'Tis The Season?

Cheers, Jan, 2001 by Mike Sherer

No matter how simple the promotion is, the first thing to do is get buy-in from both managers and staff. "If managers look at me like I've got two heads when I tell them about a promotion, I know they won't get behind it," said Banta. Promotions should be easy to understand and execute for staff, and easy to communicate to customers.

Your staff can help communicate and execute the promotion, but only if they're behind it and have been trained what to do. Remember that they're already busy selling and serving customers, so the easier it is to explain the promotion to a customer, the more readily they'll participate.

"You have to have a staff that gets deeply involved in making promotions succeed," Kelly said. "Some employees are better than others at different things, though, so go with your strengths. Use your staff to help."

Make sure that promotions are not only relevant to your customers, but to staff as well. Include them in on the fun. "We want fun promotions that give customers something cool," Finklang said, "but make sure the staff gets something cool, too. They should get an incentive."

"Give managers the tools that make it easy to execute, whether it be flyers, costumes or whatever," said Banta. "Who you have as an emcee or deejay also makes a big difference in the success of a promotion. Little things the guest sometimes doesn't even notice are important like lighting, costumes, buttons. It all matters."

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme

Thoughtful planning and flawless execution will make a promotion work the way it's supposed to. Ultimately, though, a promotion's success depends on its ability to pull people through the door.

"There has to be a payoff for attendees -- prizes, drink special, something," Wilson said. "There has to be something to make the consumer want to come to the event. Even the event itself could be the draw. Just to have a dollar off a drink is done by so many people, it's just not worth it to us."

That payoff can be just about anything, and it varies from market to market, and even night to night. There is no magic bullet, except, perhaps, creativity.

"Some promotions are a long-term investment," said Banta. "For example, building a single night's business over time. Others, like Valentine's Day, are just to do something different from everybody else, to give people a reason to come back if for nothing else than to see what else is going on that's new and exciting."

Promotions are about keeping the business fresh, injecting new ideas into an established concept. At some operations, like Old Chicago, customers have come to expect cool, hip payoffs like adventure trips to place like Bali or a trip to Germany along with a Volkswagen. At Muldoon's in Omaha, sometimes sampling a local microbrewer's wares and offering its T-shirts at a discount can he just as effective a payoff in drawing customers.

The point is to make it fun, make it relevant, make it exciting and they will come.

Spring Promotions

Of all the restaurant promotions, the most widespread may be those supplied by the beer companies. Here's a look at a few you can expect to head your way over the next few promotion-heavy months.