Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: The reason I think most restaurants struggle, and maybe the reason that you are struggling is because you have a product that seems very similar to someone else's product. You are undifferentiated. I've talked a lot about this, but today I want to talk about what it takes to be remarkable. I want to talk about other brands that are remarkable. And I would talk about giving you the action steps to be remarkable. You don't have to blend in. You can stand out. And in fact, you should stand out. It's the only way you will survive and thrive in the year 2025. And Bey, that's what we're going to talk about on today's episode of Restaurant Strategy.
There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking.
Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close and this is Restaurant Strategy Podcast dedicated to helping you build a more profitable restaurant. Right now we've got over 400 episodes of this show. We got a YouTube channel, we're on TikTok, we're on Facebook, we're on Instagram. We are giving free content everywhere. But yes, we have a paid service, a mastermind program where we gather independent restaurant owners from all over the world together on a two hour call every single week. In fact, we've got four unique groups, four different groups of this program, over 150 restaurant owners spread across four groups. We have grown from one to two to three to four groups. Not because we swindle people, but because the program works. The community is incredible. Come be part of a network that's more than yourself. Learn from tons of other people who are dealing with the exact same thing you are, who have already solved the problems you may now be facing. The best way to start that conversation is to set up a call. You're going to ask questions of me. Learn more about the program. You're going to. You're going to figure out if it's the right fit and I'm going to ask questions of you to make sure that you are suffering from the problem that we've gotten really good at solving. RestaurantStrategyPodcast.com Schedule as always, that link is in the show notes.
Okay, now, the National Restaurant association show is the biggest show of the year. I am thrilled to tell you that I am going to be on stage. So this show happens in Chicago every Spring this year, it happens May 17 through May 20. I am on stage the last day of the show on May 20th. And if you've never been there to this show before, you got to come. If you haven't been in a while, you've got to come back. Because this industry is facing incredible headwinds. It's never been harder than it is right now to make money in this industry. And what's going to happen is that operators, owners from all over the world are descending upon this show to try to get the answers they need to run a more successful, sustainable and profitable restaurant. Go to nationalrestaurantshow.com to register. There are still tickets available. You can use my promo code, CHIP25 to get $25 off your ticket. Again, National RestaurantShow.com you can use my promo code CHIP25. I look forward to seeing you in Chicago.
Okay. One of my favorite books is written by Seth Godin. Seth Godin is a marketing guru, bestselling author, and an incredible public speaker. He wrote a book called Purple Cow. I talk about purple cow quite, quite a bit, not only on the show, but throughout normal everyday life. In the book, he basically says the only way succeed is to stand out, right? If you land in London, you get your car and you just start driving north, right? And you're going through the country and you see cows and you're like, oh, cows, that's amazing. This is the story he tells in the book. And you look out the other side of the window, say, look, another flock of cows. And then look over there, an even bigger flock of cows. And you do that for two hours driving north. And after a while, trust me, you get sick of cows long before the two hour mark. After a while you're like, ah, another look, more cows, more cows. And then they get to be just every day because they become normalized. And Seth Godin in his book asked the question, he says, at what point would it be special again? And he said he imagines his son face pressed to the glasses. Whoa, look, a purple cow that. Two hours into the trip, after looking at hundreds and hundreds of cows, a purple cow is just about the only thing that's going to get anyone to turn their heads at the end of the day. That is what's happening in just about every major market, every major industry, but especially in restaurants. When somebody tries to talk to me about the quality ingredients or the skills of the chef or this, I just tune out. And I've been in this industry long enough to respect it all, but I still Tune out. It needs to be a real, clear differentiator, and quality is no longer a differentiator. Right. Farm to table. Great. All food comes from a farm. You're talking about a small farm. A small farm within an hour of the city. Fine, I got you. But that's not unique anymore. There are hundreds of restaurants that do just that. So the question is, what is your differentiator? Right. So I always talk about sushi. If I go to a sushi restaurant, just about any town in any state in this country, I can walk in and without even looking at the menu. And you know this is true. Without even looking at the menu, I can order a spicy tuna roll, a rainbow roll, a California roll, and a spider roll. My w. Sit down and have dinner. I know they're gonna have them. I can walk into