Tactics To Boost Holiday Sales At Your Restaurant (2/3)

While holiday efforts, such as Medi’s Valentine’s Day program (a pre-set menu, a signature Martini and a gift of chocolates), do increase sales for that particular time period, making sure that people remember the restaurant is even more important. Make Christmas a Personal Day According to a recent survey done by the association, the most popular occasion for dining out is the birthday celebration. More than half of the survey’s respondents reported eating out on their special day. So why not combine personal day with Christmas and make it a beneficial day for your restaurant? Host Food Events Hosting food events such as the “Taste of (insert your town)” is a great way to position your restaurant as a center of the food scene in your market. It allows you to leverage the reputation, profile and credibility of all of the other participants, and it can also help you share the expense of holding the event. Hosting an event also provides your restaurant with the opportunity to recruit additional manpower and resources for promoting the event and gives that added edge with garnering local publicity. Toss up Christmas Promote this program through your next newsletter and other internal marketing vehicles to your existing customer base. Pick Christmas and flip. Guests will have a 50 percent chance of getting their food bill paid by the restaurant. This attracts your guests’ attention much more than a “buy one get one free” restaurant promotion. Guests are also more likely to have higher check averages than normal because there is a chance they won’t have to pay. It creates a tremendous attention among your core guest base. The following is a campaign launched by a restaurant; see if it can give you some sparks: Planning the Campaign ? Setting the objectives: To raise the awareness of the restaurant’s special Christmas packages for businesses and to encourage early bookings for lunch and dinner parties. ? Defining the target: The administration manager, or head secretary, of businesses with 50 employees or less. For larger companies with 50-150 people, mailings would be targeted to the administration manager only. ? Using lists: Given its target audience, the restaurant approached a list consultancy to acquire a potential client list that provided the names and addresses of the appropriate decision makers. ? Building the database: Names and contact details of all respondents of the mailing - together with information regarding their tastes, preferences and special requirements - would be stored in the restaurant’s database for future promotional purposes. Creating the Campaign The restaurant created a Direct Mail piece with a distinctly Christmas appeal. The Direct Mail piece not only focused on the quality and excellent value of the food and beverages, but also the superb atmosphere it offered for parties of all sizes. ? Message: “There’s no better place to celebrate Christmas with your colleagues! We offer a selection of delicious Christmas menus, quality wine, excellent service - and of course, great value for money!” ? Proposition: “Book before 1st December, and you’ll save 20% on the final bill” ? Pricing: With an early booking, the price per head is just $180 per head, representing fabulous value for a 4 course, traditional Christmas dinner. ? Response mechanism: A booking form would be included in the Direct Mail piece. Alternatively, customers could call for a booking and inform the restaurant of the size of the party. Conclusions and Key Findings The success of the promotion can be attributed to: ? Quality of list: The list of names and contacts provided by the list consultancy are instrumental to the success of this promotion.