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Marketing Success: 3 Independent Operators Reveal How They Grow Sales & Profit In Their Restaurants
Do-It-Yourself Techniques That (Really) Work!
During a recent RestaurantOwner.com teleseminar, Jim Laube discussed one of the most important skills any independent operator should have today: Marketing. Some of you may think that marketing is a black art best left to consultants and MBAs, and there are times to bring in a trained specialist (particularly when you don't have the time to do it yourself).
Nevertheless, if you are willing to apply some creativity, and set aside time to involve your staff and measure your results, you can create a grass roots marketing program that will reap tremendous rewards. In this article, Jim talks to three restaurateurs who have taken marketing into their own hands. They are Kyle Agha, owner/operator of the New Town Bistro in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Jimmy Bornamann, who just recently sold the London Grill Restaurants in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Edmund Woo, owner/operator of Saskatoon Restaurant in Greenville, South Carolina. The following is an excerpt of what they shared with Jim.
JL: If you could only do one marketing activity and you had to cease and desist of everything else that you do, which one would you keep doing?
Kyle: I would probably keep up my "VIP Club" or my birthdays or anniversaries because I think I've gotten more goodwill and more positive word of mouth from those two marketing pieces than anything. And I think mostly because people are so shocked that you remember their birthday, their anniversary. They're your existing customers anyway and it builds so much goodwill and, you know, I could spend $500 putting an ad in the newspaper or I could give away a lot of dinners for $500.
Edmund: I'd say it would be the database management. [It's] about building your herd and increasing your herd and working your herd so the ability to be able to segment that herd, which ones spend the most money, which ones come the most often, what types of offerings excite which segment. We "touch" our people probably every four or five weeks; with the database we're hitting them with something -- offers and promotions and new dishes. It may be wild salmon that's in season or lobster or sometimes combination specials. Of course birthdays and anniversaries are a big part of that.
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