Marketing for Restaurants And Bars is Expensive
Daily struggle for survival has become a normal lifestyle for most caterers. We all know that running a catering facility at this time is a real challenge . Competition is great, the economic crisis increasing, so the survival of the majority of restaurants has become a lottery. Also, every owner of a restaurant, cafe or bar knows how marketing is crucial for successful business of his restaurant.
Yes , it is very important and should be done in a unique and distinctive way. But unfortunately , every restaurant or bar owner can not to afford expensive marketing consultants who will help him in the planning marketing operations.
Lots of small restaurants are faced with major problems with marketing, and these problems arise mostly because of low restaurant budget for these operations.
Promotional activities require certain funds which are either not enough or generally not planned at time. This resulting with small number of guests and a small income, which is the nightmare of every caterer.
But don’t give up before starts the fight !
Restaurant Guerrila Marketing Is a Cheap Marketing Method
Fortunately , there are marketing methods which does not require a lot of financial resources. One of these methods is guerrilla marketing, which require minimum money income but lot of creativity and fresh ideas.
Don t be afraid, creativity is not something you should be scared of. I know, the fact is that not everyone can be an artist, singer,writer or manager, advisor for marketing – but anyone can be creative, at least a little bit, because creativity comes from knowledge.
If you know your profession well, your offer and service you provide, your competition, target market, current events and trends – then you are ready to go into battle.
What is it Exactly Guerrilla Marketing ?
The origin of the term ” guerrilla marketing ” is easy to identify and connect with Ernesto Che Guevara who was in 1960. In his book ” Guerrilla Warfare ” he described the guerrilla tactics.
Guerrilla marketing was invented and began by marketing expert Jay Conrad Levinson in mid-1980s . These are so called unusual marketing campaigns that promise a lot of success in business, with a little bit of financial resources. Restaurant guerrilla marketing is one of the restaurant marketing techniques in advertising industry.
One of the most important characteristics of guerrilla marketing objectives is the creative execution of an advertising message !
The point is to interact with potential customers- passer, in order to draw attention to new and interesting content on a particular product and / or service.
And because guerrilla marketing does not require a lot of cash and it is effective, it is very popular among owners of restaurants and bars. With an original marketing idea that you can get new customers and make them closer to your offer.
The most important thing is to create a surprise effect.
Define your marketing in a different way
Okay, now we know what is guerrilla marketing , but to go into battle and develop the creative strategy ?
Is it enough just to know what it is guerrilla marketing, to start the fight ?
Of course it’s not !
For starters it is important to make a plan and stick to it until the end.
Simply consider your restaurant marketing as a communication and education of your potential customers. With your marketing inform them about your business, products , special offers and services. You can be pretty sure that your marketing will be creative if you develop good creative strategy ( guerrilla marketing ).
Restaurant guerrilla marketing gives you an extraordinary advantage over the competition that has not been advertised , because of the economic crisis or other reasons. Your optional objective is to attract visitors from the competition. Bad economic situation bringing winners and losers. You don’t want to be second one, right?
How to come up with something spontaneous , exciting and extraordinary ?
Before you come into guerrilla marketing it is important to remember:
Your potential guests have the willingness of choices when they choosing the adequate restaurant where will have dinner or coffee shops where will drink their coffee.
You probably will encounter that there are a multitude of similar or identical bids, which are available at the same price and advertise in a similar way. Boring, is not it ?
What your potential guests really appreciate is the personality of the restaurant ! – This is what should be first and foremost in your mind .
Most modern advertising and marketing strategies are more or less boring and seen a hundred times before. Your potential guests will notice this type of advertising , because they’ve seen a lot of times and they are used to it.
Therefore, you can not afford yourself boring marketing because no one will remember you and you will not be different from the others.
You must be creative and innovative. Do something interesting , stunning, a little crazy, but again completely legal. That s where guerrilla marketing come on stage.
The three golden rules of restaurant guerrilla marketing
If you are seriously headed in promoting your restaurant using guerrilla marketing here are three golden rules to follow:
1. Do not start without a plan, which must be valid for 6-12 months in advance . You need plan that contains exactly what you plan to do in specific time, and certainly contains some expected results, which you intend to achieve in this period .
2. Do not ever give up and say, ” There is no use of this, these methods do not function same as other Marketing methods ! ” Every effort eventually will bring satisfactory results. Be patient.
3 . Never stop to advertise your restaurant, restaurant offer and the service you provide.
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Restaurant guerrilla marketing can help to increase your business for even 50-200 % , if done in the right way, and if you choose the right tactics .
The Guerrilla marketing use many unconventional marketing tactics, and the following examples represent only a small selection of them :
Give people a reason to talk about you.
Think about your regular customers, your best guests ! What they actually prefer in your restaurant, what they usually eat, drink … that ‘s all that really matters in the creation of new offers, promotions and marketing of your restaurant.
