MARKETING: The Best Marketing Trends to Get Guests Lining Up
When hunger strikes, what’s the first thing people do to find a new restaurant? Take to their phones and devices. In fact, 90% of people research a restaurant online before dining there. Turns out what you do (or don’t do) online determines your restaurant’s success. It’s time to craft an attention-grabbing digital marketing campaign. The result? An online presence that builds loyalty, hype and grows your restaurant business.
DID YOU KNOWS…
No Chicken Sandwich is Worth It
A 28-year-old Maryland man died after getting stabbed outside a Popeyes, reportedly following an argument about the chain’s fried-chicken sandwich. Police believe the argument started over someone cutting the line. This isn’t the first time that Popeyes chicken sandwich has led to violence. In September, a Houston man pulled a gun after being told the store had run out of chicken sandwiches, and in August another patron threatened to fight employees after being told the same. Like, c’mon, America. Stop being children.
Let Them Binge!
As competition intensifies and big names such as Apple and Disney are entering the streaming landscape, many players are returning to a weekly release schedule for their most popular shows, taking away one of the features that made streaming so popular in the first place. According to a recent survey conducted by Morning Consult and the Hollywood Reporter, Americans won’t be happy with that trend.
No Booing Allowed
After getting boo’d at the World Series and then at a UFC event, Donald Trump seems determined to find a sporting event that’ll accept him with a warm embrace. Enter LSU who, according to an AL.com article, has warned students that they will lose their blocked seating if they protested Trump’s attendance. The VP of the UA SGA has since clarified that they’re not trying to curtail students’ First Amendment rights, but are hoping to reduce the chances of “altercations” between students.
MORALE OF THE STORY
Why it matters to you: The holidays are a perfect time for morale and team building.
We search the internet daily for news and insights to help you manage -- and sometimes just survive -- the rigors of your job. Today, we found two posts that address the same issue -- building a happy team. One focuses on boosting morale specifically and the other turns its eye building a cohesive team. Make no mistake, they are saying the same thing – happy & satisfied employees make for more productive and retained employees. Whether you focus on boosting morale by recognition & rewards or build your team through better communication & compassion, the notion that your business is place you can lead is the core value from this conversation. Too often managers become enamored of the “I pay them to do it” mentality of leadership.
The two posts remind us that morale and a great team are built and not demanded. This is done by listening with empathy, not stridence and disdain. While the latter may come more naturally after a few 60 hour weeks, it’s the former that will ensure those long weeks don’t continue unabated. The holidays are a great time to team build. Everyone is making money because volumes are up and more amenable to good will.
For example, start openly planning your holiday party celebration. It allows your team to participate in the plan and gives them something to look forward to before the letdown of January volume sets in. It could literally be the difference in retaining folks through the toughest days of winter.
[Source: FSR Magazine & Toast POS]
SO, YOU WANT TO BE A TV STAR
Why it matters to you: The first food service, industry-based reality show ended 15 years ago; do you remember The Restaurant?
You may remember a content series we previously ran called How Hollywood Sees Us. We chose clips from TV and movies that reflect how the folks depicting us really don’t know a thing about our industry. Given that this is the 15th anniversary of the ending of the first restaurant-based reality TV show, it’s seems like a further review of this divide might be in order.
Let’s start with a little review and update. The Restaurant reality TV series featured a young lauded chef name Rocco DiSpirito. His eponymous restaurant, Rocco’s, was the scene for the series that ran for two seasons and ended ignominiously with the location closing amid financial issues and some scandal. DiSpirito has had an uninspiring run since then of TV appearances and cook books, and now it appears another restaurant flame out.
For most that participated, along with Rocco, the show was a disaster -- just like the restaurant. The central problem was that to the uninitiated, Rocco’s was a regular restaurant. But to those of us that are “in the biz,” it was a shit show of epic proportions. What always struck me was in two seasons of TV, they NEVER had a single conversation among servers where tips were discussed. Bwahaha! Can you imagine your team not discussing that topic in the service alley? In the end, Hollywood got us wrong here and in every other restaurant-based reality TV attempt. Truth be told, restaurants are filled with about as much drama as your average office environment, but we all know reality TV doesn’t really reflect, um, reality.
[Source: Eater]
