Had a great phone conversation with a long time friend who has lived in Atlanta for the past 10 years. He was the best man at my wedding and we don’t get a chance to catch too often.

Very bright guy, MBA from Ohio State- works for a large software firm specializing in accounting software. Knows nothing about local store marketing and doesn’t really care to.

Curiously he asked again what I’ve been up to during the past few years and I mentioned (for the 100th time) that I specialize in Local Store Marketing for restaurants.

Silence.

He re-phrased the question, “But what benefit do you offer to these people?”

Hmm. Not a bad question. He was forcing me to articulate the benefit, not just the feature.

After thinking about the restaurant owners and managers that I help, I came back with this- “I dramatically increase restaurant sales…by teaching the owner Local Store Marketing.”

At this point, you’re wondering what this has to do with you and your restaurant. Possibly a lot.

If your restaurant has an identity, or if you can invent an identity, you can begin to differentiate your local personality.

First time customers may come into your restaurant because they’re hungry- but if they return, they are doing so because of how your place made them FEEL. It may have been your televisions, it may have been the way they were treated, it may have been a combination of things.

If you don’t know why your regulars are regulars- ask them. And then market your identity!

So I’m talking to a restaurant owner from Seattle a couple of days ago. Her and her husband have no experience in the restaurant business, but decided to investment some money in a new hamburger franchise (which will go un-named.)

They had their soft opening 7 months ago and were telling me how successful that was and how excited they were to be owners in this system. The projections for the first six months were to average 14K in weekly sales and they were now hovering around 18K.

Everything sounded pretty good which prompted me to ask a logical question, “Why are you calling me, and why now?”

The way she answered that question revealed a common problem that I see among many restaurant owners, whether they are start-ups or grizzled veterans.

Her answer was simply- “With regard to ongoing marketing, what do we do now?” She continued, “In other words, we have exhausted the media advertising recommended by the franchisor and we have placed ads in all the media buys that we are supposed to, but sales have been leveling off for the past 3 months and we’re concerned.”

“Frankly when we ask our franchisor about Local Store Marketing, they advise on doing it but offer no assistance! Now what?”

Of course my answer could go in many different directions, but I started simple…

“Ann, do you and your staff reach out to your customers and ask them simple questions- such as where they are from, have they visited more than once, where do they work, why do they come here, etc.?”

The answer was no.

That’s when the revelation hit me. There is a distinct difference between marketing a restaurant and simply placing ads and praying.

Restaurant owners who think they are marketing their restaurants are simply placing ads and hoping that customers come in, come back and never go to the competition!

Restaurant owners who MARKET their restaurants recognize that 20% percent of their customers return and account for 80% of sales! They hone in on these regulars and learn everything they can about them so they KEEP returning and bring friends with them.

The message here is simple- touch tables (especially during lunch), find out who your repeat customers are and market to them like crazy.

There is a connection between the Chinese Bamboo Tree and Local Store Marketing- let me try and tie it together for you.

Do you know what happens after you plant the seed of a Chinese Bamboo Tree?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing, Not in 2 weeks, not even in 2 years. If you didn’t understand how the whole thing works, you would probably give up and dig the seeds up or forget it and move on. You might conclude you got bad seeds…

…or perhaps the soil was wrong…

…or the “location” was terrible.

If you didn’t understand how this tree develops, you would conclude your time was wasted.

Little would you know that in fact, underground a HUGE root system and foundation was growing, year after year.

Predictably.

After year 5 the massive tree is exposed and grows to over eighty feet!

The beginning stages of a Local Store Marketing program works in the same way. You begin slowly reaching out into your local market with programs in each of the LSM categories. You meet people along the way, good people. You get these people to know you, like you and trust you.

You begin the first few weeks with enthusiasm and high expectations. After the second week you are prepared for a windfall from your activities. What Happens?

Nothing. Or very little.

Get the picture?

This is NO time to give up. Every connection, every phone call, every LSM coupon will come back to reward you many times over.

(And it won’t take 5 years!)

Marketing, by my definition is positioning a product and/or service for sale to the public in such a way that …

1) …they notice it,
2)… a desire is created and
3)… action is taken to purchase the product or service.

For your restaurant think of the marketing mix of five “P’s”:

Product
Price
Place
People and
Promotion

(Kind of like the five D’s of dodgeball for those of you who saw the movie

However, the first four P’s can be grouped together under the heading of Repeat and Referral Generators- Promotion is taken care of AFTER and only AFTER the first four P’s are mastered.

For example,
Product- Your product is your food. The higher the quality of your food, the greater your odds are for repeat and referral business.

