Promoting Your Restaurant.

In a franchise situation, the brand owner will take a lot of the responsibility of the promotion, including the creating of marketing collaterals, general advertising and a degree of local advertising specific to your location. However, as a business owner it is always important to ensure that promotion for your restaurant is being done adequately.

Promotion can start anytime, but it should begin in earnest and in a planned manner with scheduled activities from the date the final launch has been planned.

Your promotion strategy depends on the type of restaurant you will be running and the catchment area for your customers. As mentioned earlier, QSR and cafes have more of a local clientele – customers who are already in the area. Casual and fine dining restaurants attract customers from further afield. Naturally, the promotion efforts for the first two formats need to be more locally focused and the promotion efforts for the other two formats should have a wider spread.

Localised efforts are cheaper to promote and restaurants that have a wider appeal would attract the lifestyle writers of city-based and national publications and hence, knowing your targeted clientele and choosing the right promotion strategy is very important.

A web presence is extremely important too. You need to have a dedicated website, and presence in all popular social networking sites. The Internet is the best way that customers can easily find all the important information regarding your restaurant, including operating hours, exact location and the menu. In the era of smart mobiles, access to people on the move is equally important.

Getting yourself talked about is the most important objective. The appeal of the concept and the experience of your restaurant is the only way you can ensure that you are talked about in pleasant terms. That is the challenge of word-of-mouth marketing.

It would be best to work out your promotion campaign through a thorough marketing plan. The following points need to be kept in mind while preparing it:

1. Design Fresh and Consistent Communication
2. Build a Public Relations Strategy
3. Do Effective Advertising
4. Drive Social Media Conversations

You can add to the list by writing in to us.

Restaurant Categories II

CAFE

Cafe is termed as a place to drink hot and cold beverage and particularly coffee. Nowadays, a cafe has a lot to offer. The coffee at a cafe can be teamed with several beverages and a range of snacks. Generally, cafes are places where people go to relax, rejuvenate, socialise and to chit-chat.

Ambience

Cafes provide a number of different seating scenarios. People who come alone and people who come in groups can find seating to meet their needs. Customers who want to linger for a while on a couch and comfortable lounge style seating are also accommodated. Adjustable seating is possible for groups who are coming in for a meeting. Outdoor seating plans for a cafe are also important. Special thought has to be given to play the right kind of music for the right time of day.

Service

There is scope for providing a combination of counter and table service at a cafe. Customers tend to spend longer time in the cafe in comparison to other restaurants so a degree of table service can help increase sales.

CASUAL DINING

A place serving moderately priced food items in a comfortable atmosphere defines casual dining. These restaurants have table service, though some may offer buffet-style meals and some may be complete buffet restaurants. Casual dining restaurants could also have a bar and a limited wine menu.

Ambience

There is a wide variety of casual dining restaurants and the ambience depends on the targeted clientele. Thus, outlets aimed at a young customer would have bright colours and loud music and those targeting families and older customers would be more sober. Keeping in mind the need to keep the prices low, the ambience is more appealing and imaginative than luxurious. Creating thinking can be brought to play to suit the cuisine and the concept of the restaurant. The food is reasonably priced and guests tend to spend long hours at such restaurants.

Service

Customers expect table service at casual dining restaurants, but are satisfied with the serving of the food and drinks ordered and an occasional topping up of water glasses. Casual dining outlets also offer take out or home delivery services.

FINE DINING

A fine dining restaurant is the epitome of food production, service and hospitality. As mentioned above, the only thing that differentiates casual dining and fine dining is the price that is commanded. To be able to successfully charge a high price a fine dining restaurant has to provide top class food, impeccable service and a classy environment. Decor features high quality materials with an eye towards the ‘atmosphere’, as desired by the restaurateur. Staff is highly trained and wears a formal attire.

We will talk about the ambience and service needs in a fine dining restaurant in our next post.