Restaurant Sales & Marketing

An average person, makes 200 food-related choices in a day.

Restaurant Marketing Key Marketing Objectives

Satisfaction & Loyalty

Generating Traffic

Positioning & Brand Building

Way Forward with Master Sun

Key Marketing Objectives

1. Enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty2. Generating traffic

• New customer acquisition is 7-10 times more expensive than building Restaurant sales through repeat

3. Building a strong brand



Generating Traffic




• Marketing Strategy : Develop a strong promotional programme that systematically incentivizes regular customers • To come more often

• Instead of once a month, say once a fortnight

• To increase their check value• To come with more people • To recommend to new customers• To feel ‘special’ and ‘recognized’

Satisfaction & LoyaltyKey Questions • Before we embark on building satisfaction and loyalty the

key questions to answer are :• How well do you know your customers?

• Purchasing patterns, satisfaction with merchandising, pricing, service issues, and competitive patronage

• Percentage of sales from residential, corporate, shopping, and other generators

• What percentage of your business is new vs. repeat?• How often do regular customers return? Motivations for

return?• What is the profile/s of typical repeat customer ?• How do our regular customers evaluate us vis-à-vis

competition?

Satisfaction & Loyalty• To come with more people by being linked to occasions

calling for a group celebration (B’day, anniversary, promotion etc.)• Sample Idea : Solid birthday programme.

• A birthday program can be executed through an email • Plug in the birthday and e-mail address of your members, and a

secure and nicely designed e-mail is sent to them at a time you determine in advance. • For an email programme one can tracks view rates for reporting that

allows you to know how well your program is working.

• The e-mail campaign includes a redemption code that offers the birthday boy a sizable discount on booking in advance • The redemption code will allow you to track what percentage of the

e-mails are bringing in guests and calculate a return on investment. • Recent research has shown that retention based e-mail marketing is

300 to 400 % higher than traditional vehicles such as direct mail

• Complimentary cake or any other


• To come more often by giving them something to redeem in the next visit• Promotion Idea : "The Secret Envelope”

• Here's how it works.

• You give your guests a sealed enveloped with a prize inside. They can't open the envelope themselves (and if they do, they forfeit the prize).

• They have to bring it back to Restaurant on a lean day (say Mon/Tues/Wednesday) and have your staff open it.• The prizes that you create for this contest can as small as a free

mock-tail to something quite large like a Rs. 1000 or even a Rs. 2,000 gift certificate.

• Obviously, there is going to be few big prizes and a whole bunch of smaller ones

• Could be done in the month preceding a lean month


• To come more often by giving an innovative price-off without discounting• Sample Idea : Flip for Food Day/Lunch

• Guests will have a 50 % chance of getting their food bill paid by BN.

• Can be done during lean month, lean day or lean hour

• Attracts more attention much more than a ‘buy one get one free’

• Guests are also more likely to have higher check averages than normal because there is a chance they wont have to pay.

• To come more often by bouncing guests from peak times to off-peak times

Satisfaction & Loyalty• To come more often by rewarding customer for every

rupee spent.• Reward cards create an opportunity to communicate with

the customer. • The process of asking customers for their reward card and letting

them know how many points they have accumulated contributes to their total dining experience.

• Easily track when guests collect their rewards and which reward they choose, which allows operators to monitor which items have the highest response rates

• Telling a customer that they can accumulate enough points to receive a free cocktail on their next visit during this visit may be all the incentive they need

• Identifying infrequent visitors and issuing a reward to encourage them to return sooner.

Satisfaction & Loyalty• To come with more people by using a ‘refer-a-friend tactics

• Sample Idea : Refer-a-friend Promotion• A regular customer is sent an SMS coupon which allows him to send an introductory

discount coupon to his friend and family• When your coupon is sent to a customer's cell phone that information along with your

business phone number and address is stored on the phone and can be forwarded to the customer's friends and family.

• For every customer who receives a coupon directly from you may forward that message to at least 10 additional people creating new customers for your business at no additional cost.

