Are you making these marketing mistakes in your restaurant?

Are you making these marketing mistakes in your restaurant?

According to Peter Drucker, the father of modern business "Business has only 2 purposes marketing & innovations all the rest are an expense,"" Every business needs to work on their marketing, to get more customers So I thought I share marketing mistakes & the lessons you can apply to your restaurant or commercial kitchen. Most of you are great cooks & have a fantastic concept, but if nobody knows about it or comes then its all for nought. I get that some of you understand the importance of marketing. While others feel it some kinda strange voodoo. Yet If you don’t market your business will eventually die. So what is marketing?

Marketing vs. Selling

Marketing: All about the prospect (their needs, wants, desires, fears, circumstance, problem, situation, etc.) Selling: All about your product, your offer, your company, you, etc. You need to work on both these skills. “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself… The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.” Peter Drucker So It's hard to believe businesses are still committing some of these silly mistakes. To be fair, I won't be sharing their names to protect them from embarrassment.

What's Your Menu Saying?

Yesterday a friend shared with me,"they were at a restaurant on the South Coast. The menu was so pretentious they needed a dictionary to decipher it,"" Your menus purpose is to help your customers to decide what they want to eat. I have seen many menus, which have been given to graphic designer to try to revive a confusion. The menu looks pretty but it hard to read, either they used a very fine font or fancy pants script which makes it difficult to read in the dim light. Some restaurants try to be all things to all people. So when you look at their menu, it's almost big as the tablecloth. It has everything, rather than deciding they are going to do steaks well. The menu was designed by United Nations I think they believe if they have 103 option then everybody will be happy. What they end up with is a confusing mess, that takes ages to prepare. Having a complex maze as a menu just cost you money. It makes it harder for people to choose. So instead of having 4-5 mains they do well, now they just have heaps of mediocre meals. In Dr Robert Cialdini new book Pre-Suasion “Restaurant managers can increase the demand for particular dishes on their menus without the expense of upgrading the recipes with more costly ingredients, the kitchen staff with new personnel, or the menu with flowery descriptions of the selected items. They have only to label the items as "most popular dish" ” Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade Dr Robert Cialdini

Your lighting effects the mood of your restaurant

Lighting helps sets the scene or destroys the mood A couple of years ago I was invited to a gala ball at an upmarket restaurant in the city. I'm not sure if it just because of the fundraiser they decided to add funky green lights. I guess they thought they were creating an ambience that was going to induce people to spend more money. I don’t know about you, but I found it rather off putting cutting into my steak. I was expecting some blood since it was a rare steak, but instead, steak oozed a blue liquid. YUK This not the only lighting disaster I have come across. In one restaurant I ate at, seemed to double as place the FBI would use to interrogate their suspects. What were they thinking with all the bright spotlights? At least the steak wasn’t blue, but needing sunglasses so don't go blind. Your lighting can contribute to making your place. What makes the lighting in a space enjoyable? Or perhaps not so enjoyable? Don't guess. Get a lighting designer to help you because there's a big difference lighting a restaurant to a funeral parlour. Not what you want to get wrong. Last week I mentioned I went to my first Christmas Party. This venue has had a troubled past. It now has new owners who wanted to wow us. The venue & the view looked amazing. Is there anything better the sipping cold beer on looking down Sydney Harbour. Tick. Venue & atmosphere, breathtaking. Hit it out of the park. So if you're the owner, you would be pretty chuffed by now. You have a party of 36 with money to burn. What could go wrong? That’s right serving chicken that's not cooked. So suddenly they now had a party who sent the main meal back because the chicken was dripping with blood. Oh, I wish they had the green lighting. Now I know you’re saying serving uncooked is not marketing. Want a bet. 36 people. Here's the comment on Facebook, Great view, pity they can't cook chicken. So instead of having 36 raving fans, telling everybody how they nearly poisoned us. If we're happy we'll tell 2-3 of our friends. If we get bad service or bad food, we tell everybody.

Do you have a Mobile friendly website?

Can people searching on their phones find you? Can they call you from their phones? Mobile searches relating to restaurants have a 90% conversion rate with 64% converting within the hour... Source: xAd and Telemetrics, 2012 74% of smartphone owners used their devices to get directions and other location-related information... February 2012 — up from 55% last May Source: Pew Research Center, 2012 57% of consumers won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site...40% of consumers will go to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience Source: Compuware, 2012 Don’t miss out when people are looking on their phones for a local restaurant. Get a Mobile responsive website. These are just a couple market mistakes I have seen. Stay tune I have plenty of examples I can share with yo help you grow your business. Are you making these marketing mistakes in your restaurant?

Come along to UNOX Combi Oven Demonstration

Powered by Eventbrite

Skip all the hard work and get the right equipment Restaurant or Commercial Kitchen

If you would like to find out more about Restaurant Equipment for your food business then please choose from one of these options: