Day 74 – The Puzzle – Why A Few Hundred Views ROCKS!

We all tend to lose sight of what 250 people looks like when looking at the view counter on our Instagram and Facebook videos. 

I’ll be the first to admit, the dopamine hit you get when you see those big numbers is hard to resist.  Your views on success get skewed, and the next thing you know, you’re discouraged from taking action.  You begin to think WHO CARES, no one is watching.

WELL, they are watching.  What got me thinking about this was an Instagram video on the exact topic.  The theme was like “oh, you only had 250 views” and they showed a picture like above.  And then they went onto show what 500 looks like, 2,500 and then 10,000+. 

It was really eye opening to think about it this way and honestly it got me thinking “heck, I’ll take 100 people on every video then.”

Because in reality, when we all look at what it would take to move the meter on our sales, it’s not 10,000 people. 

The picture above is from a blog on this exact topic, CLICK HERE to check it out.

Day 67 – The Puzzle – How Social Stats Showed Me This Restaurant Owner Was An Attorney And Passive Owner

This is one of those moments you never forget.  One where you want to hop in your car and drive as fast as possible to show anyone, everyone what you’d found.  You see, for years I’d been preaching about the importance of social media to build a database and recently I’d discovered how the effectiveness of some of the campaigns were a product of the ownership and not our campaigns. But it wasn’t until this day that I had the proof.

Earlier that year we had started working directly with two pizza franchise locations on our Facebook Messenger VIP program. The goal of the program was pretty simple, use Facebook posts and ads to build a database and then drive those customers into the restaurant to buy pizza.

After 30 days of crushing it with these 2 stores the corporate office called to add 2 struggling stores to our program and another franchisee called to hire us as well.  Over the next few months all of the program operated at different levels and I could not put my finger on the WHY.  Our program was exactly the same at each location and the stores all had similar demographic and geographic profiles. Meaning, the customers and neighborhoods looked very similar.

Stores 1 and 2 were both crushing it.  The owners of the 2 stores were what you’d want as a restaurant owner.  They were involved in the store every day and very hands on.  They were also exactly the types of clients you’d want for a marketing company.  They had a positive mindset, were growth oriented and collaborative.  

Store 3 was doing decent, but the owner wasn’t like the first two stores.  She was negative, always complaining about customers and broke.  When I say broke, I mean mind and bank account.

Stores 4 and 5 were not doing well at all with our customer acquisition program. From dealing with the owner of store 3 I knew why her program wasn’t doing well, it was her and the way she ran her business.   But on these last 2 stores we worked with the corporate office.  They’d hired us directly to help 2 struggling franchisees, so we didn’t know the owners and they were not involved in our programs.  

A few months into working with all 5 stores I decided to pull the basic stats of each store for 2 months and compare the social stats to see if their was a story. 

I pulled the following stats for their social media campaigns over 60 days:

– Reach – unique people reached

– Impressions – this is a multiple of your reach based on your ad frequency.  If Matt Plapp saw your ad 3 times he’s only in your reach once, but here twice.

– Comments – commented on the posts and ads

– Shares – Shared the posts and ads.

Then I looked at the results of the campaigns.  All of our campaigns are built to get customers to give us their contact info and then we add them to a marketing funnel to drive them into the restaurant.

– Opt-ins – Email, Cell #, Birthday, Visit Frequency

– Redemptions – Customer came to the store and spent money

– Redemption % – The percentage of the customers who used their promotion

– Sales – Sales generated from the redemptions

The stats above are from the 5 stores.

You’ll notice the reach and impressions are very similar, which makes sense due to us spending the same amount of money on campaigns and the stores being located in very similar types of communities. 

Where the results start to show cracks is the comments and shares.  Both are a sign of the people around the community either loving your brand or not.  You see, excited customers of yours will see these promotions and go crazy. They’ll comment to show love, tag a friend and get the promo.  The hardcore ones will share it and announce their love for what you’re doing and encourage their friends to take action.

The lower your comments and shares are, the worse everything else will be and it’s honestly a true reflection on YOU and your product.

Here’s an example:

Both stores post a “Comment Below & Get A Free Pizza.”  