• To recommend and bring new customers by being remarkable• Create promotions/cuisines/stories that give your guests a snippet, a story about

Restaurant ... something that they can remark about to their friends

• Idea :‘Pay-What-You-Want’ Lunch or Hour• Customers get a bill that covers their beverages, and then they write down what they think

the meal is worth and go up front to pay• Could be used as lunch option for the off-peak day or could be used regularly for a

specific off peak hour

Satisfaction & Loyalty• To increase their check value by incentivizing beverage sales

• Incentivize beverage sales by having a ‘happy hour’• Caveat : Relevant only for specific locations with significant

corporate presence. If the location is not convenient for a happy hour crowd, don’t throw away money trying to build one

• To increase the check value through effective internal merchandizing of beverages

• Merchandizing should carry a specific campaign/theme

• Table tents should be inviting and encourage interest. • Used to promote special cocktails or mock-tails not your regular beer

• Bathroom Signs• You have more of the customer's undivided attention here than

anywhere.

• Posters - Should always highlight the campaign and match menu. Look to highlight what beverages you want to order people to order or your most eye-catching items.


• To increase the check value through suggestive selling programs• All servers should become sales people because that is

really their job• When a guest asks what is good, you have to be specific —

they are opening the door for you to sell them what you would like to sell them — so go for it.

• Servers should be incentivized to support campaigns, sell beverages etc.

• By switching your incentives around from one incentives idea to the next, you will develop new selling techniques and work on better service standards.


• To feel special and recognized by manager playing the “host” whenever possible

• Welcoming each guest individually and making a personal connection to customers is one of the best ways to create loyalty

• Simple things like saying ‘hello’ or having a manager make the rounds and check on guests are great ways to establish a connection

• For regular guests, greeting them by name & asking about their families

Satisfaction & Loyalty• To feel special and recognized by encouraging the use of

reward cards• Reward cards create an opportunity to communicate with the

customer. • The process of asking customers for their reward card and letting

them know how many points they have accumulated contributes to their total dining experience.

• Telling a customer that they can accumulate enough points to receive a free dessert on their next visit by purchasing an extra drink during this visit may be all the incentive they need.

• They can easily track when guests collect their rewards and which reward they choose, which allows operators to monitor which items have the highest response rates

• Some POS systems are even capable of identifying infrequent visitors and issuing a reward to encourage them to return sooner.



Generating Traffic



Generating Traffic• Generating traffic from core segment by targeting

business associations and business leaders• Sample Idea 1: Target business socials like a Rotary

Leadership team meeting• Selecting the right group to partner with can leverage their

resources to promote Restaurant, and you can also target your core audience.

• Arrange photo opportunities that include your displays in the background and submit to local media.

• Sample Idea 2: Giving Rs. 1000 vouchers to business leaders in the community.

• Some of these would come in and bring six people and spend Rs. 1000 on top of their voucher.

• A good rule of thumb is to make the value of your voucher around 75 per cent of your average spend to cover for your food cost

Generating Traffic

• Generating traffic by using mass media• Most mass media usage for restaurant marketing is often

more about feeding ego than generating sustainable traffic• Conscious decision not to use mass media to generate traffic

• Signage : Largest, clearest and most clever sign

• Generating traffic by managers doing the networking• Idea 1: Join Local BNI Chapter

• BNI is a business referral organization, largest in its type

• Creates visibility for the restaurant and generates contacts in local community

• Managers can actively ask to be referred to business leaders, business associations, social associations etc.

Generating Traffic

• Generating Traffic by tie-up up with other retail and consumer organizations targeting a similar segment• Finding the right partner to be the provider of the “gift” is

crucial and will increase the take-up rate of your offer• What car do they drive? What watch do they wear? Which Gym

do they go to ?

• Approach the businesses you think are complementary to your customer base.

• Generating traffic through sponsoring family linked groups of consumers who live /work within 6 kms of Restaurant. • Sample Idea: Targeting families through sponsorships of

events of a local school.



Generating Traffic



Building a Strong Brand• Strong Positioning : Point of differentiation that the

competition either cannot or does not claim• The best positioning ideas are so simple and obvious, that

people overlook them.• What is the niche that we own? • Fine tune your concept to help guests (and yourself) really

understand who you are (in your guests perception not yours) and what it is you need to offer (versus what you want)

• Brand-building is closing the gap between what you promise and what you deliver. • A strong brand is one that has alignment between the

promise and execution.

