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What are you Doing to Entice Families?
Howard Tinker • June 25, 2015
What Are You Doing to Entice Families?
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So this Restaurant Marketing Tip is only going to be relevant if you are family friendly or you actually want kids in the place. One of the things you've got to realise is, is when people have children, those children make decisions about where the family eats. So for example, Bev and I, we eat at lots of places and we like fine dining as well as every other sort of dining but when our daughter was between 18 months and about 8 years old, we had to think about which kind of places are going to be right for having a toddler, a baby or a child in those restaurants. For about five years, on a Friday night we went to the same restaurant. It wasn't because it was the best restaurant, it was because they thought through what's good for families. They were family friendly. The simple thing is, not having too many tables in the dining room, which means that there’s more space for elbows, more space for kids to wander around the tables, as they do and that the place was family friendly. So we knew other families were going to be in there, yes it was going to be noisy but that was okay. The worst thing for me as a parent is worrying about my child is going to disturb somebody else at the table.
So, if you are family friendly or you want families in your restaurant, make sure that you do things that are going to make families feel comfortable. The other thing that I've never seen in this country but works really well back in England where I came from, is to have a family ‘early-bird' menu. So between 5:00-6:30 or 7.00pm, you can put on a special family early-bird menu where the kids can eat for free or they can upgrade onto a menu that’s cheaper but it's got kids food on it. Families can be there, you can have them in and out before your main dining people come through. Just another thought; think about what you are doing to attract those families if indeed, you want them in.
Take aways:
- Children make decisions about where families eat!
- Do you want families in?
- Is your restaurant family friendly?
- Do families feel comfortable there?
- Do you market to attract families with family specific Ideas?
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So this Restaurant Marketing Tip is only going to be relevant if you are family friendly or you actually want kids in the place. One of the things you've got to realise is, is when people have children, those children make decisions about where the family eats.
