Restaurant Doctor UK-FREE Marketing Information

Marketing and Advertising for your Restaurant.

So, what is marketing all about?

Marketing is identifying the people who want and need the product or service you sell and working out how and where to sell it to them.

Marketing can be defined in 4 main areas, referred to as the 4P's:

1. Product.

To put it simply, this is what you sell, which in a restaurant, pub or hotel isn't just the obvious food, drink or accommodation. It is the experience the customer has. The list below outlines the 'products' of your business, some of which you may not actually realise:

Food.
Drink.
Accommodation.
Quality.
Customer care.
Branding.
Benefits to the customer.
Cleanliness.
Atmosphere (temperature, lighting, background music etc).
Honesty, integrity and communication.

Your customers have the consumer power to demand these as standard as part of the 'package' you offer in the overall experience. If you do not offer these then the chances are that your potential customers will go elsewhere, where they do offer them.

2. Price.

This concerns the costs incurred to produce the products or provide the service (how much it costs you) and how much you charge for the product/service (how much your customers pay). The following factors are what affect your business:

Cost of ingredients.
Production Costs (utilities, kitchen staff etc).
Fixed Costs (water, rent/mortgage, insurance etc).
Delivery Costs (service staff, disposables, cleaning, crockery/cutlery/glassware etc).
Advertising Costs.
Other Costs.

The factors affecting the customer are:

Value for money.
Quality.
Can they afford it?

3. Place.

This area is about where your premises are located and whether or not customers will travel to pay for your products/service. The main points to consider are:

Is your restaurant/pub/hotel easy to find?
How far do customers have to travel to get there?
Is it possible for you to offer a delivery service?
Is your business in a nice, safe area or not?
Is your location suitable for the type of product you are offering? (are you operating a fine dining restaurant in the centre of an industrial estate or a burger van outside an animal rights meeting house?).

4. Promotion.

This means how do you let the people you want in your restaurant/pub/hotel know you are there and what you are offering, and why they should choose you. The areas you should consider here are:

Where to advertise.
Who to advertise to.
What promotions to run.
Press releases.
Charitable Donations.
Sponsorship Deals.
Deals for new customers.
Deals for existing customers.
Most importantly look after every customer you have so they recommend you to their friends and family. Its the best advertising and its free.

Another important thing to mention is SWOT Analysis.

SWOT Analysis is a way you can examine the market you trade in and identify how well placed you are with your competitors. SWOT Analysis identifies the your business's;

Strengths.
Weaknesses.
Opportunities.
Threats.

The purpose of SWOT Analysis is to help you examine the market you trade in, if we take a closer look at the areas of SWOT Analysis for your business it will give you a clearer understanding of what to consider:

Strengths: What are your business's strong points? Accessibility, children friendly, Braille menu, vegetarian/vegan friendly etc.
Weaknesses: What are your business's weaknesses? No air conditioning, expensive, hard to reach etc.
Opportunities. What opportunities are available to you? Availability of grants/funding, an investor, a new housing or commercial development etc.
Threats: What threats are there to your business? A new competitor, an aggressive promotion run by a competitor, rising crime in the area etc.

To have a look at a SWOT analysis in more detail and get a free download please click here.