culinary talents, while offering customers something new and innovative,” comments Linda Medd, Channel Promotions Manager, Non-Commercial National Accounts, Kraft Foodservice. “In addition, your culinary staff will be motivated to take advantage of fresh ingredients and spices that can be highlighted in the promotion.”
Promotions can be a phenomenal business tool in helping to bolster a higher price point and in turn increase check averages for your foodservice facility. The image of your restaurant can also reach new heights as customers see that you are keeping up with taste trends and their dynamic culinary needs. A well-designed flavor-marketing strategy puts diners on the right path to selecting menu options that meet their expectations and encourage a return visit.¹
To assure you have the key elements of marketing your menu and dining experience to your target audience, keep in mind the following tips:²
- Make sure that your promotion appeals to your identified customer base.
- Work with your servers to assure they have tasted the new menu item and know how to describe it to patrons.
- Offer free samples or trial size portions to patrons to give them all the more reason to order it off the menu.
- Consider using coupons and special offers during slower business periods so as not to give customers a reason to expect it all the time.
- Bounce-back coupons are a great way to extend a special offer to your patrons and encourage repeat business.
- If you have a self-serve restaurant, merchandise your special promotion in different locations, especially the beverage station where most customers will visit no matter what daypart.
- When incorporating photography into your marketing pieces such as table tents and advertising, make sure to only use high quality photography of your highlighted menu items.
- Always decide on the timeline and price points for your promotion to give better direction and tracking opportunity for your marketing efforts. Promotions that last at least one month will give you a better return on investment.³
- Avoid “me” marketing but instead look to your patrons and what they want, as well as general food trends and what the competition is doing.
- Challenge your chef or culinary staff to bring new ideas to the table and then design a promotion around their innovative menu offerings.
- When incorporating a promotion around a particular branded item, such as a tender cut of t-bone steak featuring A.1.®, make sure you have ample supply of the product on hand or a reliable source for more if demand increases.
- Evaluate if your new offering can be extended into catering and then make sure to incorporate this into the overall promotion to encourage another venue for trial and repeat business.
- Whenever possible, incorporate cross merchandising by promoting your featured menu items both inside your foodservice facility and through outside marketing opportunities such as newspaper and radio advertisements, direct mail and community outlets.
Remember, you don’t have to wait for a holiday or special occasion to create a promotion for your restaurant or foodservice facility. Any day is a good day to market your flavor!
¹ Source: Flavor & The Menu, Spring 2004
² Source: Kraft Foodservice, Linda Medd, Channel Promotions Manager
³ Source: Pizza Marketing Quarterly, May-June 2005, “Catering Corner: Four Walls Marketing Revealed” by Michael Attias |