– Store 1 customers comment “this place rocks, I love the meat lovers pizza.  The employees are always friendly and the service is fast. ” and many of them will share the post with comments just like that. Many times they tag a friend.

– Store 2 customers comment ” I’ll take a free pizza” and don’t share.

What stores 1 and 2 saw is what makes campaigns go viral and what stores 3-5 saw is what makes campaigns NOT GO VIRAL!

Next up is the customer acquisition part.  The better your Facebook campaign works the higher your opt-in % and remption % is.  In this case, we’ll focus on the redemption % since that is what DRIVES SALES…what you all care about right?

See how store 5 is almost half of what store 1 is on the redemption %.  And see how their opt-ins are a 3rd.  Well, that lead to sales that were 4 times lower as well. 

As I gathered this data I thought, what do I know about the owners and what can I assume from this.  Well I knew stores 1-3 and the fact that stores 1 & 2 dominated was a direct reflection on the owners, the level of service they provided, the way they were viewed in the community and the support they had by their best customers.  

Store 3 had a little of that, but the owners toxic attitude was the big difference maker and it was visible in her online reviews.  

But what about stores 4 and 5?  Well, store 4 had awesome reviews, not a lot of them, but they were good.  Store 5 did not have great reviews.  As I said, I didn’t know anything about these owners.  So when I drove to the corporate office to meet with the CMO and owner I made a bold prediction.

Store 4 is owned by a person who LOVES back of house operations and who never steps a foot into the dining room to shake hands and kiss babies.  

Store 5 is owned by an attorney or accountant who bought the franchise as passive income and never comes into the store.

I WAS RIGHT!  The owner of store 4 was a former Chipotle GM who dominated the operations side of things and despised customer interaction.  Store 5 was owned by an attorney.

HOW DID I KNOW THIS?  The LACK of social engagement on their campaigns when compared to stores 1 and 2 showed me they treated customers like a number and had no relationships.  The crazy thing for me though, was seeing how it dramatically impacted the bottomline.  This was the first time I’d see proof at this level across the exact brand with the exact marketing campaigns.

Moral of the story, be an active owner and remember you’re in the sales business.  Sell your vision, your food and be kind!  And apparently it’s worth at least $5,000 per month in sales to do things right!

I also talked about this topic in episode 635 of my podcast, Restaurant Marketing Secrets, CLICK HERE and have a listen!


Day 66 – The Puzzle – Mistakes Fund Your Victories

I was talking to a restaurant owner the other day about the brutal journey that is, small business ownership.  We were talking about our biggest mistakers, regrets and victories.  

As we talked I couldn’t help but think about my journey from a one man show in 2008 to a company serving 20 local businesses to a company with 60+team members serving 3,000 restaurants in 2024.  It got me thinking about the highs and the lows, but as much as I’d like to think the highs were at the top of the list, it was the LOWS!

You can’t help but think WHAT IF with those lows, those mistakes, did not happen.  And it’s hard not to have throw yourself a pity party and doubt where you are going.  

But then you think deeper into those mistakes, like for me a few that I had in 2023 that ending costing my company around $1,000,0000…YES 1 MILLION DOLLARS!  And as I thought about what happened and where we are, I saw that those issues were 100% unavoidable.  There wasn’t any way I’d be where I am today without them.  So those mistakes had to happen to find the promised land.  

And then the thought crossed my mind, so I lost $1,000,000 but I found the way forward to $10,000,00.  And when you frame it that way, its easy to see the massive value the mistake actually was.  

For years I’ve heard the term “your mistakes fund your victories” and to be 100% honest, I never understood it completely.  But now I do.

It takes me back to high school track when I was learning the hurdles.  I had to fall down and get hurt to really appreciate the purpose of perfect form, and it wasn’t until I busted my ass a few times that I fixed what my coach had been pointing out to me. 

Day 65 – The Puzzle – Just Putting This Somewhere

ONE OF A KIND RESTAURANT CUSTOMER JOURNEY PLATFORM

What started 15 years ago as a strategy to replace direct mail and create a loyalty program has become so much more.  As I learned about why Kamron started Repeat Returns in 2008 I chuckled at how similar our paths were.  Here he was on one side of the game a restaurant owner creating a product to get him to the next level and there I was working with restaurants on the same concepts.  