five different sushi restaurants in any town in America and order the exact same thing and get a meal that is fairly similar. On the one hand, that's nice. That's soothing. But when you are trying to convince people to come to you as opposed to somewhere else, how do you convince them? By saying, well, we've got spicy tuna rolls, We've got rainbow rolls. And somebody says, yeah, so does that place. And that place is actually closer to my house. Oh, so does that place. And you know what? It's right near the dance studio where I pick up my daughter. Oh, yep. So does that place. That place is cheaper. You fill in the blank. The end of the day, you need a very clear differentiator. Differentiators can come in all kinds of different forms. We'll talk more about it, but really it has to do with the stories you tell. Now, your location could be a story, right? Your people, the owners, the people who work there, the guests that you take care of. That can be a story, right? If you're at the sushi restaurant. Restaurant right next to the dance studio, you have a relationship with that dance studio. That is a story. Question is, are you telling that story, and are you leveraging that story to be more successful? At the end of the day, you've got to come up with some way that you stand out, some way to set yourself aside. I was just talking to a client about just today. He's got, like, a lunch concept, a sandwich concept. And what happened is that, like, all the sandwiches, while great, look like sandwiches you could get just about anywhere else. And I said, where's the sandwich? I can't get anywhere else? Or where's the version of a BLT that is so unique that I'M like, oh, man, this is better than any other blt. I want to go there. I'm willing to pay a little bit extra, wait in line, and go out of my way to get it. That was the question I asked him. And now he's changing his entire structure. Right? They're still going to be at their core, that sandwich shop with really quality ingredients and all of that, but now they're gonna add something else. They're gonna be unique and differentiate it. And that's the challenge now that they're faced with over the Next, let's say 30 or 60 days, you face the same challenge. Chinese restaurants are just like every other Chinese restaurants, unless you tell me why they're different. I did some work for a company in New York City a couple years ago. It was called August Gatherings. And what was interesting is that they were right outside of Chinatown, and the chef had actually traveled all over the world and so had, you know, had worked in French kitchens and Dr. German kitchens, had worked in all different kinds of Asian cuisine in the Philippines, in Thailand. Right. And so there was all these different flavors and techniques he brought back to help influence his version of Chinese cuisine. It wasn't just a typical Chinatown Chinese place. It was different. It was shaped by his travel. Right? And some people loved it and some people hated it. And he said, that's fine. If you don't like it, you're allowed to hate it. There are plenty of other places that have the regular kind like you're used to the people who come to him, to that place. August Gatherings are looking for something different. And that, I think, is a good thing. I want to talk about how we operationalize it, actually, how you put that into play in just a second after a word from another one of our sponsors.
Now, Sterling Douglas is the co founder and CEO of a company called Chowley. Chowley does so much for this industry. And I want you to hear a little bit from Sterling.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: In the last few years, restaurants have faced massive changes. Labor costs, food costs, rent, even payment processing costs are up so much that price increases alone can't cover it. And at the same time, their customers are demanding a whole new way to interact digitally. And that's now a requirement to survive, let alone thrive. To their credit, restaurant operators have been resilient. They've survived pandemics, inflation, regulatory environments, and more. They've added the tablets, put out the QR codes, took reviews seriously, and their reward? A disjointed collection of tech that doesn't talk to each other and is Impossible to manage. I've listened to hundreds of operators tell me the same story with the same problems. And that's why we came out with the Chali platform. One place to manage everything outside of your four walls. Just like everything built at Chale for our 17,000 restaurants, integrations and connections are at the heart of everything we do. It starts with your digital storefront. Your website has two jobs. More traffic, more orders. By connecting to Google Business profile and your point of sale, we get that done for you. Digital marketing. We'll manage your paid ads, emails and social posts. We'll help you win the hyperlocal knife fight to maximize your sales.
We measure everything so you know exactly where your orders are coming from. Marketplace, email, website, ads, app, all in one place.
Chowi gives you more orders by ensuring your entire digital storefront is optimized with the data. You already have more time by using our knowledge and a done for you experience and more control by managing it all in one place. The CH platform isn't just a tool. It's a partner in running a more successful and profitable restaurant.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: If you want to learn more about Shally, go find the link in the show notes.
