MARKETING: 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…
Super Punch
New eSports ELEAGUE gaming-show, Super Punch, is looking to bridge the gap between Internet streaming and linear TV. The show will be a three-hour Twitch broadcast Monday through Thursday and then an hour-long broadcast on TBS, surrounded by two complimentary hours streaming on Twitch. This is part of Turner’s Sports goal of being “platform-agnostic” and to bring high-quality shows regardless of the service. This continues to show the growing importance of being able to stream sporting events at your location as well as the driving interest of eSports.
The World Economy
The IMF remains relatively optimistic compared to other major forecasting organizations, however, none of which expect the world economy to bounce back as quickly in 2020 and 2021 as the IMF does. Cautious optimism notwithstanding, Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s chief economist, pointed out that “the projected recovery for global growth remains uncertain. It continues to rely on recoveries in stressed and underperforming emerging market economies, as growth in advanced economies stabilizes at close to current levels.” Estimates for this year’s global economic growth range from 2.5% (World Bank and UN) to 3.3% (IMF).
FloSports Lands Tour de France Exclusive
FloSports, an OTT streaming service, has unveiled their 2020 bicyclist schedule and it includes exclusive Tour de France streaming rights in Canada, the first time the TdF has made that available. The FloBikes schedule also includes 75 events, more than 300 days of racing, and more than 10,000 hours of programming.
SHIPPING & HANDLING
Why it matters to you: Are you ready to sell your signature items to consumers directly?
The competition for the consumer dollars is as fierce as it has ever been in our industry. Whether it’s meal pack plans, grocerants, or even carry-out/delivery, your restaurant is under siege from the plethora of verticals working to attract the discretionary income of your guests.
In order to stay competitive and top of mind, some operators have turned to a further expansion of their own audience by offering consumer packaged goods (CPG). This interview with the founders of The Pie Hole, a fast-casual pie and coffee concept with six units in Southern California and two stores in Japan, is a great lesson for any of you that want to market a signature product outside your brick & mortar location. Whether it’s your special wing sauce or your French fry seasoning there is a potential market.
One way to access consumers for your signature products is to enter a market like GoldBelly. This site allows restaurant operators to enter the CPG segment and get immediate attention for their products. They will also guide you through the requirements to be ready to fulfill your orders safely and legally. Just as the explosion of delivery services expanded your ability to extend beyond your doors to sell your products, an aggregated site like GoldBelly allows you to explore the brand building that comes with making your signature items available. This is especially terrific if your place is either in a tourist area or has some special local reputation for your products. Either way, the more you sell the more sustainable you become and that should be enough incentive to at least consider this expanded market opportunity.
[Source: Restaurant Business Online]
THE RISE OF THE FAMILY
Why it matters to you: Family dining appears to be the place for growth in a time when industry sales are faltering.
A regular feature on the industry blog Modern Restaurant Management is a roundup of financial and trend lines in our industry. Their mid-January edition covers a lot of topics, but two in particular should be on interest to rank and file operators. First and foremost the end of year results for 2019 were not great. December sales were down 2.1% and that number remains negative even if you adjust for the holiday effect caused by a late. The forecasts projected by economists like Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors and Black Box Intelligence economist, are projecting more of the same in 2020. Naroff said, “If you were disappointed (in 2019 results), then plan accordingly. While the fears of an all-out trade war seemed to have dissipated, and hopefully will not re-emerge, that does not mean the economy is likely to rebound sharply.”
We have been warning that the financial trajectory of the industry was not pointing upward and this is confirmation. However, coupled with that is the fact that family dining appears to have seen growth as a segment. That’s a trend that all of our subscribers, save the fine dining segment, should be able to leverage. This is especially true for our sports-themed subscribers because they are already perceived as family friendly.
As a result, we suggest you point some of your marketing efforts towards attracting those families that might not be including you in their out of home spending. You can start by marketing to PTA’s and local school sports organizations by giving them additional incentive to choose your restaurant. You can could start with a discount night for the local school where a percentage of each check is paid to the organization you identify. This not only drives new visits from potential family diners, but also reflects well on your value to the community. That’s a win for everyone involved.
[Source: Modern Restaurant Management]
