Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: When it comes to marketing your restaurant, it's a whole lot simpler than a lot of people would have you believe.
Yes, it's complex and it's sophisticated and it's nuanced. But you know what? It doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to be a challenge. There's a simpler way of thinking about marketing your restaurant, and I want to introduce you to that. One definition, two frameworks that are going to totally revolutionize the way you think about marketing your restaurants. It's actually going to simplify, simplify the things you do to market your restaurant. All of that 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.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Foreign.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close and this is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast dedicated to helping you build a more profitable and sustainable business. Each week we put out two new episodes. I leverage my 25 years in the industry to help you build that more profitable, more sustainable business. If you're not hitting consistent, predictable 20% profits every single month, then you are in the right place. This podcast is meant to get you there. I wrote a book. It's called the Restaurant Marketing Mindset. It goes hand in hand with this topic of today's episode. I also run a mastermind. It's called the P3 mastermind for independent owners and operators who struggle with profitability. I gather people from all over the country, all different concepts, all different markets, on a call, two hours every single week. If you want to learn more about that. If you're ready to. To level up when it comes to profitability, the best way to get started is to click the link in the show notes and schedule a call with me or someone from my team. RestaurantStrategyPodcast.com schedule. That's the link. And that link is also in the show notes.
Avi, you love to go out to eat. So, as a guest, what's your biggest pet peeve when you're trying to choose a place to eat?
[00:02:21] Speaker C: Yeah, as the father of two children, I can't leave the house for less than $30 an hour. My wife has celiac. So when we're going to make a dining decision, I live and die by that menu. I'm in there researching what's available. What can my wife eat? What can we share? What do I get to eat off of her plate.
And so that menu is just a crucial part of all decision making for me as a consumer. It's why at Marquee, we focus so much on our menus, our menu integration, so that as operators, your menu that lives in your point of sale that you want customers to see is available and up to date everywhere.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: To learn more about Marquis, go to marquis.com, m A R Q I-I.com to learn more about this and all of the incredible features they have.
Okay, so when it comes to marketing restaurants, I literally wrote the book on it. I wrote a book called the Restaurant Marketing mindset. And it's not a tactical book, it's not a how to book, because tactics are changing all the time. But the biggest gap that I saw when I wrote the book, and I still see it, the biggest gap that I see in the restaurant industry, especially within independence, is, is that they need a new mindset shift, is that we have to take a more strategic approach, Low effort, high impact. What are the things I can do that will make the biggest move in my business? That's the thing that I think more people need to focus on. They also need to focus on the basic blocking and tackling. So on today's episode, I'm sharing a definition, a definition for marketing. Two different ways to think about it, same definition. And then I'm going to share two frameworks with you that have change the way that I think about restaurants, that I market, restaurants that are changing the way that my clients right now, nearly 300 people I've worked with in the P3 mastermind over the last three and a half years. Those frameworks are core to what we talk about in that program. So one definition, two frameworks that are going to change the way you think about marketing. They're going to change the way you go about your marketing.
First, the definition. Let's talk about a definition for marketing. What is marketing? If I read you the, the actual textbook definition, you'd be like, I don't understand what that means. It is word salad. So let's simplify. Let's come up with something that we can actually understand and actually use.
Marketing is really just answering three questions. What's the product? Who is that product for? And how do we reach them?
That's it. And here's the key. When you agree on the first two, right? What's the product and who is that product for?
That will really never change, right? If you've, you're selling the same product, if you're Selling the same restaurant, the same kind of experience.
But the third thing, how do we reach them will change all the time, right? We used to have classifieds. Now all our job listings are online. We used to have yellow pages. Now there's Google. We used to advertise in magazines, radio, newspapers. And now there's digital spots like Google, search ads and meta ads and display ads, and on and on and on. The way we reach people is changing all the time.
