In this trying times,how do you effectively market bars and restaurant?

In marketing any business, the first thing you have to have is a unique selling point. A unique selling point (USP) is ONE THING about you, or one thing you do that separates you from all your competition. It's what makes your customers remember you even after one visit. It's the reason why your customers should choose you over your competition.

Too many operators open restaurants thinking their food and service is going to set them apart from the competition. Guess what? Food and service is completely subjective. No matter how good you think you are, there's going to be plenty of people that don't like you. People that expected something else and prefer someone else. Every business claims to have good/great food and/or service. As a selling point, using the claim to having the best food or service is anything but unique.

Take this to heart. Food and service DO NOT determine your success in the restaurant business. Management systems and effective marketing do. Good food and service is a MINIMUM expectation of your customers, not the reason they come in.

What makes people buy if it's not the product (food/service)? People don't buy products. People buy emotions. They choose where to spend their money based on how that purchase will make them feel. Smart businesses capitalize on this "rule" of marketing by manipulating the emotions of their customers in their marketing. Hooters sells sex. McDonalds sells convenience for adults and entertainment for kids. Toys 'R Us and Sonic sell nostalgia. FedEx sells reliability. Burger King sells accomodation. People don't shop with them for their products. Their products are expected to be good at a minimum. People spend money with them because of how they think that purchase will make them feel.

The easiest way to manipulate the emotions of your customers is through the use of ONE THING that becomes your unique selling point. What that one thing is, is inconsequential. It simply needs to be something your competition doesn't have, or at least doesn't market. First, tell the customer how visiting your restaurant will make them feel. Next, use your USP, your logos, decorating, food selections, menu design and service to deliver them that emotion.

By incorporating your USP into every angle of your marketing from your decor to logo to menus and all your advertising pieces, you establish an identity for yourself that the customer remembers by the emotion you delivered when they visited your restaurant. Think back when you were a small child, or even to a memory a few weeks, months or years old. The details of any memory will always fade, the emotion from that memory will remain forever.

Emotions create recognition much faster than any other medium. Choose a USP, then make sure your entire operation and all your advertising markets that USP. You'll soon have more business than you know what to do with.

Brandon O'Dell
O'Dell Consulting
Restaurants/Retail/Bars
(316) 361-0675
bodell1@cox.net
http://www.bodellconsulting.com

Free initial consultations