"
The average customer spends about three minutes with
your menu."
Robert
Welcher, Restaurant Consultants Inc.
Your
guests define 'value' by the quality of the restaurant
experience and the memory it creates. Memories
of great value last and are shared with others.
Quality experiences don't 'just happen'. They
get orchestrated like a play or piece of music,
scene by scene, note by note. It requires a process. |
Write
your story and plan the menu real estate
Write down the story you want your menu to convey.
Include the values you espouse, the emotional triggers
your guests have expressed and the brand personality
you wish to convey. These words may never even see
the light of day (or the eyes of the guest), but they
become the foundation for all that follows. Your menu
represents both a play that enhances the experience
and an advertisement that communicates your brand's
personality. Now that you have gotten to this point,
your intention is to ensure that guests read the menu,
buy what rings their bells and make you great money.
You want the guest to say, "Ah yes, this is exactly
what I hoped I would find". Reaffirm that they
have made a wise decision in dining with you. Then
they will give themselves over to the ride of your
own design. How great is that?
Next, lay out the menu so that the most profitable
and the most popular items (Group One: High Profit/High
Popularity) sit in the middle to the right. I have
seen a variety of studies, but all agree on this point.
As a rule, continue counter clockwise around the pages,
placing the sections and items around the perimeter
in order of their ranking in my profit/popularity
matrix. If you have a single page, lead off with the
most popular, most profitable item in each section.
Never list in order of price. The guest does not need
to be reminded that the experience will cost them
something. The point of dining out is to enjoy yourself.
You don't go to a play to study the prices on the
ticket. Box items to move the guest's eye in the direction
you want. Designers hate boxes. It looks clunky. It
looks 'retail'. Guess what? We're in business.
Is there an ideal size or shape menu? Limit the actual
menu to two pages, if possible. The guest can follow
your path without turning pages. It keeps it simple
for the guest. Given the information overload most
of us feel, this is a virtue the guest will appreciate.
If you have desserts, wine or theatrical beverages,
use other means to promote them.
Design, at last
Bring in the creatives! If you have followed the
previous steps and are firm about your expectation,
then the design can be a meaningful addition. Now,
it may seem odd to hear me, as a creative person,
offer cautions about the creative person. I love our
kind. But we add the most value when our form
follows the function, which follows your values, that
meets the guest's needs.
Tah
Dah!
This scratches the surface, but it also reveals
a meaningful set of truths. Your menu helps take the
guest to the emotional destination to which they have
already decided they want to go. Done right, you'll
make a lot more money in the process. Is there more?
Of course, there is. But this newsletter offers a
menu map with a rarely invoked starting point: your
guest and you. This will always be home base in Method
Marketing. Always!
Next
issue: "Delivering on
Your Promise"
[Send
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Part
I -Creating Memorable Menus
Part II -Creating Memorable
Menus
Part III -Creating Memorable
Menus