What we want to, what we want to provide them with, and who we are providing solutions to that will never change. How we reach them does change. So what is marketing? Marketing really is wrapped up in those three questions. What's your product, who's that product for? And how do we reach them? Thought of another way? I told you two ways of looking at the same definition, right? Marketing is really about walking into a busy room, getting people to raise their hands, and then getting people to change their behavior. Meaning we walk into a busy room, whole bunch of people, we say, hey, listen, can I get everyone's attention? Let me see a show of hands. Who here likes tacos? Then a handful of people raise their hands. You say, great. Everybody who raised their hands, follow me. They were in a room, they weren't planning to leave the room. You've identified people who like tacos, and then you said, hey, everybody who likes tacos, follow me. You're gonna, you're gonna want to see what I got. And you walk them outside to your taco truck. At its most basic. That's all we're doing when it comes to marketing. The first part, right, Getting people to raise their hands, it's figuring out who has the problem that you're solving, who wants or needs what you have. When you figure out who those people are, that's how you, that's how you know who to market to, right? We can't afford to market to everybody. We don't have the budget, we don't have the time. The, the, the, the human capital, the, the, the, the energy resources. So we have to make choices about who, who to talk to, who to try to convince. By getting people to raise their hand, we're asking them to self select. Hey, who's got this problem? Hey, who's hungry? Hey, who's looking for somewhere to celebrate an anniversary, a birthday? Hey, who, who just needs a quick, a quick bite after the game?
That's what marketing is. And then getting them to go to your place instead of just going home, going to your place instead of the place that they usually go to, to Celebrate their anniversary, and on and on and on.
So marketing is just three questions. What's the product? Who's that product for? And then how do you reach them? Meaning how do you make them aware? How do you build trust? How do you convince them to try you? At its most basic? That's all we're trying to do every single day when we try to convince people to come into our restaurant to order from us, to be a part of what we have built.
Now then, let's talk about how we apply that in practice. Right. We have to talk about two different frameworks through the rest of this episode. First one is the abcds of marketing. And I love to talk about this because literally, abcd, it couldn't be more remedial.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Right?
[00:07:53] Speaker A: This is the very first section in my book, the Restaurant Marketing Mindset.
Abcd. It stands for audience Brand Competition and differentiation. And it's a way of thinking about your product and how your product fits within your market.
[00:08:11] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: This is one of the biggest problems that I see when it comes to failing concepts. Now, remember, we talk about concepts that fail and concepts that struggle. The ones that struggle just don't have a handle on their profitability, right? Managing their revenue and expenses. But the ones that outright fail, those are the ones who didn't properly assess their market fit, right? Their product market fit didn't.
Didn't properly present a product or a solution that that market really wanted. So let's talk about how we do that.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Right?
[00:08:43] Speaker A: This can be used at the outset when you're getting ready to launch a brand, or it can be used to recalibrate a brand in an existing market. A, B, C, D. Audience, brand competition and differentiation. A stands for audience is about figuring out who has a problem that you're uniquely qualified to solve.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: Right?
[00:09:04] Speaker A: Who needs something, who wants something? Figuring out who.
Who would miss you if you were gone.
That is crucial, Right. I always ask restaurant owners, who's your restaurant for? And a lot of them love to tell me everyone, which is total bs, right? What they mean, I know they're coming from a good place. They mean to say, I think we can take care of anyone. I think everybody, everybody would have a great time here. And that may be true. Anybody who walks in, we know how to take care of them. But the restaurant is not for everyone. I always use this example. I use it in the book. A couple years ago, I was helping to launch a Greek steakhouse in Manhattan.
And this place was dark, it was sexy, loud music, sort of like young electronic, right? It was The. The. It was. It was for a certain kind of person. It was for young Manhattanites who were looking to see and be seen looking for a night out. And I was there talking with the owner, and I asked him the question, who's this restaurant for? And he said, everyone. I said, no, it's not. And I just happened to be against the window looking into the dining room, and he was facing the window seat. He was facing the street. We were right up in the front of the restaurant. And I said, it's not for everyone. And I said, look over your left shoulder. And he turned over his left shoulder, and there was an older couple there, and they had their phones out, trying to read the menu. And they were leaning over, almost yelling to each other to be heard over the music. It was too dark for them to see. It was too loud for them to talk. This restaurant was not for them. And I said, perfect example. There was such a clear juxtaposition. I said, now turn over your right shoulder.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: Right?
[00:10:41] Speaker A: And over his right shoulder was a table of six ladies. They were young. They were 26, 27, 28. They were all dressed for a night out. They were taking tons of pictures. They were laughing, taking selfies. They were, you know, filming the food as it hit the table. They were there for the experience.
