Two Important Points To Learn For Food Festivals:

A few days after the Restaurant Show the Central Coast of NSW was treated to the “Terrigal Food and Wine Festival”.  

Having been a Coastie myself for over a decade I have attended this festival many times.  I often see local restaurateurs wooing the locals back out to play after the colder months with selections from their menus and sometimes a special dish for the show.  But this year was different.

Firstly the number of restaurants from the Coast was almost nil, instead we had hot dog and burger stands plus caterers from sydney making up the numbers.  There were more wineries from the Hunter Valley making their presence known – which gives you a clue about the wine industries fortunes right now.  However the lack of local restaurants gave the impression that either 1. they don’t care about the local community or 2. they are in trouble!
 
Probably the most telling thing was that the restaurants that did attend obviously were intent on using the exercise as a profit centre rather than an opportunity to market.  Not one of the restaurants really used the show to showcase their place or their range of food, instead they used it as a one day extension of their dining room.  Worse still they appeared to serve food that was cheap to produce and used low wage staff hoping to make a quick buck.  

The impression that generated was similar to the food stalls that accompany car boot sales rather than the best of the regions restaurants celebrating food and wine and giving a snippet of the kind of experience you might discover within their four walls.

Secondly, not one of restaurants were making any effort to collect a database.  This is nuts!  This is their community – these are the very people who will fill their restaurants all through the year!  80% of your customers come from 3 – 5kms around your restaurant.  This show was packed with them.  

Restaurateurs will stump up hundreds of dollars week after week for the local rag “hoping” to attract business but didn’t think to spend a few dollars to collect a database to market directly to their target market themselves.  We are in a repeat business business and if you don’t own a database then you are a victim to advertising sales reps who promise you access to the local community through their readership/listenership.  Why pay them when you have your own way to contact them?

At three different shows over the last 2 weekends three of my clients collected thousands of names and addresses between them.  We will use those details to drive customers into their restaurants relentlessly all through the year.  

We just did a tweak on a campaign for one client which gave him his biggest ever monthly result – increasing his income by over 400% – we could only do this because he had spent the previous 4 months diligently collecting a database.  If we repeat the strategy for him for a year it will add over$110,000.00 in extra profits to his business. 

Without a business coach most restaurateurs would likely be attending food and wine shows up and down the country, shooting themselves in the foot and missing out on the real pay dirt that is right under their feet!  If you want to make sure you profit from your restaurant call 02 4384 2001and find out about coaching today or email us for an information pack.  Every day you wait is one day less of making great profits from your business!