Some restaurants have stood for hundreds of years in Paris and Rome and not even changed a brick oven or a pane of glass. Others have changed hands year after year, paper wrappers tumbling in the wind blowing through their empty parking lots and collecting in the abandoned gardens. What makes the difference between the restaurant that withstand the tides of time and the one that gets washed out to sea? Basic business principles. There are 3 basic business principles to incorporate into your marketing strategies for success.
Organization is Key to Marketing Strategies
A restaurant provides food yes but the difference between Mommas warm and fragrant kitchen and McDonalds is not the food, though it is very different. The difference is that one is a business and the other is a service of love. Mommas kitchen is organized. You know when and when not to steal a cookie or dip into the sauce for the pasta. She reigns superior. In business, the marketing strategies work because there is an entire organization that supports all the different elements of a successful business.
The marketing strategies support the vision of the owner/partners communicated to all the employees who are enrolled in that same vision, are driven by the profit margins and earnings reports, reflect the production of satisfied customers, which quality control monitors all the time and public relations makes sure is broadcasted to all your existing and developing target markets fed by your marketing strategies. Business success is a quantifiable systematized organiztion determined by the outlook of the executives.
Marketing Strategies Must Attract the Buying Audience
Momma has a captive audience. The success of her kitchen is dependent on the income of the household and expands due to rave reviews. Her marketing strategies are simple. She cooks good food, lets her family know when and where it is available, the aroma suffuses the house with tantalizing aromas and provides incentive. Fear of loss is inherent. Miss dinner; lose out. Restaurants have a greater challenge. They must cultivate their audience. Their guests are not born into the customer list.
Restaurants require marketing strategies to attract an audience that they know are willing to exchange money for the service that your provide; good food, served in an appealing atmosphere for the price they are willing to pay. If you do not know who that is, no matter the brilliance of your marketing strategies, you are stabbing at your premium blue steak with your fork in the dark and are most likely going to miss. Cooking good food is an important feature of your restaurant venture, but that is certainly not McDonald's success.
If They Want to Eat Cake, Let them Eat Cake
Your marketing strategies must deliver the goods once you have attracted guests to your table. If you told them that they were going to eat the best cheesecake in the world, it better not be Sara Lees. If you told them that your cheesecake is a delicious addition to their dinner and they only have to pay X number of dollars, you better know that they like Sara Lees and give it to them.