I said, if I had to pick who this restaurant's for, it's not even close. It's not for everyone, because it's not for the people over your left shoulder. It is very much for the people over your right shoulder. And that's why I think you're struggling. You're trying to get everyone. And it's counterintuitive. I'm suggesting that you need to turn your back on a whole potential audience. I'm asking you to turn your back on dollars. But by embracing your niche, your target audience, you will actually be way more successful. It was never more obvious than that moment. And that's what I want you to. I want you to embrace. A is for audience who wants what you have or who has a need that you're uniquely qualified to fill.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: Right?
[00:11:42] Speaker A: Who has a problem you can solve. That's A, you figure out the who in the equation.
B, brand.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: Brand is your restaurant, your product, your experience, the experience that you're crafting.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: Right?
[00:11:56] Speaker A: Your brand, meaning your restaurant, is a solution to someone's problems. The girls, the six girls in the banquette taking all these pictures, laughing, giggling, taking videos of themselves. Their problem is that they needed the next best thing, the next great thing, the next big Hot, trendy spot. We filled that void, right? This Greek steakhouse. Who knows? Who's ever heard of a Greek steakhouse? I hadn't, which is one of the reasons why I loved the concept. It was unique, it was differentiated, which we'll get to.
There was a reason for it to exist, and for these ladies, it was very much answering their prayers. So you find out who has a problem that you're uniquely qualified to solve. Your brand, your restaurant, the experience you're crafting is the solution to someone's problem, right? So what's the product, who it, who is it for?
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Right.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Those are the first two questions in our definition for marketing. That's the A and the B. Who has a problem and how are you solving that? C, then, is competition, right? In order to figure out your competitors. And there is a relationship between competition and collaboration. Because what happens is when you identify your competitors, you're on a short list. You're in what we call a category, right? What happens is that you become top of mind when someone thinks about steakhouses or when someone thinks about a trendy place to go. When someone thinks about.
Thinks about whatever it is.
So if you run a Mexican joint when people are in the mood for tacos, you're going to be top of mind. You want to be in what's called the consideration set. So you want someone sitting at home deciding where to go to dinner, to think of you in two or three other places, and ultimately to choose you. But your job is just to be part of the consideration set first. That's what we have to do first. You got to land on a short list, right?
So when my wife says, hey, why don't we just order in? And I say, sure, what are you in the mood for? And we go back and forth and we say, I don't know, why don't we do sushi? We say, okay, well, suddenly Greek, Mexican, pizza, Italian, all of those are off the table because we've agreed on sushi. So now it's which of the four or five sushi places that are near us are we going to order from? And we talk about which one is better rolls, which one is fresher fish, which one has more interesting sauces, whatever it is that we use to. To, you know, make our decision, but we are. We narrow it down to a small list, right? Your point? Your job is to be on that short list. So A, audience. You figure out the who. Who has a problem you can solve. B, brand. Your brand, your restaurant, your experience is the solution to someone's Problem C is for competition. That gives you a category that puts you on a short list with a handful of other options, and that leads to D. D is for differentiation. Your job when you're in a category then is to separate yourself from other people in that category. So maybe we're talking about sushi places in my town, right? Maybe one's more expensive, one's really cheap, one's really close ones. These are all differentiation points. So if we want to go out and dress up and have a nice sushi experience, there's a place that we go for that. If we just want it quick, we're going to go to the closest one, right. If we sort of watching our budget end of the month, right. Maybe we'll go to the cheap one. We make our decisions. We consumers make our decisions based on a variety of different criteria. And it's something called value proposition, meaning why does someone choose one over the other? There's a reason why someone would choose one versus another. And at certain times it's one for a certain set of reasons. And at other times it's the other for another set of reasons. Again, if I'm looking to get dressed up and have a nice meal with my wife on a date night, there's one place that I'd go to and there's another place that I wouldn't dare go to, right? One's great for takeout and not for sitting down. One's great for sitting down, but they don't do takeout. That makes it very, very easy. That's how we make.
I'm trying to make my point in a roundabout way. Abcd, right? A is for audience who.