Building a Brand Key Questions • What is the strength of customer franchise?

• What is the core constituency of the brand?

• What type of customers that do not come to us?

• What role does the brand play in the customer’s life. How relevant is it?

• What is the positioning of the brand ?

• Does our core segment value the positioning?• Does positioning exclude competitive offerings?• Is the positioning credible?

• Can we sustain the position for long?

• Does it fit long term organization’s objectives

• Is the Brand image strong and engaging?

• How well articulated are the colours, logos & symbols associated with the brand?

• Is the brand effectively displayed at all touch points?

• Is the brand an involved citizen of the community?

Differentiation from Competition• Establish Differentiation from competition by

emphasizing on developing an engaging brand image• Need to understand the imagery/personality that the brand

carries in the customer’s mind and need to focus/define it sharply and tweak/modify it to have a wider appeal

• Logo, merchandising & other communication material needs to carry the tribal/outdoor/nomad look/feel in its identity

• Establish Differentiation from competition by educating customers on the Cuisine concept• Sponsorship of a Cuisine dinner or tie-ups with outdoor

events and corporate offsite esp. targeting senior management & rich

• Booklet on Cuisine recipes and cuisine

Differentiation from Competition• Establish Differentiation from the competition by creating

and publicizing newsworthy stories that emphasize the uniqueness of Restaurant• Worthwhile to spend 15% percent of your marketing budget

on a solid public relations program.• Need to hire a PR firm that has creativity and excitement

about Restaurant. • Need to associate with some positive philanthropic and

service activities, which will help people regard your brand more favorably.

Differentiation from Competition• Establish differentiation from competition by recreating Restaurant

online and facilitating community development• Quality of website is indeed an indicator of the level of service they can

expect to receive when dining there• Some diners find this an easy way to get directions and dial your phone

number• Showcase Restaurant.

• Flash viewers are now ubiquitous with almost 90% of browsers containing the plug-in.

• Need to watch what your competitors are doing online• Need to have web-tracking software

• Visitors numbers, town, region or country, what pages they tend to look at or rarely visit

• Need to actively look at interactive online marketing• Active community building using blogging, facebook, youtube, linkedin• Active Content Development and Search Engine Marketing owning the

‘Cuisine’ space • Burger King’s popular Subservient Chicken site was one of the first Web

campaigns to prove that interactive marketing can be successful for restaurants.

Alignment Between Promise & Execution• Build a strong brand by providing excellent customer

service EVERY meal• Training & Processes to focus on critical aspects of

customer experience• Phone answering and reservations• How to handle mistakes

• People take service personally. When something goes wrong service-wise, the situation is upsetting on an emotional level

• One mistake not handled well, can destroy the brand promise• Sales & Marketing component in training program so that you have

a staff of ambassadors to help your sales-building efforts

• Create an environment and systems where employees feel valued and appreciated.

• Incentive programs should allow the extraordinary efforts by an individual to be rewarded, as well as team goals

• Most valuable incentives are non-monetary

Alignment Between Promise & Execution• Building a strong brand by ensuring consistency in food

taste (esp. Cuisine) across locations• Need to ensure that the ‘specials’ and the top liked items

are standardized across restaurants• To keep your menu fresh, relevant, and profitable, you will

need to know specifically how each item on your menu is performing and also how it stacks up next to your top competition.

• Think of each item on your menu as a tenant leasing space and it has to earn its right to the space you’ve granted it.



Generating Traffic



Outsourced Senior Sales & Marketing Team• As the name suggests, we manage the marketing.

• Charged with improving the performance of the restaurant marketing in every way and primarily focus on the top line of the restaurant within defined parameters

• We will represent the directors on most issues pertaining to marketing

• We will be effectively working with CEO, Regional Managers , Restaurant Managers and staff of Restaurant

Contact Us

Sarvajeet Chandra •+91 9920803060•[email protected]•[email protected]

Visit Us at www.mastersungroup.com

04/11/23

Business

Restaurant Sales & Marketing