In 2023 we acquired Repeat Returns with the goals of it becoming our “go to” software for our clients.  Up to that point my marketing firm, Restaurant Marketing That Works, replied on third party software to connect a complex restaurant VIP program we’d built.  I saw buying Repeat Returns as our chance to own the software we used and make it exactly what we wanted for our clients.

Then I did something I don’t do that often, I waited!  I sat back and watched.  I learned what Repeat Returns was and how restaurants used it.  I saw what they loved and hated.  I saw what I loved and hated. And then after 4 months I devised a plan.

These two companies would not run side by side, they would become one.  We would create the ultimate restaurant marketing platform.  By taking both companies and putting them together we could create a solution to every restaurants marketing needs.

So off I ran with an idea to create an “all-in-one” industry first platform. The graphic below was my first shot at what I saw.

It all starts with a customer management software and goes from there.  A VIP program driven by RR’s smart systems, customer acquisition, loyalty, review management, web development, social media marketing and finally high level coaching.  

THIS WAS IT!

I’d cracked the code!

And then reality set in.  Was I really createing the ultimate restaurant marketing platform, or trying to be everything to everyone while giving no one exactly what they needed. Then I looked at my desk, at the piece of paper that I’d taped to my desk that read “become obsessed…DRIVE-SALES.”

(BELOW)

The most powerful products and services created are built from necessity. They are built by owners looking to solve a problem THEY HAVE!

Recently I was in Las Vegas for David Scott Peters 2 Day Restaurant Transformation seminar and heard Bruce Earle tell the story of how Margin Edge was created.  It was created by a restaurant owner looking to fix a problem he had daily that he did not see available on the market.

It got me thinking back to why Kamron created Repeat Returns, the exact same reason.

It got me thinking about my own journey and why I created Driven Media Solutions all the way back in 2008.

Then it got me thinking (I know a lot of thinking) about why Driven Media Solutions evolved into Restaurant Marketing That Works.

And finally I asked myself why I created that flier “become obsessed, DRIVE – SALES”.

I did it for two reasons, I knew that my company would only go as far as it could if I became obsessed with the sales of products, but more importantly the SALES of our restaurant clients.  Since 2015 we’ve been focused on helping restaurants prove their marketing is working by showing them trackable evidence, AKA sales that happen when we send an email, make a Facebook post, etc.  

And that brought everything full circle.  What do I hear customers say every single day.

I need sales.  Lunch, dinner, catering, upsells from appetizers, desserts, etc. 

Matt WE NEED SALES

So I looked at that big fancy cool looking chart of the services I wanted to offer and said “YOU NEED TO DRIVE SALES TO THESE RESTAURANTS.” And I thought long and hard, what really does that.  Meaning, what have I learned the past 16 years in running the marketing for hundreds of small businesses and what have I seen from the Repeat Returns side of things?

I looked at what I know to be true.  It starts with building a customer database and having a tool, a customer database software, to help you use the database.  One that tells you the whole story, not just pieces of it.  A software that is built 100% for restaurants and designed to leverage technology to take these customers on a journey so they SPEND MONEY in your restaurant.  Whether that’s through a VIP program, a catering funnel, a loyalty program, a birthday program, etc.  By any means necessary how can we help restaurants DRIVE SALES through their marketing.

Then I thought about the biggest issue I’d seen through the years with any marketing program, attention.  And attention comes from PEOPLE.  Which means that no matter how awesome this software was, it needed fuel. It needed our customer acquisition program that we’d fine tuned since 2015. 

And last, and probably least, it needed what I loved but it’s 100% needed NOW, BRANDING!  

I thought, what if we created a platform that was 90% focused on driving sales and accidentally building brand along the way.  Then we’d have the best of both worlds. We’d help these restaurant owners short term with the sales they need to thrive and survive and along the way help them build a brand that is unstoppable. 