Choose one of your favorite meals or drinks of your guests and make a dramatic advertisement. With good guerrilla trick you will not go wrong.
You have lots of ways to, entertain and leave your regular guests surprised, but also people who still don’t know about your business who are passing by your guerrilla commercial installation. Find a way to interest them. If you succeed, all of them will talk about you, no one will remain indifferent.
Be sure that you stay in their memory , and they will recommend you to their friends.
T-shirts
T-shirts printed with a striking logo of your restaurant or bar, some sign that reminds you or picture that speaks more than a thousand words about your offer … This is one of the oldest and most successful guerilla marketing techniques.
Arm yourself with t-shirts, dress yourself one and share in your facility and around it. In this way, you will certainly improve your business and see more guests at your restaurant tables.
Do not forget to include the small but visible lettering on T-shirts printed and your contact information : name of your catering establishment, address, phone number and website.
Use your car as a mobile advertise
What you can do with T-shirts, you can do the same with a car. A striking image, logo, or something else on your own car, commercial vehicle, scooter or even a bicycle, can leave a strong impact on passers. We can say that in this way you have a traveling advertisement. Very interesting possibilities right ?
Flyers and posters at strategic locations
Find quality and affordable printing studio which will help you in designing and printing flyers that you will share or leave at strategic locations. For example, bus and railway stations are excellent places where you simply have to leave your flyers.Also it is very good to share it in local companies with large numbers of employees.
Think and ask yourself , where are walking hungry and thirsty people who would visit your restaurant ? All of these are strategic places. Do not forget to ask for permission to leave flyers.
Stickers
QR codes in the form of stickers are also very cool. If you are stick them at strategic places they can really help you getting the desired attention. In this way your website will become more frequented , and potentially guests will get a chance to convince their-selves about the creativity and quality of your offer.
Use Projections to Present interesting pictures and videos
Your pictures and videos that have interesting content with logo,object name, phone number, address and website should represent you and your service that you offer in a creative way. A good place to make a projections is the sides of the building, when it gets dark.
Be sure that the place you choose is the right one and that the large number of people have the opportunity to see and remember your offer through the pictures and videos.
Mascots are always cool
People love mascots , kids too , love to make photographs with them, even to talk and touch them. Mascots are very memorable. Studies have shown that it is one of the most popular tactics of guerrilla marketing.
Set the mascot on the road , when you are planning some exclusive event in your restaurant or bar , or if promoting new dishes or drinks. Make a video with your mascot and share it on YouTube and other social media channels. This is quite interesting and effective marketing method. I like it.
Take advantage of the interesting packaging
Exceed the expectations of its guests, your competition and yourself either. Packaging for food and drinks that you use to deliver, should be recognizable unique and very practical. This is another simple trick of restaurant guerrilla marketing.
Leave messages everywhere
Stickers, pieces of paper , flyers … it does not matter ! Any way you choose, it is important that your message can be transferred to potential guests. You can even leave it in the bathrooms for example, public toilets, shopping centers or theaters to spread the message in the form of stickers, posters, etc. Do not forget that we are talking about guerrilla marketing , which is creative and unusual advertising is crucial. Be provocative if it is necessary, but also careful not to hurt someone’s feelings.
Graffiti
For those who are looking for cheaper alternatives for marketing, this is also a form of advertising that can help. Clean graffiti is a convenient form of guerrilla marketing. That fact most of people still do not know. It is an innovative safe for the environment and has become very popular in recent years.
Clean graffiti are just like normal graffiti, but with one big difference – not destroy clean buildings in the city, but those that are dirty . How does it work ?
The artist simply finds a dirty wall, clean it and form a graffiti art, which will be made for advertising.
In the big cities there are many places where you can do these graffiti, because there are plenty of dirty and unused areas. Those who wish to advertise in this way in the city streets , walls and tunnels may get a lot more attention and a wider audience than those that are advertised during the evening news.
Is it guerrilla marketing legal ?
Of course it is legal if it is done on right way and in accordance with the city law or other regulations. Unfortunately in recent years we see lot of illegal marketing operations. There are so much posters and stickers on public buildings.
Also Marketing graffiti has become a big problem, artist do it illegally on clean walls , asphalt and other urban areas, where this kind of advertising is forbidden. Do not let that people remember your as a someone who paste posters or made graffiti and destroyed surface intended for something else.
Guerrilla marketing is a very effective and inexpensive way of advertising. List of ideas that we gave you is only small part of the most successful and frequently used tactic of guerrilla marketing.
There are lso many ideas that can be also effective and guarantee success .
Take the battle and leave dust behind. Become aware of possibilities as a guerrilla marketers.
Opportunities for success in guerrilla marketing are without limits.
You’ll have to find a way that will suit you best .
