While testing and tweaking the menu for the new restaurant we built, several interesting concepts have been explored. Three issues were considered for the long term success of a particular dish. What makes it sell for an extended period of time?
Some would argue that in this economy, for a casual restaurant, the key is the price. That is certainly partially true - only to the extent there is also value. You can offer a 99 cent hamburger and sell it, but will the guest order it again? Only if the other two components are present - eye appeal and taste. There are many chains out there dragging customers in with very cheap specials. Will the customer return and buy the product again? In most cases the answer is no if it is not perceived as a value.
While testing, we stumbled on one dish that featured a low cost, extremely good eye appeal and great taste since it was a smaller combination of items already on the menu. The combo’s sales built for the week long promotion. Customers came back several times during the week. Sales grew daily of that item. When that happens, you have the “perfect storm” of menu item creation.
The best part was that we were able to produce the item within our food cost parameters (25%). Let the creative juices flow and keep your inventory and food costs close at hand.
A new restaurant operation is like bringing a puppy home from the dog pound. Everybody loves it, but you are the one who is up all night with the crying and yelping, cleaning up the messes until trained, picking up the chewed new pair of shoes and tripping over the ball of fur with every step.
From the outside, the puppy is cute and cuddly - just like a new restaurant. No one sees that you are scrambling to train staff, get the food out of the kitchen perfect, adjusting schedules, paying unforeseen invoices and hoping there is enough cash flow to make at least your break-even point. It’s a nightmare.
The first 30 days of any restaurant operation cannot be evaluated. Sales are driven in many cases by the curious who just visit because you are new. Costs are escalated due to extra staff, over ordering of product and the usual smallwares you need that were not in the plans. Throw the first thirty days out. Don’t try to judge your future based on your first month.
The days that count are the 100 days that follow the opening month. These are the days when reliable and predictable trends begin to develop. The “Big 100″ (100 days following your first month) are the days that can tell you what you need to do and set the tone for further growth and profitable enhancement. Here are some things that should emerge with your analysis;
- You should be able to accurately discover what your exact daily break-even number is.
- You should see a trend of lower operating costs that should be going down due to tweaks you make as you age. Food costs should be concise as compared to sales.
- There should be a clear picture of what your marketing has done and the demographic draw of existing business.
- The Big 100 should have produced the numbers that allow you to go back and compare to your plan. Are there adjustments necessary to the plan or your operation? What were the biggest surprises? What were the biggest disappointments? What new goals do you need to establish? Is your menu where it should be?
The Big 100 is the platform for you next 6 months of planning. What marketing changes do you need to make? What food trends do you want to expand? What internal changes need to be made to reduce costs or waste? Staffing changes? Hours of operations? Does the seating, lighting, decor and customer areas need adjustment? All of these questions and many more become the basis for your new business plan.
We are in the midst of building our social marketing blog for the new restaurant. The basic structure can be viewed at Maggie’s City Center. While the design, colors and other aesthetics may be slowly tweaked, the elements are pretty much static.
Now is when the marketing begins along with the real value of maintaining the blog. Our plan will include;
- Getting content for the site by discussing it with individual customers as they come in. We want to get business people listed in the reference sections of the blog. The communication builds loyalty and establishes long term connections.
- The second step is to visit the municipal offices of each community listed to get the accurate contact names and numbers of key officials. We also want emergency numbers for services. Each of these visits will include dropping off some of our menus and encouraging the city staffs to join us for lunch or breakfast.
- Next we will target each of the social groups such as Rotary, Sertoma, Optimists and various other business associations to encourage them to get us their event and charitable activities posted to advertise their community efforts. Again, it gives us an opportunity to invite groups of people to our restaurant.
- Concurrent with the steps above we will invite public cultural centers and their members and/or staffs to participate. That includes art centers, marine preserves, wildlife societies and similar facilities to keep their activities in public view by giving us releases on their activities.
- Finally, we will visit individual businesses to encourage them to list their names, addresses and services in our “Yellow Pages” of local business people.
After we have started to collect enough content for the site to have value to our guests, we will begin an advertising campaign to drive traffic to the site. This will include flyers and handouts for each guest and an email to our marketing list of over 1600 opt-in email customers.
This is our answer to the social marketing initiative. It gives us the ability to reach a greater percentage of our customers and prospective customers. We are trying to build long term personal relationships, not just a brand.
