MARKETING: Top 8 Reasons Restaurants Should Use Promotional Products
Every bar or restaurant is looking for a marketing edge nowadays. While many turn to online (and rightfully so!) sometimes it pays to go old school with promotional product & items to delight your guests.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Everybody Wants to be a Superhero
Men, women, children. Everyone wants to be a superhero -- for Halloween anyways. And while most people buy or make their own costumes, 29% will rent one for Halloween. Here are a few other fun & spooky stats for today's big day.
You will find more statistics at StatistaCord Cutting Accelerates
Charter, Comcast and AT&T all post big subscriber loses in Q3, losing a combined 614,000 subscribers. This mean not-so-good things for sports stations like ESPN, but could mean extra traffic to your sports bar if you market to guests right.
Brexit Could Close 20% of UK Restaurants
Ouch! A new market report is painting a bleak outlook about Brexit implications. The study, conducted by accountancy firm Moore Stephens, says that up to 20% of UK restaurants are at risk of closing. This is just one of a slew of gloomy reports about the Brexit after-effects coming out of London recently. Godspeed to our friends across the pond!
Whiskey and You [Song]
Why it matters to you: Sometimes less is more on your beverage menu.
When mixology became a thing after the movie Cocktail came out in 1988, we thought chucking a mixing tin in the air and catching it as ice cubes dropped flawlessly into it was exciting. Fast forward almost 20 years and exciting now is cashew liqueur and hibiscus-acai grenadine. How did something so entertaining become so esoteric? It’s the nature of things to become increasingly complicated (have you looked at your phone today compared to 1988?). Consequently, many cocktail-forward operators are paring back their specialty offerings to make their operations smoother and less overwhelming to guests.
The thinking is do fewer things really well and make it more accessible to the guest. Besides having only a handful of thoughtfully crafted cocktails on your menu doesn’t mean you can’t make the classics just as well. Instead of placing a dirty martini or an updated Manhattan on your menu, just include a line on your cocktail menu that references the classics and their availability. This ensures you aren’t overdoing it and confounding your guests, while simultaneously expanding the impression that you have more to offer the guest with a specific drink in mind. It’s literally like expanding your menu by contracting it.
Be a Good Sport
Why it matters to you: Is baseball returning as the American pastime?
Many have argued that baseball is America’s “past” time, as interest in the game has waned and TV ratings have dropped over the previous 20 seasons. But something has happened in the past few years that may deliver hope to those that still love baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie: the ratings are growing again. It seemed obvious that last year’s edition, which included the Cubs winning a World Series for the first time in over 100 years, would get a bit of a boost. However, no one anticipated that continuing this year -- but it has! In fact, the ratings for Houston/Los Angeles have equaled and even eclipsed last year’s World Series and are way ahead of the previous nine.
While this won’t mean much for operators until the 2018 World Series, it does bode well considering the plummeting ratings the NFL has delivered. If anything, it indicates that there are other sports that are engaging to guests and you can focus on for marketing.
Remember, you run a great place to watch the game. Iced cold beer, great snacks, a friendly staff, and a boatload of TVs make your joint a natural for anyone wanting to catch a game and wind down. That means this is the time to get people on board with your marketing for the next 12 months. Use the traffic and interest in all sports to create a self-fulfilling prophecy of your place being a consumer’s first choice to watch a game.