BUSINESS: 6 Ways to Future Proof Your Restaurant
In order to stay competitive, restaurants need to ensure they stay relevant, engaging and consistently interesting to their guests. Put simply, restaurants need to future-proof their marketing strategy to guarantee lasting success. In this article, we’ll show you six great ways to keep your restaurant competitive, dynamic and engaging long into the future.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Wendy Goes Breakfast
Wendy’s has created a brand-new morning menu with some breakfast takes on their standard menu. On it are things like a Honey Butter Chicken Sandwich, Breakfast Baconator, and a Frosty-ccion (a cold-brew coffee mixed with Frosty crème). This isn’t Wendy’s first attempt at winning with breakfast but this newest attempt is being tested at 300 locations across the US.
What Would Impeachment Look Like?
An impeachment is a lengthy process and requires a simple majority from the House Judiciary Committee, the House of Representatives, and a two-thirds majority of the Senate. While each step is quite explicitly described by the Constitution, the possible indictments are worded rather vaguely. Consequently, most attempts to impeach the president are rejected by the House Judiciary Committee. Here’s what the process would look like.
France’s Big Café Save
France’s president Emmanuel Marcon is dedicating $165 million to keep the country’s small cafes in business. France has lost more than 150,000 cafes over the last 50 years, especially in smaller villages and towns, where it’s the main location of socializing. Some are praising the move as a way of saving French culture while others see it as little more than a political appeasement of the “yellow vest” protestors.
VIDEO TO THE RESCUE
Why it matters to you: If you’re struggling to staff your restaurant, turn to video for the fix.
Recruiting candidates to join your staff is among the most difficult tasks you face as an operator. In fact, over half of you identify recruiting as your top challenge. So why are you doing the same things you’ve always done to attract new candidates if it’s not working? Albert Einstein is famously misattributed as having said, “The definition of insanity is doing the something over and over again and expecting a different result.” But whether a famous physicist said it or not, if putting ads on Craigslist or a sign at your entrance isn’t working then you need to stop relying on it. If you really want to amp up your recruiting, then it’s time to do a video. Yes, a video. No, it’s not nearly as hard as you think it is and this primer on ToastTab’s blog will greatly increase your chances of success in making one.
To make this work and not feel cheesy, it has to be authentic. Ironically, too high a production value and you can lose some of that authenticity you are seeking. The key is to keep it short (under two minutes is our suggestion) and to highlight the people that already work for you to prove why your restaurant is a great place to work. This doesn’t have to be an expensive enterprise and can literally be done on a newer cellphone with great camera resolution. Then you can just follow these simple steps while making it. Use a tripod to keep things steady, light your video so you can clearly see the restaurant and faces of the team members you feature, and use a microphone (these are inexpensive and can be easily integrated with a phone and take the time to edit it.
Likely, you already have a staff member with sufficient skill to help you pull the whole thing together. Remember to have fun with it and to demonstrate that your place is a fun place to work. Since video is the absolute most compelling content on social, post your video and see what happens. Even if it’s just guests commenting on how much fun it appears you had making the video, it’s will be worth, but if you also attract a few perfect staff members, well….
[Source: ToastTab POS]
DRINK MY NAME
Why it matters to you: Are celebrities really better at this than you are?
Celebrities are ubiquitous these days. From their endorsements to their news-worthy gaffes, these folks appear to exist to entertain us and, in the process, they get PAID. But is there any correlation between celebrity and success in business? Some would argue you need only look at women like Ivanka Trump and Jessica Simpson to say yes. They both have very successful clothing lines dedicated to their vision of fashion and style, but are they the rule or the exception? In our industry, many non-restaurant celebs have tried to capture market share by leveraging their personal branding. But who among them has succeeded? Not, Jay Z, arguably the most successful of the entrepreneur musicians. His 40/40 Clubs have had middling success with five opened and two subsequently closed. He has retained just three since getting started in 2003.
Over the past few years, the spirits industry has been rife with celebrities attempting to horn in on the fun. Take Conor McGregor who partnered with Irish whisky brand Proper No. 12 to sell their spirits. All that branding went poof when McGregor was caught on tape punching an elderly man at a pub over the whiskey.
Of course, not every celebrity endorsement goes awry. George Clooney’s tequila brand Casamigos was bought by Diageo for as much as $1 billion. Even Kim Kardashian got into the mix by endorsing Midori, but, spoiler alert, she doesn’t drink. In the end, our industry is neither improved nor diminished by the presence of these celebrity interlopers. However, I sure wish they were all better at their jobs and didn’t believe they were better than us at ours.
[Source: Fortune]