So with that, our new initiative was launched.:

DRIVE SALES

& 
BUILD BRAND

Then I looked at that massive list of offerings above.  

8 products that we were going to offer, and I asked myself and my team “what do we all dominate now and know 100% we can do to DRIVE SALES?”

And with that, our services offering was narrowed to 3 items.

– Repeat Returns would go from a 3 level restaurant marketing software to ONE, IGNITE!

– Restaurant Marketing That Works Acquisition program would become ONE, ACCELERATE!

– And our high end 1-2-1 collaborative coaching program would now be, DOMINATE!

And with that I give you the new company name, this is what Restaurant Marketing That Works and Repeat Returns have become…

DRYVER

Y with a Y?

Because as I said above YOU need to drive sales and we are going to help you do it, we’ll be the DRYVER!

Stay tuned…

Day 64 – The Puzzle – Documenting Your Journey

Twice in the past 24 hours I’ve repeated this statement “stop using social media as todays money mailer and a place to puke your menu pics. Instead tell your story and become the reality show your community is craving.”

I want you to do me a favor so that you can understand what I’m talking about.  Look up the 3 local restaurants near you right now and go to their Facebook.  

Chart how many posts they made since May 10th and then how many were selling something, not selling something, solid community posts or telling their unique story.

DEFINITIONS

– Selling = Post about WHY to come eat and drink there.

– Not Selling = Happy Memorial Day & NOT SELLING “come celebrate with us”

– SOLID = Community oriented post (ex. one of the posts on Restaurant #1 was a little league team celebrating their big win).

– Telling Your Story = Exactly what it sounds like

The picture above is mine, on the back of a piece of mail that arrived today.

Restaurant #1

– # Of Posts = 32

– Selling = 22

– Not Selling = 6

– Strong Non Selling Post = 4

– Telling Their Story = 0

Restaurant #2

– # Of Posts = 14

– Selling = 12

– Not Selling = 1

– Strong Non Selling Post = 1

– Telling Their Story = 0

Restaurant #3

– # Of Posts = 16

– Selling = 15

– Not Selling = 1

– Strong Non Selling Post = 0

– Telling Their Story = 0

I’m not going to go any deeper than the numbers above.  If you can’t see the opportunity that exists and how BAD your competition is then that’s your fault. 

Day 63 – The Puzzle – The $15 Small Pizza And WHY I Keep Going There

Friday night was pretty normal for me this week, I left the gym and headed home.  On the way home I did what I do most Fridays, swing by Strongs Brick Oven Pizza in Union Kentucky.  On this night I was rolling solo since my wife was out of town with my daughter and my son was at kick boxing.  I think that’s why the dollar amount of this pizza stuck out, it was simply a personal size pizza just for me, my bill came out to $15.85 or aprox $14.85 before tax.

Think about, $15 for a small 10 inch pizza, seems kind of high right?  After all a small pizza is selling between $7-10 at most places. 

But this is the important part, the price was a non factor.  I asked myself, what if it was $20…I’d still buy it.

WHY?  Because the pizza I was picking up was a ONE OF A KIND creation by the pizza geniuses there.  I get the Almost Famous Hot & Spicy.  It’s got bacon, a spicy sauce, peppers and then the dump crumbled up bbq chips on top.  IT’S UNREAL!  It’s so damn good, and it’s the ONLY place I can get this pizza.

It’s kind of like Doc Style wings at Barleycorns, no one else was them.

So why is this the subject of this blog?  Because all of you are trying really hard to get people to spend money with you and more importantly you’re trying to get MORE money when they do visit.  So when you offer a product like this pizza that no one else has, price is removed.  It’s my favorite pizza, so whether it cost me $10, $15, $20 or $25 I’D BUY IT!  

Now I will say, when we start talking about $25-35, it’s going to have me thinking.  But honestly, it’s so damn good 🙂

OK, but you’re thinking “Matt, what’s TJ’s LinkedIn message have to do with this?”

TJ pays attention and he’s heard me rail on this exact pizza restaurant for being bad at marketing.  As I think about it, I can’t say a whole lot that’s good about their email, text and social media.  In fact, they don’t even email or text me.  And I’d be willing to be a large sum of money that don’t have me in any type of marketing database.  They do exactly the opposite of what I believe it, which leads me back to TJ’s question.

