ForumsAdvertising, Sales and Marketing

Strategy:

Neighborhood Marketing:
First and foremost, neighborhood marketing builds sales; it's a specific plan that targets specially selected groups of consumers who live or work within three to five miles of your restaurant. The purpose of this tactic is to drive traffic through special offers and community programs. The small sums of money allotted to local strategies are complementary to the entire marketing plan. But unlike the temporary sales spikes that advertising may yield, neighborhood marketing helps create a loyal customer base that drives long-term sales. It's a marketing philosophy that seeks to build competitor proof relationships with customers and employees without a reliance on mass media advertising.

Community Partnerships
Examine your target demographic and partner with organizations that interact with those consumers. Look for alliances with families, sports team (college or professional), schools or business professionals. Get involved with the local Chamber of Commerce. Partnering with an area non-profit organization can garner invaluable media coverage and sends a message to the community that you're a good corporate neighbor.

Merge Neighborhood Marketing and PR

Combining local store marketing efforts with public relations is a cost-effective way of getting your message out to the community. The media exposure that good public relations efforts can generate is far more credible and less expensive than advertising. The more often you publicize your local store marketing efforts, the more likely it is that you will attract the guests you're targeting.

*Sponsorship Opportunities*- Annual events, such as charity galas, are always great ways to generate media coverage. And when exposure is generated through positive philanthropic and service activities, people will regard your brand more favorably. Press releases centered on such events are essential.

Samplings: This allows consumers to sample several menu items. By sampling the various dishes your restaurant has to offer, they will obtain a better understanding of your menu. The more they try, the more likely they are to find something they really enjoy and, by extension, more likely to tell others about their experience.

Word-of-Mouth/Networking: Positive personal referrals are the driving force behind most consumers' initial visits to restaurants. Focus on making contacts whenever possible and generate a "buzz" for your restaurant through the people you meet.

Internal PR: Customer retention is vital and, as it happens, is an area where smaller restaurants have a slight advantage over bigger ones. Making a personal connection to customers is one of the best ways to create loyalty and retain customers. Look for ways to make guests feel wanted and welcomed, and they'll reward you with their continued patronage.
Simple things like saying ‘hello' or having a manager make the rounds and check on guests are great ways to establish a connection with customers when they're in the restaurant.

Email: Create a program that rewards your customers with certificates, birthday specials, etc. when they sign up to receive your e-mails. This will make them more conscious of your brand between visits and the ‘insider deals' will make them feel valued as a customer. All of this adds up to a greater likelihood of long-term business.

Latest Marketing Tactics:

1. Web and interactive marketing
Over the past few years, the use of Web and interactive marketing has increased drastically. This trend is only going to keep growing in 2008 as restaurants take advantage of search engine optimization tools and pay per click offerings. Blogging, Podcasts and YouTube video posts are other popular Web marketing tools. Burger King's popular Subservient Chicken site was one of the first Web campaigns to prove that interactive marketing can be successful for restaurants.

2. More viral campaigns
Buzz marketing, word-of-mouth campaigns, and ‘stories' will be a big part of restaurant public relations this year. When Starbucks sent a car around Washington D.C. with a coffee cup stuck on the roof, it handed out $5 coupons to "good Samaritans" who notified the driver. This campaign not only created a buzz around town but also received plenty of media coverage, both locally and nationally.

3. Increased PR budgets
Mass-media advertising is becoming less effective for many smaller restaurants because they can't compete with the larger chains. As a result, many will start dedicating more of their marketing mix budget toward public relations, spending more than the old standard of 5%.

4. Larger-than-life PR events
When Señor Frog's debuted in the United States with the opening of its first location in Myrtle Beach, it decided to memorialize the event by creating the World's Largest Pair of Underpants and earning a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. KFC recently created the world's largest logo - 87,500 square feet - becoming the first brand visible from outer-space. You can expect to hear about more larger-than-life PR events and stunts in the coming year, especially from large chains with the budget to support it.

5. Niche marketing
Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority group in the nation. In 2007 many restaurants will be catering to this demographic by offering authentic Hispanic menu choices, family-oriented promotions and Spanish-language advertisements, in addition to targeting public relations efforts toward Hispanic television and community newspapers.

6. Marketing to In-Home Diners
Many families are looking for ways to eat together at the dinner table but just don't have the time to create a home-cooked meal. As a result, restaurants will be catering to this segment by offering curbside pickup, catering, delivery, meal-assembly services and other time-saving home-meal replacement options.

7. Limited-time offers
As the trend toward authentic and ethnic cuisine grows, many restaurants will be experimenting with new menu items in 2008 and will encourage guests to try them through limited-time offers and special promotions.

8. Product Placements and Co-op Branding
Maximize marketing dollars and exposure by partnering up with vendors with larger budgets for co-op branding efforts.

9. Brands with more personality
Consumers look to dining as a form of entertainment more and more, restaurants will strive to provide an experience for guests, not just a meal. A restaurant's personality will play a big part of the overall dining experience, as well as your restaurant should reflect a personality, brand and concept at every point that guests come into contact with it. Even the most innovative restaurant needs a little "face-lift" every now and then. Here are some easy ways to refresh your brand.

Fine tune with features
If the inside of your restaurant seems to lack personality, adding unique features and small personal touches can help it achieve its own individuality. Try adding attention-grabbing finishes to walls, table tops or floors to keep guests intrigued.

Menu makeover
Adding new dishes to your menu can be a great way to revitalize your brand and keep customers intrigued. Just avoid the temptation to be all things to all guests. If a menu item isn't consistent with the personality of your restaurant, it doesn't belong on your menu. You need to deliver a dining experience that is authentic and connected to who you say you are as a concept.

Update uniforms
By outfitting your staff with new restaurant uniforms, you can update the look of your entire restaurant. Just as restaurant design trends change over time, so do clothing trends and you don't want to appear outdated. Remember that each member of your staff serves as a walking representative of your brand.

We even volunteered to be a Toys for Tots collection location and included htis information on our flyers/advertisements/CoC website and city websites. The response was less than hoped for. I did appreciate the people who donated toys but would liked to have been able to get alot more than we did.

Am I missing any other avenues for advertising and attracting new customers? Any suggestions would be welcome.

The Franchisor is of no help. There is only one person who does the "markleting" and the artwork he uses look like cartoons a first grader would use. Other than that, they simply referred me to Advo for my marketing and advertising assistance. I'm the only store currently located in Orange County, CA so I'm basically on my own.

Being the only store in the area, I am not paying into a corporate advertising fund.

Tom Kelley
Managing Partner
Concept Branding Group
http://www.conceptbrandinggroup.com