Price- Price is not defined by how high or low you go, but rather whether your dining experience was a value relative to the cost of the dinner. The higher the value, the greater your odds are for repeat and referral business.

Place- Your “place” is anything and everything tangible from the time I enter your driveway until I exit. The windows, the bathrooms, the condiment bar, the silverware, the uniform shirt on your waiter, the missing letters on the menu, the light that’s out on your sign, etc. The better your place looks, the greater your odds are for repeat and referral business.

People- Teach all your people on the importance of details and treating EVERY customer as they would treat a family member visiting on Christmas Eve in their home. Teach your people to make real, human connections with your guests. Teach your people to casually discover where they are from, where they work and what would they like to see at your restaurant that you don’t already have. Don’t hire anyone who doesn’t possess these skills.

The Fifth P, Promotion- The fifth P comes necessarily last, and should not come at all until you have the four P’s above working well in your restaurant.
Why successfully promote and bring new trial to a restaurant with bad food?
Why successfully promote and bring new trial to a restaurant with no perceived value for the price?
Why successfully promote and bring new trial to a restaurant with dirty floors and sticky table tops?
Why successfully promote and bring new trial to a restaurant with people who are rude or (even worse) apathetic?

Successfully promoting a bad restaurant only speeds it’s demise. Get your first four “P’s” in order, then call me- we’ll “go to town.”

I love to eat out and I love sushi. So my wife and I end up in a lot of little sushi restaurants all the time. This week we were at two different sushi places. And as I was gobbling down my mackerel and albacore it dawned on me that I was holding a huge marketing lesson in between my chopsticks.

WHAT?!

The first place we ate at we had to wait for over 40 minutes to get our table. (I know, a reservation would’ve been a smart move!)

The food was good – but it wasn’t sensational. However, the place was hopping! And it was really fun to have dinner there. The second restaurant we ate at last night had a total of 12 guests. We got our table right away and the food was amazing! On the top of that, they had a dinner special (on a Friday night?!) so we ate way too much sushi and paid less than $25 for the two of us.

In the first restaurant our waitress gave us great recommendations what to order, so we also ended up having some drinks. She suggested a desert, but we just couldn’t eat any more!

The second place the service was a bit lame. We had two people serving us and I couldn’t figure out which one of them was really our waiter. They never made any recommendations, didn’t ask if we wanted any drinks, and as soon as they saw us finish eating they brought us the bill. BUT the food was better and cheaper…

Clearly one of these places was didn’t have the Midas Touch!

So where is the marketing lesson? Here it comes…

How come one of those places charges five times the price (Restaurant 1), sells food that isn’t the best (not bad, but NOT the best), and is bursting at the seams with patrons, while the other is barely making ends meet while providing awesome food at rock bottom prices?

I’ll give you the answer. But first, let me tell you that this “economic discrepancy” doesn’t apply only to sushi restaurants. In fact, most service professionals suffer from the same problems.

Remember this- people choose your restaurant over your competition because of how they FEEL about your entire environment. It’s not just about the food quality, it’s not just about the price, it’s not just about the location, IT’S ABOUT YOUR STAFF AND THE EXPERIENCE THEY DELIVER.

All of your servers, managers and owners need to make me feel like you give a damn and actually make a connection with me. Everything else is secondary. If I sense that you don’t care about my experience- all bet’s are off. If I sense apathy, if I have to wait at the door too long before being greeted, etc.- I will LOOK for reasons not to like your food.

The key is not getting better at what you do, but getting better at marketing and selling what you do! Because that’s what brings the cash and makes you successful and prosperous!

So, back to the sushi diners…

You see, one of those places sells commodity – sushi. The other sells value – the total experience of dining out! It’s too bad that the place selling better
food will soon go out of business because the only way they know how to try to get new business is to lower the price.

Just a little bit of marketing know how could make a world of difference, but they would rather just learn how to make their great sushi even greater!

Here are a few lessons (and questions) for you:

Does your marketing (in store service) sell commodity (what you do) or value (what your clients get out of what you do?

Does your marketing (in store service) distinguish you from competitors in ways other than just pricing?

Does your marketing (in store service)  automatically convert first timers into repeat customers?

Are you regularly checking in and touching tables to see how satisfied they are with what they have bought from you and using their feedback to make improvements?

And do you constantly look for new ways to serve your customers better but developing and recommending new food items, deserts, etc?

This is only a quick assessment of how well your marketing is doing. If you answered YES to all of these questions – congratulations! But don’t rest on
your laurels! Your competitors are working hard to steal your clients.

And if you couldn’t answer YES to these questions, you need to consider investing in your marketing know how. That’s the only way you will ever make your business grow!