The Restaurant Doctor - Electronic House Call

ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - January 5, 2001

SAD NEWS
I regret to inform you that Steve Miller, who did our December MIS interview on independent operators, died peacefully in his sleep at 8:00am last Friday, December 29th of pancreatic cancer. Steve had been a personal friend for 37years. He was also a leading source of continuing education in the hospitality industry. Between his own work and that of the speakers he represented, he touched thousands of operators and sent ripples into the industry that will continue to spread for years. I am honored that his last audience was the Management Insight Series subscribers.

A note from the Doc:
At times like these, I am reminded again that life is too short. If you have contributions you want to make, make them now. If you have things you want to say, say them now. If you have things you want to do, plan them now. Nobody gets out of this alive.

MARKETING Q&A
My Canadian colleague, Giles Lascelle, sent the following note: We have the Backstreet Boys playing in our area in February. I have a few tickets to give away. What would be some promotional tactics I can use to boost sales in January using these tickets? Our restaurant is an independent 150 seat casual TGI Fridays style of restaurant.

I had a couple of ideas, but figured that it is always best to go to the source, so I referred the question to Max Hitchins, Aussie marketing guru. His response was far more than I ever would have thought of, so I thought I would pass it along, if only to give you a glimpse into how a great marketing mind approaches an opportunity like this.

Max replied:
I'm on the run with little time to "think" about your query. However here are a few things off the top of my head that may be of use:

1. As one of their hits is Shape of My Heart (and depending when in February the BSBs are in your area) perhaps you can tie something in with Valentines Day.

2. If you don't already have a database of your customers then perhaps you can use the opportunity to collect the names of your customers to begin a database. (Every business should have a database of customers!)

3. If you already have a database then write to the database telling of you having tickets. Tell that you will be giving them to ??? lucky people who visit your place between now and whenever the concert is in your area.

4. Perhaps you can get some large posters from your music store and feature them. Maybe you can do it in the form of -- Congratulations to the Backstreet Boys on their Grammy nomination for "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely."

5. Perhaps you can tie in a promotion with your local music shop....When you spend ? amount in your place this entitles you to ? discount off a CD.....and vice versa.

6. Perhaps you can do a 'name thing'. If your name is AJ, Nick, Howie D, Brian, or Kevin then come to your restaurant/outlet and enter our Backstreet Boys competition.....

It is difficult to say much more as I really don't know much about your operation. However as the BSBs usually appeal to a very young audience (12-18) you need to take time to think and ask yourself these questions: Is this my target market? Is this the market I already have? Is this the market I want to pitch to?

A note from the Doc:
Since the Backstreet Boys appeal to a sub-teen market, I honestly wondered how familiar Max, in his advancing years :-), would be with the group. I suspect he did some quick research on the Internet to pull up the facts that he crafted into a rather tidy approach to tie into (and profit from) an event that someone else is going to spend a bunch of money promoting. He calls it "slipstream marketing" and there is no reason why you can't do something similar. What opportunities are you passing up because you never thought about how to cash in on them?

If you want more from Max, take a look at http://www.hospitalitydoctor.com.

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