WHY am I still eating there?

It’s 100% due to the location of the restaurant, not the pizza or anything else.  

I’d had this pizza at their Newport location a few times per year, and LOVED IT.  That’s how I knew about it when they opened up a mile from my house and that’s why I’ve eaten in hundreds of times since they opened here.  BUT I never went out of my way to visit the Newport location, even though they had my favorite pizza.  WHY?  Out of sight, out of mind.  They were an after thought and we only visited when we were in Newport for another reason.  

But now, I drive by it MANY TIMES per day.  I’m typing this on a Sunday, and I’ve drove by it twice on the way to run this morning and twice on my way to dinner tonight.  If this restaurant was located a few miles in one direction or the other my visit frequency would be 75% less.  

They are getting my business due to their restaurant being in my line of sight 40-50 times per week, and they happen to have my favorite pizza.  Stack on top of that great customer service and a clean restaurant and it’s a dangerous combination.  BUT remove from that the Union location and I’m a 2 times per year customer vs 40-50!  

TJ, your answer is PROXIMITY!  

And to hammer this point home even more, 9 out of 10 friends of mine from the region tell me when I drag them along “I love this place, but never come.”  I ask why and the answer is always the same, out of sight…out of mind!

But imagine if they were running marketing like I preach, oh SNAP, they’d be dangerous.

Imagine the possibilities….

If they were running marketing campaigns with a 3 mile radius to gather data

If they had servers asking for data.

If they had a tech stack when I called into order my pizza that got my info.

IF they had my info and used it how many more visits they could drive, the catering they could sell me, the appetizers they could sell, the desserts they could sell….

TJ, you’ve got me on my soap box and for that reason this is also topic of episode 630 of Restaurant Marketing Secrets, CLICK HERE to listen!

Day 62 – The Puzzle – Handling Customer Complaints Online For Your Restaurant…STAND YOUR GROUND!

SCREAM THIS WITH ME…

WE MUST PROTECT HIS HOUSE!

You and only you can be the gate keeper for your brand, so do exactly what Michelle did here.

Before you read any farther into this blog, CLICK HERE and read the post Michelle made to defend her restaurant, Case & Bucks, from some online shade.  It’s absolute gold and once you read it you’ll have the context you need for the rest of the blog.

Ok, now back to the action.

DAMN, didn’t she freaking DOMINATE that post!  

First, let’s get this out of the way and I’ll warn you, this will go against everything you’ve ever thought.

HOPE & PRAY for some negative posts like this monthly.  WHAT!?  Are you crazy Matt, well yes a little 🙂

Let me explain, here are my 5 reasons you want this stuff in your life:

#1 – If you don’t get hate, then you’re not taking enough action.

#2 – Hate and people throwing shade will EXCITE you and bring out that fire (like it did with Michelle).

#3 – It will force you to take action and put on paper how you REALLY feel.  Because I know none of you really “FEEL” how your social media looks.

#4 – It will prove to you how awesome you are because you’ll get 10x the love than the hate garnered.

#5 – And last but not least, it will show you the power of using social media to tell your story. Then HOPEFULLY it will get you away from posting lame ass food pictures every day and instead get you on team MP and using the written word and videos from your heart.  The power of properly crafted content NOT around your food will draw in more and more people and help you finally market your restaurant correctly. 

Great job Michelle, now that I know what you have in the tank I’m going to be on the lookout for some more heartfelt content to connect you, your brand, your team and your food with your community.

The Puzzle – Day 61 – Opening A New Restaurant? Bring Locals On the Journey Like Bri And Jonathon Did

How should you market opening a new restaurant is a question I get all the time.  

My advise is ALWAYS bring the community along for the ride.  Show them them the construction, the craziness that is building out a new restaurant.  

You can do this pretty easily with a smart phone and Facebook live.  

OR you can go next level like Bri and Jonathon of Wooden Paddle did.  WOW is all I had to say when I watched this.  

