ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - December 26, 2003

I hope you have managed to make at least a little quality time to spend with your loved ones in the past few days. As for Margene and moi, we are off for an overnight jaunt to celebrate our 15th anniversary (today) with an afternoon in the spa and a five-course dinner at the famous Herb Farm. I'll let you know what I learn ... about dinner.

Yes, Mom
According to the Toronto Star newspaper, the Spirite Lounge, a restaurant in Montreal, Quebec hopes you like their food. You'd better -- the restaurant has a policy of "fining" diners who don't eat everything. If you don't finish your entree, for instance, it charges you C$2, which it matches and donates to charity. And if you don't finish your dessert, you are banned from the restaurant for life!

A Note from the Doc:
Before you dismiss this idea as madness, consider that it got them news coverage (for free!) and will certainly be a story that friends will tell friends. While the policy may turn off some potential diners, it does clearly separate this place from its more timid competitors and may well make them more attractive to a smaller niche in the market. If you want to be remarkable, you have to risk alienating a few people.

Want a House Full of Brats?
You want a fun event that will attract people to your restaurant who have significant discretionary income and are big on dining out and drinking wine? You want advanced head counts, no promotion costs or effort, no ticket selling, and you want it announced to thousands of wine enthusiasts and foodies in your area? You want it on an off-night and you don't want to spend your precious marketing dollars? If so, you might want to call a Brat.

A few issues ago, I mentioned Wine Brats-the world's largest consumer wine group with 45,000 members nationwide. They create plug-and-play events with on-line promotions, ticketing, PR, guest check-in, product donations and wine education. All you have to do is provide the venue and the menu.

Prices? $15 to $25 per person for walkabouts to $35 to $45 per person for sit down dinners. Audience? The Brat's core group has moderate to high disposable income (more than 74% are college grads) and includes the 24ish (young people who are starting to have business dinners and who aspire to learn more about wine) to 42-year old segments.

Karen Bremer, president of Atlanta's Peasant Restaurant Group (City Grill and Dailey's), has worked with Wine Brats for over five years. The result? Suddenly wine became relevant to her young staff who saw their peers coming in for the events. They became very excited about the wine training sessions that were offered by the distributors. Wine sales were up, tips increased and everyone was happy. (excerpted from an article in Slammed magazine)

Click here for the whole article.

The Perpetual Question
What did you learn from your staff today?

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