4
Restaurant That Didn’t Get It
WHEN YOU OPEN a new location-based business that relies on a specific geographic clientele, the biggest hurdle you have to overcome is getting people to come to your business the first time. “New customer acquisition” is where start-up businesses spend most of their marketing dollars. Why not get people to come by using the foundation of human nature: making people feel special?
A friend of mine who runs a graphic design firm brought me in to speak with one of her clients about marketing a new restaurant. She was designing the restaurant’s menus and had been asked if she knew anyone who could come up with some unique ways to market the place. I was excited to work with a place that was open to doing things differently. Well, I was wrong about that.11 But I’m getting ahead of myself.
We sat down together for an awesome lunch,12 and they told me about their vision for the restaurant. They were in a downtown location on the western outskirts of Toronto’s core, which is an area with many restaurants. They knew it was going to be a battle to build a customer base.
We discussed a few different things and ideas that they had. We all agreed that their biggest challenge was going to be getting people into the door to try out the food for the first time. The owners had a lot of faith in the quality of their food and service and knew that if we could accomplish getting people to try out the restaurant that they would come back for more.
Perfect! Let’s get ready to UnMarket! So here was my proposal:
We need to get a buzz going about the place, but also make people feel exclusive. People love to be made to feel special. Two new condo towers just opened a block away from here, filled with potential customers. I will approach the property management company and let them know that we are going to set aside one night each for the buildings where the residents would have exclusive access to your restaurant.
So far so good, the owners were smiling.
Here’s the kicker. You won’t charge them a cent.
Previous smiles were now gone.
You will have two sittings on each night, people who are interested will have to reserve in advance. When they arrive they are given your chef’s choices of a variety of your best dishes. Not full meals, but enough collectively so they will be full and content. Since you can seat 40 people at a time, two seatings a night, we will get more than 150 people in here in two weeknights, which wouldn’t be busy anyway. These two nights are going to be a great success and get that word of mouth moving.
They just stared at me. I assumed it was because of the shock that set in due to the sheer brilliance they just witnessed. Nope. One replied:
No offense but, 13that is going to cost us a lot of money! This is a little far-fetched.
When I asked them how much it would cost in food, they mentioned maybe a few thousand dollars, which resulted in this exchange:
How much did you guys spend on that magazine ad this month?
About $5,000.
How many customers did it bring in?
We don’t know.
It was my turn to stare blankly at them. They weren’t biting, so I even offered to guarantee it would work and to withhold any consulting fee until we met an agreed-on attendance rate for those nights. The food cost and my fee would have been less than the amount they paid for that ad, plus the guarantee!
No dice.
In the end, they decided not to go with the plan and are no longer in business.14 Sometimes you’ve got to think like a customer. Why would I go to your place if I have never heard of it? Trying out your food and service is going to cost me money and I have to take all the risk. This is amplified in a market where there are tons of competition and all kinds of choices that I already trust are available. The value of having a packed restaurant would also have affected people walking by, seeing a busy new place filled with people—that is the kind of restaurant they would have come back to try.
If you have confidence in your establishment, your first priority is to get people through that door. They can’t come back or tell others about you unless they show up in the first place.
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