Who has a problem. B, your brand is the solution of the problem. See, you figure out who else is trying to solve the same problem you are. That puts you on a short list that gives you a category and your job then as a marketer, and P.S. you are a marketer, is to differentiate yourself if you are undifferentiated from all the other sushi places, right? Or if your pizza place is undifferentiated from all the other pizza places, you have a problem. Because now we're in the commodity commodity game, right? Just like eggs, flour and gasoline, all things being equal, a consumer will make their decision based on one of three criteria. Familiarity, convenience, or price. And that is a nail in the coffin. It is a race to the bottom, and you'll never win there. You'll never be the most familiar, meaning the most famous. You'll never be the most convenient, meaning the Closest to the most amount of people. And you'll never be the cheapest, nor do you want to be. It's a race to the bottom. It cuts into your margin. You make less and less. And the alternative then is to come up with a reason for someone to go out of their way or maybe spend a couple bucks more because you have. You fill in the blank.
A, B, C, D leads to E stands for everything. You can be overwhelmed by this, where you can be empowered by this. And I choose the latter. Everything you do, every choice you make says something to the diner, right? So if you got a fancy upscale restaurant, it's great for, for celebrating special occasions, right? Then the quiet signage out front, the low lights, the, you know, the, the light music, the small portions, expensive prices, big wine list, all of that communicate something. This is the kind of place you would come with. You wanted the following experience. If you are celebrating, if you are want to impress someone, if you, etc.
[00:18:01] Speaker B: Right?
[00:18:03] Speaker A: That is true for everything. And be empowered by that.
Everything you do, everything from the signage to the business cards to your website to the plates you pick, the food you serve, the way you plate the food, the way you price the food, and on and on, all of it communicates something that the abcds, right? That is something that most restaurants just skip right over. They miss it entirely. They don't. They're thinking about food, they're thinking about their, the furniture, they're thinking about small wares, but they're not thinking. Too many places don't stop to think, is there a need for what I'm about to serve them? Does anyone have a problem that I can solve? You do that, you will save yourself a whole lot of heartbreak. Because if we already got six Irish pubs in town, why do we need another one? We already got 46 steakhouses in New York City. Why would we need another one?
[00:18:55] Speaker B: Right?
[00:18:56] Speaker A: I'm not saying we don't need another steakhouse in New York City, but you have to supply an answer as to why you think, think yours needs to exist. That's crucial. So, okay, that's the foundation. What do we do with that? I'm going to make it actionable after a word from another one of our sponsors with the last framework that I want to share with you. It's something I also wrote about in the book called the Triangle Principle. Don't go anywhere.
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Okay, so we came up with a definition for marketing. Marketing. It's just those three questions. I introduce you to a framework that I wrote about in my book. It's the whole first section of my book, the Restaurant Marketing Mindset. We talk about the ABCDs of marketing, but now how do we make it actionable? How do we actually put a plan, a strategy into place to execute on our marketing? It's something I call a marketing triangle or the triangle principle. When it comes to marketing, restaurants is much simpler than most people would have you believe. Marketing is not about all the stuff you do. It's about a couple of things that you need to accomplish. When I call it a triangle, triangle has three sides. There's really only three things you need to do to successfully market your restaurant. Number one, you got to find a way to get new people in the front door. That's customer acquisition, right? So you got to raise awareness, build trust, and ultimately convince someone to go out of their way to try something unfamiliar to try you out to come in and try your food. That's customer acquisition. You need a plan for acquiring new customers. Then customer retention. You need a plan for, number one, getting those first timers to come back. Because there's an incredible drop off when it comes to first time diners, right? So you got to get those new people to come back and you've got to get all your diners to come back with greater frequency. So if they're used to coming to you once a month, you got to make sure they're coming to you once a week. If they're coming to you once a day, you figure out how to come twice a day. Perfect example is Dunkin Donuts. Remember a couple of years ago they were running deals, right? If you came in after one o' clock because they knew that most of their people come in for, you know, a bagel and a coffee or a donut and a coffee, but very few of their people came after one o'. Clock. Their whole idea was if we can increase the frequency, even just for the heavy users, right? Their most loyal customers. If they got a certain percentage of them to come back twice a day, certain days of the week, it would mean a profound change in their top line revenue. They were absolutely true.
[00:22:09] Speaker B: Right.