Okay, so we're talking about the importance of being remarkable. We're talking about how you differentiate yourself, how you stand out from the crowd. And I gave all kinds of examples about all these brands that sort of seem like all kinds of other brands. And I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. You can look at the Greek restaurants in your town. You can look at the Chinese restaurants, the Mexican restaurants, the sushi restaurants. They are out there. How do you differentiate pizza? I don't know until you see it. When you see it done well, you go, oh, I get it. I get it. There is a way to do it with donuts, with pizza, with sushi. Because in all of those, there are examples of people really stepping outside and thinking outside the box and creating something unique, something differentiated. So how do you do it? Here's what you begin. Step one is you have to understand your core. What do you care about most? What's the thing you cannot let go of? That will be your North Star. It'll be your guiding principle. And it will drive you as far as you let it drive you. Right? Understanding your core. After that, you got to understand your story. What are the stories only you can tell is a question I asked in my book. So I wrote a book. It's called the Restaurant Marketing Mindset. And in the first part of that book, it all drives up to this idea of differentiation. And I said, the way you come up with it is you say, what are the stories only we can tell? So maybe it's, hey, we're the only sushi restaurant in this shopping center. That's fine. That is a story that only you can tell. We're the only sushi restaurant owned by me and my wife or me and my brother, right? That is a story, right? We're the only place that serves this. I always use the example. A friend of mine ran a PR company, still runs a PR company in the city. And he said, first, last, best, most only. What you're looking is to go to the edges. And in pr, they're always looking for that because they're thinking, why would readers care? Therefore, why would a reporter care? They're going to try and talk a food writer into covering a new restaurant opening. They're going to say, why? Like, why would anybody care about what's going on there? And using those words first, last, best, most only will help you do that. So that's that third step, right? First step is understanding your core. Second step is understanding your story. Third step is going to the edges, understanding where you can actually claim, claim the mantle. There for first, last, best, most only after that, you have to come up with something. And this is very tactical. This is you gotta roll up your sleeves and just figure it out. The fourth and final and most important step is you have to offer things that nobody has. There's a place called, there's a place in Vegas, a client of mine, his brother owns, we went. It's a pizza place. And they're famous because they don't have just one kind of pizza. They specialize in tomato pie and in Brooklyn style pizza and Chicago style pizz and even Detroit style pizza. And their Detroit style pizza is like a little bit unique. It's not the low quality ingredients that you usually find. It's a little bit higher quality ingredients. And they're famous for a chicken parm, Detroit style pizza. They invented it, they came up with it. Really great quality chicken, pounded, breaded. It's on there. It has all the qualities you love about chicken parm, all the qualities you love about Detroit style pizza. Is it for everybody? Absolutely not. But the people who love it, they love it. And it is a key differentiator. I'm not telling you go do that. I'm telling you to think that and to think of that story and let that inspire you to go come up with something literally, not to put too fine a point on it, you need to have something that nobody else has. You need to have something that people can't get anywhere else. It is absolutely crucial. That's how you differentiate yourself. What's the dish that people would be willing to wait in line for? That they'd be willing to go out of their way for something that they'd be willing to pay extra for, right? Donuts down there, $2 a donut, and ours are five. Why? You got to give people a reason why. That could be a story. That could be a differentiator, a first, last, best, most only. You have to come up with something, right? Maybe there's square donuts. Maybe every donut is served with a donut and the donut hole. Maybe there's so many ways to differentiate yourself from just the typical Dunkin Donuts donut. I don't know what it is, but I know you're smart enough to figure it out. You have to, to be remarkable. The other piece to being remarkable is that's how you get yourself talked about. People don't take pictures of a boring landscape, right? I live in New Jersey. There's plenty of places I drive that aren't beautiful. So when I get somewhere beautiful, we just went on vacation to Canada. When you get up there and you see the mountains, it's like, whoa. I don't see that every day. When you get to a shore. When you get to a shore destination, it's like, whoa. That is not. That's not my normal. I take pictures of the mountains. I take pictures of the beach. Because it is not normal. They are purple cows to me. You have to create purple cows in your restaurant. If it's ordinary, no one's going to take a picture of it. Nobody's going to recommend it, talk about it, rave about it. You got to create something that people go, oh, my God. Have you ever had. Do you know what they do there? Hey, you'll never believe what I just had the other day. That's how you stand out. That's how you build a successful, profitable restaurant business. One final reminder. The restaurant show, right? The National Restaurant association show, happens in Chicago May 17th to the 20th. You get your tickets by visiting national restaurantshow.com I will be there on stage. I'll be there all the entire show. But I will be on stage giving my talk on Tuesday, the last day of the event, and I hope to see you there. Thank you very much for making me part of your week. I appreciate it very much. Thank you for being in this community. I will see you next week. To it.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Sa.
