Why restaurant must have a meaning to their business?
One of the greatest marketers Seth Godin that I admire says that if you are not remarkable you are boring.Your product or service is average that no body finds it interesting enough to talk about. That is simple and harsh but it is true.
In the cut throat competitive restaurant business market if you can not differentiate your restaurant from the crowd then your restaurant is lost in the crowd. I believe every restaurant must have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) to stand out of the crowded restaurants. Your restaurant must have a unique product or service that separates you from the competitors. For example Subway’s USP is “Fresh Sandwich made right, in front of you at your sight.” It is simple and yet very powerful. No wonder they even beat McDonalds in terms of number of franchise growth. But I believe you have to go beyond just having unique selling proposition if you want to be a remarkable restaurant and not just an average. You have to define a meaning in your restaurant business if you want to be talked about. Especially if you want to be talked about in the social media like Twitter. That alone is more powerful than any advertising. I don’t call that advertising. I call it a public relation you could get from your act of finding the meaning to your restaurant. The cheesy ad thrown at the face of the customers whether they like or not is not going to work anymore. I call those tv ads a forced advertising. It is like forcing someone to eat who doesn’t have an appetite. It is more easy when customers comes to your restaurant when they like what you are doing in your community whether you are helping the poor kids in the community with after school education or feeding homeless during the Christmas. I believe as a restaurant business owner one has to be an ambassador of hope and aspiration to many in the community. The customers are naturally going to like the good work you are doing in the community and in the process the customers starts understanding you and the meaning of your restaurant business they will come to your place. You don’t even have to sell. They will buy from you. Do you see it is easy when some one comes to buy rather than trying to sell at their face through mass media like television?
Why restaurants have to adapt to the changes that is taking place in the modern technology age?
Today I come to know that Nortel – communication company filed for bankruptcy. It is sad but that’s what happen when the leaders of the company stay in their comfort zone and don’t foresee what changes are coming and don’t change to meet those needs. In today’s rapidly changing technological world, every business including your restaurant should be up to date with the trends and technology that is part of a restaurant industry. You have to see in the horizon what changes are coming and position yourself to take advantage of the change. If you are not prepared for the changes and offer the same old outdated product then it becomes obsolete and thus it makes your restaurant obsolete. I don’t care how long any business have been around. If you don’t move fast enough and change as per customers changing demands you are doomed to loose your business or falter very behind in the competition. I will give you very fine examples of this.
Do you remember when Blockbuster video was having a good time while collecting ridiculous amount of late fees. You rented the video for $2 and paid the late fee of $10. That was one of their business revenue models. I personally believe that was a wrong model. Though I find it fair to punish for late returns for some time but not forever. As a good meaningful company you will have to think about how you can help your customers by using technology or by any other innovations you can think of. As a leader of a company you have to put your customers first and profits second.
Then came along a smart entrepreneur who was fed up with late fees and started an online video rental company called Netflix with a great unique selling proposition “Never Late Fees “.That was so powerful that within few years it gained popularity and attracted thousands of online subscribers and still growing. Now Blockbuster Leaders relaxed in the high rise glass building didn’t have broader vision for their company let alone help their customers. But on the other hand one man was thinking about the frustrated video rental customers and building an innovative company. Today it is not about how big you are and how much money your company has. It is about how innovative your idea is. Today marketing is won not by just throwing dollars at great TV advertisement. If it was true then Block buster had millions of dollars to throw at those executives at those television networks. But it doesn’t work that way especially in this rapidly changing innovative world. Today small is big if you harness the power that internet has provided to small company like Netflix and possibly yours too. Never in the history was it possible that small company like Netflix who just got started could battle even the 800 pound gorilla Block buster who has been in business for years. It pretty much makes Blockbuster obsolete. Watch the video where the company is headed. It is reinvesting their capital in online instant access video. That is where the future is headed to. Who would want to go to video store when you could download the video right in your own computer? It is just because of internet. Internet has leveled the plain field of business. Internet doesn’t discriminate whether you were old or new company. It doesn’t care if you have money or not. Today with innovative idea and by harnessing the power of internet any company small or big can grow and be successful. May be your restaurant could harness the power of internet and be the next Netflix.