[00:22:09] Speaker A: Same thing with cvs. Cvs, when they print these long, ridiculous receipts, if you actually look at all the coupons in the back of the receipt, they're all dated 48 hours from now. Four days, five days. I think the most it'll punt out is like five or seven days. Because they know most people only go to the drugstore once a week at most. Only psychopaths go more than once a week. But if they could get a certain percentage of their customers to come back twice a week, right, that would change their business. That's why they do it. So they don't care if they're the laughingstock, they don't care if we make fun of them. They do it because it works. They're increasing the frequency, right? So when it comes to this triangle, we got to focus on customer acquisition, getting new people in the front door, we have to focus on retention, getting those new people back, getting all of our people back with greater frequency. And then the last part is what I call evangelism. And that really has to do with word of mouth. What are you doing to get people to talk about you?
[00:23:07] Speaker B: Right.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: If word of the mouth, if word of mouth is so powerful, then why wouldn't we put a strategy in place for it? Now, when it comes to the marketing triangle, this is systems and goals thinking, meaning I want you to think about what you need to happen.
I don't know that you need to do social media and send emails and texts and do a loyalty program and all of that. Those are all tools at our disposal to perhaps accomplish certain marketing goals. But man, for the love of all things holy, you've got to work this in reverse order.
Every time you talk about your marketing, and I do this all the time, I say, hey, so tell me about your marketing.
And then what happens is people start listing all the stuff they do and my clients know it's a trick question. I say, tell me about your marketing. And it should always be framed as this. Yes, when it comes to customer acquisition, these are the things we do. This is how we execute them and this is how we measure them. And when it comes to customer retention, we're focused on converting first time diners to being a repeat customer within two weeks of their first visit. And we do the following thing to make that thing happen. This is how we measure it, and this is how we know whether we're successful or not. And when it comes to getting people to spread the word about us, we focus on two things. Generating user generated content on social media, there are things we can do and ways we can measure that. We found that that's helpful. And we also try to target more 5 star reviews on Yelp and Google. Right? That's how one of my members in the P3 mastermind would explain their marketing plan. Even if it was longer and more comprehensive, it would be framed that way. In order to achieve this goal, we are doing the following things. This is how we measure it, and this is what we know is working and not working in order to generate customer attention. These are the things we're doing, this is how we measure it, and this is what we can tell is working and not working. And when it comes to getting people to spark word of mouth, to focus on evangelism, these are the things we do to accomplish that goal.
As you move forward, I cannot impress upon you enough the importance for flipping that script, doing exactly what I just mapped out. I don't care. All this stuff, right? There's a lot of stuff we can do. There are a lot of tools and marketing channels available to us and you might have to use every single last one of them.
But, but you have to make sure they are tethered to a goal. Here's the other cool thing that happens is when somebody calls you up or sends you an email and is trying to sell you something, sell you something that will, that will help you in some way, you're going to be able to very respectfully, very directly say, that sounds interesting. You can tell me more about it, but tell me what is it going to help me accomplish this, this or this? And is it going to do then what you have to do is filter out and think to yourself, is it going to do that job better than any of the things I already have in place or will it supplement, will it complement the stuff that is already in place? I cannot tell you how important that is.
[00:26:10] Speaker B: Right?
[00:26:11] Speaker A: So having a clear definition for marketing is crucial. It's simpler than a lot of people would have you believe, right? All we have to do is get people to raise their hands, tell us they want what we have, they need something so that we can say, hey, right? Really a good marketing just feels like you're tapping someone on the shoulder and saying, hey, I couldn't help it. Over here it says you're looking for X, Y and Z.
It's right over here, right? I couldn't help but notice you were looking for a really beautiful place to celebrate your anniversary. Can I introduce you to this restaurant right across the street? I own it.
That's all marketing is. So now we've got a definition for marketing. We understand these abcds of marketing. So we understand how we fit into our market and how we're supposed to be serving a certain group of people or a certain kind of person.
And then how we put it into action, how we build a strategy or a marketing plan is with these three. These three objectives, really. I talk about creating a three page marketing plans. All you have to do, what do you do to get people in the front door, what do you do to get them to come back? And what do you do to get them to talk about you? That is it.
Those shifts will change your restaurant, will change the way that you're able to execute on any of your marketing activity. That's what I wanted to talk about. I've talked about those pieces over the years, but this shows five and a half years old. And I know that a lot of you guys have just discovered it. So if you've never heard me say that so directly, I'm thrilled to be able to introduce you to those things. Thank you guys very much. Much taking time out of your week to be here. I will see you next time.
