MARKETING: How to Market Your Gameday Menu
Your new gameday menu will be a vital spoke on your marketing wheel when it comes time to promoting your overhauled gameday experience. Determining the strengths of the menu and presenting them front and center will help sell guests on why your establishment deserves the marathon sessions of patronage that come with a full day of sports indulgence.
DID YOU KNOWS…
A Pot o’ Gold for Bars & Restaurants
According to a recent Nielsen CGA analysis, St. Patrick’s Day is the highest grossing day of the year for U.S. bars and restaurants. In 2018, compared with the average day, beer sales grew 174% on St. Patrick’s Day, and spirits sales rose 153%. In fact, one-third of 15,000 U.S. consumers surveyed through Nielsen CGA’s on-premise user survey (OPUS) said they visit a bar/restaurant on St. Patrick’s Day, marking this a major bar/restaurant holiday, coming in just behind New Year’s Eve, Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day.
Venture Capital Stays on the Coasts
According to the National Association of Venture Capitalist, about 60 percent of all venture capital investments in 2018 were afforded to people and companies on the West coast. New England and the Mid-Atlantic account for another quarter of venture capital dollars, meaning that 85 percent of venture capital’s big investments are concentrated on the coasts, completely bypassing most of the country.
DirecTV Goes Streaming
DirecTV is now selling a streaming version of its satellite service. The goal is to get new customers to buy their streaming services online rather than buying the satellite dishes, and getting current customers to trade in their satellites for their streaming box. Costs are roughly the same, though the online versions of the satellite packages offer fewer channels, possibly due to needing to obtain streaming rights to those channels.
SELL THEM A TICKET
Why it matters to you: How Burger King’s coffee program can work for you.
When a national chain rolls out a new pricing strategy, it’s totally worth a look. This is especially true of Burger King’s recently announced $5 coffee membership. Here’s the deal: you pay $5 and you get 50 $0.50 coffees every day for a month. The simplicity and brilliance of this program is absolutely worth emulating. Given that BK’s goal is to sell more food, they are likely profiting both from the coffee sales and from the increased traffic as folks stop for coffee and leave with a sandwich. Sure, their fast food profile makes a program like this appear to be irrelevant to a full-service restaurant, but it doesn’t have to be.
Why not offer a soft beverage membership for lunch. Charge a flat monthly fee and then give them free or discounted soda or creative alcohol free beverages. It’s a legit way to drive traffic at lunch by giving people a reason to visit more often during lunch. Even if you give up a little margin on your soft beverages, by driving more traffic you are reducing your incremental labor expenses which will likely mitigate any losses from the promotion. You can fashion your own version of a club program, but make it a value to guests that encourages more visits and increased visits by the guest.
[Source: The Daily Meal]
DID YOU GET ANYTHING FOR THAT?
Why it matters to you: Knowing your ROI for marketing is a basic part of being a solid marketer.
Speaking of how much a promotion will cost, do you know ROI delivered by your marketing? It’s a number you should 100% track whenever you invest real money in a marketing program. This excellent post on Toast POS explains the basics of marketing and calculating its value to your business. They break it down into four parts, how to create a marketing strategy for your restaurant, how to gauge the performance of that strategy, how to calculate its return, and some tips to master the art of restaurant marketing. This is a primer to be sure, but the post does offer some very specific guidance on how to build your marketing -- from who you are targeting to defining your message.
But it doesn’t stop there. The author suggests there is some debate about how much you should spend on marketing but offers between 6-12% as a good rule of thumb. Now that you have decided on your budget, you can then do the direct calculation of its return. The article does includes a specific formula. But what we will reveal is that even in a promotion that shows a zero return is worth doing because you are setting the tone for your restaurant. The final piece of advice is how to steward your own success. Suggestions like keep a watchful eye and know the numbers just make sense when you are investing money. So focus well, because it’s your money you’re marketing with it.
[Source: Toast POS]
