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Marketing
Your Restaurant Business.
So,
what is restaurant marketing all about?
Marketing
is identifying the people who want and need the product or service your
business
sells and working out how and where to sell it to them.
Marketing
can be defined in four main areas, referred to as the 4P's:
Product,
Price,
Place
and Promotion.
Product.
To
put it simply, this is what you sell, which in a restaurant business, 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 restaurant, some of which you
may not actually realise:
Food, Drink & Accommodation.
Quality, Customer Service & Branding.
Cleanliness & Atmosphere
(temperature, lighting, background music).
Benefits
to the customer.
Honesty,
integrity and communication.
Your customers have
the 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.
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 restaurant business:
Cost of ingredients.
Production
Costs (Stock, utilities, staff etc).
Fixed
Costs (water, rent/mortgage, insurance etc).
Advertising
Costs.
The
factors affecting the customer are:
Value for
money.
Quality.
Can they
afford it? Place.
This
area is about where your restaurant is located and whether or not
customers will travel to pay for your products/service. The main points
to consider are:
Is your
restaurant 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
restaurant in a nice, safe area or not?
Is your
restaurant's location suitable for what you are offering? Promotion.
This
means how do you let the people you want in your restaurant
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.
Deals for
new customers & deals for
existing customers.
Press
releases.
Charitable
donations & sponsorship
deals.
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 business SWOT Analysis.
Business SWOT
Analysis is a way you can examine the market you trade in and
identify how well placed you are with your competitors. To
have a look at SWOT analysis in more detail and get a free
download please click
here.
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