I really don’t have much to tell you, I think you’ll get your biggest bang for your buck by simply watching their video and thinking “how can I do this.”

CLICK HERE to watch the video.

FYI there’s NOTHING holding you back from doing videos like this EVERY WEEK even if you’ve been open for 30 years.  It’s freaking free to create your own reality show online, JUST DO IT!

Day 60 – The Puzzle – Time Is On Your Side

Forget the picture above for a minute and read below before you look up.

We all have bad days.

We all have bad weeks.

We all CAN have bad months, if we allow bad weeks to add up and bring us down.

And I suppose we can have a bad year with what I mentioned above and with life events that wreak havoc. 

But right now I want you to focus on the big picture.  Whether we are talking about the sales in your business, the traction in your marketing or your weight loss journey, NOTHING worth doing happens fast and easy. 

Now LOOK UP!  Look at the picture and no it’s not an eye test but now that I look at it I’m getting dizzy 🙂

Each row is 1 year, 52 dots, 1 for each week (at least it should be, but I could have designed it wrong).

There are 15 rows, each representing a year. 

The rows are black, blue and orange to point out a 3 year increment.

FIRST = I like viewing any goal in a 3 year increment.  After reading the book Vivid Vision by Cameron Herold in 2019 I realized that was the right path for me.  WHY?  A lot can happen in 5 years, and don’t get me started on 10 or 15!  So when I look at a path to finishing a goal I know can picture what it looks like in 3 years.  Especially once you get 6 months to a year into it., you’re like “ok, 2 more of these”.  Today I’m going to run a hill twice, it’s 4.5 miles total.  When I get back up the hill after round one I’m always like “ok, 1 more time.”  I view looking at 3 year plans the same way.

SECOND = Each dot is 1 week to show you have insignificant a bad week, heck a back 5-10 weeks, REALLY IS!  Look how small of a sample size a few weeks is in 1 year, then 3 years and then 15 years!

THIRD & FINAL POINT = 15 years!  As an adult and entrepreneur I think we all have to be able to DREAM!  And I don’t know about you, but no dream I want is reachable in 3 years.  A goal, yes.  A DREAM, NO!!!!  So as I sit here at 48 years and say “I want this” I know it’s a big lift.  I know it’s a long road, but I also know I have a lot of DOTS that I can screw up on in route to this dream.  There are 52 weeks in a year, 156 weeks in 3 years and 780 weeks in 15 years.

So when I have a bad week I start to think, WHO GIVES A SHIT, it’s .0012 of the time it’s going to take me to get to my dream, it’s really really insignificant. 

FYI, go by the book Vivid Vision and READ IT ASAP!

Day 59 – The Puzzle – Rule Of 1/3’s With Restaurant Customer Acquisition & Conversion

It’s hard not to ask the question.

It’s hard not to question peoples sanity.

And it’s impossible NOT TO WONDER “where would my sales be every week IF everyone walked in?”

I get it, trust me, I REALLY REALLY get it!.  As a company we have 500 or so conversations with restaurant owners every week.  About 150 of those owners schedule a meeting.  About 100 of those owners SHOW UP (yes 50 of you skip the meeting without notice, the meeting you scheduled). And about 40% of the restaurant owners say YES.

It’s in our nature to wonder WHAT IF all 150 showed and all 150 became clients.  It’s our opportunistic side.

So when I say I can relate to you in this matter, I can.  

Restaurants that run customer acquisition marketing campaigns know my pain.  This past week I was in Virginia Beach meeting with a long time client, Dean of Firebrew Bar & Grill, and the question came up “where are the other 65% Matt ?! ”  

Dean is like you, a restaurant owner wanting to drive sales and grow his top line sales and of course net profit.  But when he looks at the prior 4 years of working with us he can’t help but think “what if the other 8,000 customers who opted into our marketing program walked into my restaurant for JUST 1 visit.  Heck, what if 4,000 of them walked in for 10 to 15 visits.  His restaurant would be double, maybe triple the size it is now and his sales problem would be GONE!

So the question comes up, why are those customers engaging in a marketing ad for the restaurant, giving us their contact information and NOT doing business with us?

