Introducing Marketing Your Restaurant Series

Get Customers: Know Your Customer

We recently polled business owners about which areas they found the most challenging when marketing their business. The choices were:

• Getting customers

• Making customers happy

• Getting customers to come back

The results were interesting - Of those that responded, 77% believed that Getting customers was the area that they found the most challenging when marketing their business, whereas, 9% believed that Making customers happy was the most challenging and 14% believed that Getting customers to come back was the most challenging.

We have created a series of tips directed toward the restaurant business owner although many of the ideas can be broadly applied to other business types.

An interesting statistic from the National Restaurant Association is that 88% of adults say they enjoy going to restaurants, which bring us to the first topic, Get Customers: Know your Customer.

Get Customers

The first challenge is to get the customers to come in to your restaurant and although it is important to let them know who you are and to, obviously make it worth their while; the first step is to know who they are.

Know your Customer

To know your customer - current and potential - restaurant owners need to do some basic demographic research.

Demographics Defined

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) defines demographics as the measurable characteristics of a human population. Business owners use the information culled from a study of their local population to see where opportunities exist and to develop appropriate business and marketing strategies to target potential customers.

Chances are, an established restaurant owner will already know a lot about his or her neighborhood and the surrounding five miles, but a demographic study, which will reveal who not only lives but works in the area, their occupations, income, spending habits and possibly spending motives, may turn up interesting and useful trends.

For example: Are your customers urbanites who walk everywhere, or is your restaurant in the suburbs? Knowing how far people travel in your market is important. Providing appropriate number of parking spaces may be important depending on the type of customer. Has the age of the population shifted subtly in the last few years? A spike in young families may call for a change in menu to add more child-friendly options. Customers with sophisticated tastes might require an overhaul of the wine list or an introduction to more specialized food choices. A demographic survey will both raise and answer some questions, but it will also help determine what your restaurant can sell, how it should sell it, and at what price.

Researching Demographics

The Internet can be one of your restaurant's best friends. Check out the SBA website for downloadable pdfs from the following:

• American FactFinder provides access to population, housing, economic and geographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
• State and County Quick Facts offers frequently requested Census Bureau information at the national, state, county and city levels.
• Current Population Statistics shares information gathered in a monthly survey of about 50,000 households and is conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
• Labor Demographics website makes data that has been collected by BLS available for specific demographic categories including sex, age, race and ethnic origin.
• Social Security Fact Sheets for Demographic Groups offers fact sheets for all demographic groups including women and young people.

While using the Internet is one way to find up-to-date demographics, another option is for savvy restaurant owners to go out and meet the actual people they serve and hope to serve. Spend time walking around and shopping in the neighborhood to determine exactly who lives or works within a three-mile radius of your restaurant.

This admittedly time-consuming strategy should be mixed with visits to and participation in the area's Chamber of Commerce and networking with other merchants and business owners. These strategies can offer deeper insights into your restaurant's demographics than plain data. Networking with business owners who are not in direct competition can open up partnership opportunities where you can help drive Customers to each other's business.

Also, knowing the psychographics, i.e., why customers dine where they do (and how often) can be just as important as knowing who potential customers are.

In fact, psychographics, a marketing method that relates to the reasons why people make the buying choices they make, can help hone in on your restaurant's advertising strategy by revealing the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, influences and requirements of potential customers. To see additional information about Psychographics, see AdvanceMe, Inc.'s article titled, "Introduction to Psychographics."

Knowing your Customer means knowing where they eat when they don't eat at your restaurant. A survey asking how often they eat at home, go through a drive through, get take out is good to know. Adding in a subtle question about what other cuisines they like (if you are, e.g., an Italian restaurant) and what other restaurants they like (as much as yours) is a simple way to determine this.

Knowing why they eat out is also important, are they tired of cooking by Thursday, do they just want takeout on Friday so they can put their feet up, do they always eat out on Saturday or only on birthdays or other special occasions. Knowing what they want and when is a great step forward to knowing your customer.

Using Demographic Information

With a reliable snapshot of your restaurant's potential customer base in hand, it is now time to put that information to use by focusing on a target market. Is the business in a cozy neighborhood of big spenders, and are these the folks you want to woo? Or is your business near a large downtown with plenty of convention traffic? One independent restaurant a cab ride away from Atlanta's downtown business district lures conventioneers and big-spending buyers at the city's merchandise mart to its country French restaurant. The combination of neighborhood regulars gives the eatery a balance of fresh and familiar faces.

Don't give up on Sunday nights in the city! Lunacy Black Market, a small but hip eatery in a downtown area where government workers keep staffers busy for lunch and early week night dinners lures nearby residents with Sunday night pasta suppers. The strategy has turned a normally dead space on the calendar into standing room only.

Sometimes, variations in an area's demographics are so diverse, it's difficult to see how to serve each one - or any one. For example, restaurants in suburban mixed-use areas where office parks border up-scale neighborhoods and large hotels attract executives at lunch, a younger cocktail hour crowd and families for dinner. Evaluate your restaurant's menu for items and specials that can be customized for each demographic. The competition is high in this kind of area with up-scale chains commanding a good deal of the market, but one small and independent pizzeria owner turned this perceived disadvantage around with a focus on his strengths. Small business owners, for example, can cultivate relationships more easily and have the flexibility to change their menus more often, thus making better use of local, seasonal ingredients.

We welcome your comments on this Business Tip click here.

To Conclude: Do the research, walk the neighborhood, consider networking, ask questions - people like it when you ask for their opinions!

Next Tip: Get Customers: Let them know who you are.