At a basic level, it’s the rule of 1/3’s.  

Meaning, 1/3 of these people will NEVER be your customers, 1/3 are your best opportunity and 1/3 are stuck in the middle. 

Below is a link to a podcast I did on the topic that digs deeper into WHY, but in this blog I want to focus on another side of the equation.  I want to discuss what makes that main 1/3 easier or harder to get.

It all comes down to 3 factors:

– Type Of Food

– Level Of Service

– Location

In episode 629 of my podcast, Restaurant Marketing Secrets, we dig into this topic a little more, CLICK HERE and have a listen to the other side of this conversation

 

 

We’ve run over 100,000 restaurant marketing campaigns around customer acquisition.  I’d challenge more than ANYONE ELSE and what I’m about to cover is based on those results.  

This example requires to you think a little different about the bullseye.  Normally I’d show a bullseye and talk about how we are trying to build a marketing campaign to target our exact customer.  But in this example I’m going to talk about how the closer you get to the center the MORE to exclude people and the harder or more expensive it becomes to acquire customers for your restaurant.  

First is your type of food.  If you’re a burger, chicken or pizza concept then you fit to EVERYONE!  If you’re a Thai restaurant, your fit a lot less peoples taste buds.  And on top of that, the Thai eater (me) still will eat at the widely accepted food categories on the outside of the bullseye.  Think about it in the terms of 100 people:

– 80 to 90 of those people would eat anything in the orange area (burgers, pizza and chicken)

– 60 to 70 of those people would eat anything in the white area (Mexican, hot chicken)

– 30 to 40 of those people would eat in the blue area (Thai, Asian and other ethnic foods)

So if you’re running a marketing campaign for a Thai concept, you’re only relating to a fraction of the audience which leads to less opportunity and lower conversion rates.

Next, let’s dig into the type of service.  This also ties into the price of service too.  I don’t think we have to go to far into this.  Based on the economics, types of service and price point knocks people out. If you’re a fast food joint everyone is a potential client, whereas a fine dining establishment is probably only going to appeal to 10-20% of consumers.

Now let’s look at location.  I’ll use two examples here.

First is Shaheen’s restaurants.  Shaheen works for me, but before that he was a restaurant owner for 28 years.  From 2013 to 2020 when he was a client of ours he had 2 restaurants in downtown Cincinnati.  Both restaurants catered to the office workers. In fact one restaurant, Simply Grand Cafe, was on the 1st floor of Great American Insurance’s global HQ.  So 95% of his customers were always going to come from that company.  His other restaurant was Burrito Joe’s one block away.  That business had a broader range of office workers to choose from since his location was more central to other office buildings.  

BUT with a location that appeals to only office workers, you lose a lot of people, which is why Shaheen was closed from dinner and on the weekends. 

My second example is a former client of ours that had a fast food chicken tender concept off the expressway ramp where consumers live.  This location was EASY to get to and was off the exit people take to go home, in fact it was on the right side where you turned to head home, so they had the best of both worlds.  And they are located in a place where there’s also a decent amount of commerce and business traffic.  PLUS people who didn’t work near the location were passing it twice per day.  

Shaheen only has a chance at lunch for his downtown location typically once per week.  But the chicken tender spot has a captive audience all week.  Here’s the breakdown on 100 people:

– 80 to 90 of those people are around the chicken tender brand every day because they live in the area

– 50 to 60 of those people are around the chicken tender brand 5 days per week because they work there PLUS it’s an easy “take home to the family product for dinner”

– 20 to 30 of those people are around Shaheens downtown spot when he’s open. 

SOOOOO with the breakdown out of the way here’s an easy way to wrap a bow around this.

If you are advertising for customers and you are a restaurant with an appealing food type, service/price point and location you are RELATING to 80-90% of those people seeing your ads.  Whereas, if you’re a restaurant with a more specific type of food, with a higher price point in an urban area you are only going to appeal to 30-40% of the customers seeing your marketing. 

This does two things.  First, it costs you more to get the right people since you have waste on your ads.  Second, you have lower redemption rates on your offers since people don’t make it to your location as often or don’t dine in that segment as often as others.