1. Do a good job in the marketing conversion between peak season and off season

Don't be complacent when you see that customers are full every day during the Spring Festival peak season. Maybe you will sing an empty plan every day after the New Year's Day. Due to the traditional customs in China, as soon as the Spring Festival approaches, the consumption power of the whole society will erupt in a short time, and almost every restaurant, large and small, is full, which is hard to say because of how well your marketing work is done. The real test of the effectiveness of marketing lies in whether it plummets in the off-season, whether it can operate continuously and stably in a year, whether it enjoys high satisfaction and reputation among customers, and whether it belongs to the phalanx among peer enterprises.

The goals and strategies of successful catering marketing are very clear, and they are all implemented step by step as planned. One thing is very crucial, that is, how to do a good job in the conversion of marketing strategy between peak season and off season.

"Profit in the peak season and gain momentum in the off-season" should be the core idea of catering marketing. Profit-taking means to win more sales and gain more profits; Taking advantage of the situation is to gain the commanding heights and strive for valuable things, including business popularity, customer reputation, brand awareness, and so on, so as to establish long-term strategic advantages.

The relationship between "potential" and "profit" is inseparable. Without the "potential" in the off-season, it is difficult to get the "profit" in the peak season. Without the "profit" in the peak season, it is impossible to support catering to achieve the "potential" it needs in the off-season. Often, catering with good marketing work in the off-season can make a lot of profits in the peak season without investing too much marketing cost, which is natural.

In the off-season, the focus of marketing work can be summarized into three aspects: 1. Maintenance of old customers; 2. Development of new customers; 3. Shaping the brand image. To do a good job in these three aspects, moderate marketing costs are essential, rather than blindly lowering operating costs without strategy. At this stage, we should relatively despise the rate of return, but pay more attention to the attendance rate and customer satisfaction, and finally realize the profit-making goal in the peak season and the whole year.

second, prepare for a rainy day, and start marketing in the off-season from the peak season.

Marketing activities are a systematic, planned and coherent business behavior, and marketing work should be ahead of market changes as far as possible, especially in the case of clear market trends. Chinese food and beverage should make a good marketing plan for the off-season after the Spring Festival before the peak season begins, and then make full use of the good popularity during the Spring Festival to carry out the off-season marketing promotion work in advance. Specific methods vary, and the effect is often twice the result with half the effort. If you wait until you slip into the off-season and your popularity is low, the cost of marketing will be higher and it will be more difficult.

third,? Recognizing the market changes and coping with them calmly

This requires making a correct judgment and analysis on the composition of customers, consumption motives and the adjustment trend of the catering market after the holiday according to the market positioning of catering, and then putting the limited marketing resources into the effective target market.

For medium and high-end restaurants, the main customer groups during the Spring Festival peak season are the official (including the government and the military), business and other social groups. During this period, many restaurants have no time to take care of ordinary individual customers and neglect them. However, after the Spring Festival for a period of time, the customer structure of the catering market will change. Due to the concentrated surprise consumption before the holiday, the enthusiasm of group consumption will be reduced after the holiday, and the frequency of consumption will also be significantly reduced. The corresponding share of household consumption and individual consumption has risen.

in view of these market changes, catering should adjust its marketing methods according to its own positioning, so as to be targeted, simple and effective. For example, mid-range catering can introduce more affordable family packages and white-collar lunches to attract the consumption of families and white-collar office workers; Launch "special limited activities" to reduce the consumption cost of guests and effectively attract more customers to spend; Plan more detailed and thoughtful marketing plans for appointments, parties and birthday parties, give away items with more preferential treatment to attract scheduled consumption, and so on.

of course, group consumption is still the mainstream for middle and high-end restaurants, so there should be corresponding marketing measures for this part of customers, so we must not lose sight of one thing and lose sight of another.

IV. Maintain VIP customers in depth

There is a famous 2: 8 law in marketing theory, that is, 81% of sales are often brought by 21% of important customers. There is no doubt that these 21% customers are important parents of food and clothing. Catering should sort out the customers in the past year, find out who these 21% customers are, and work out special VIP customer maintenance plans, which will be implemented to the letter by a well-trained and specialized team. Customer maintenance is of course a long-term job, but it is particularly important in the off-season.

5. Innovating and changing, giving customers more new ideas and surprises

After a busy peak season, catering can't rest temporarily, because in the big market competition environment, enterprise management is also like sailing against the current, and if it doesn't advance, it will retreat. After the festival, products, promotional materials and the atmosphere in the store should be adjusted in time according to the changes in solar terms, consumption and marketing themes. Many restaurants like to keep the festive arrangement of the Spring Festival until these decorations are old and shabby, which is the obvious feature of lack of systematic marketing.

A restaurant that pays attention to brand image and is full of vitality will constantly bring forth new ideas in terms of marketing themes and specific forms of expression, and constantly create a sense of freshness for customers, which is more conducive to cultivating long-term loyal customers. After the Spring Festival, some new products should be added one after another, and new meals suitable for summer season should be developed as soon as possible, and presented to customers when the market picks up in April. In the off-season, catering should try to create festivals to create momentum, which not only attracts attention, but also attracts customers and enhances popularity.

For example, spring thanksgiving activities are held, inviting members or old customers, giving them special consumption discounts, and launching a series of interactive game activities to give back to old customers; Invite the relevant responsible persons of major travel agencies to focus on a unique networking activity, make friends, and recommend catering services to travel teams; Cooperate with enterprises in other industries, such as department stores, specialty stores, 4S shops of high-end cars, bars, etc., which match the catering positioning, to provide special discounts to their customers, so as to broaden their customers and expand their influence; Wait a minute.

of course, it's not appropriate to invest too much money in a large number of promotions in the off-season, so it's not worth the loss, just moderate.

6. Grasp the low tide in the off-season

In the off-season after the Spring Festival, there are also some small consumption hotspots, such as 3.8 Women's Day. Many units will organize female employees to have dinner to celebrate, and many female consumers will also meet with friends to enjoy delicious food. There will also be some different exhibition business opportunities in different places. For example, in March 2116, the 44th China (Guangzhou) International Art Fair was held in Guangzhou. At that time, hundreds of thousands of merchants from all over the country and even foreign countries gathered in Guangzhou, and many welcoming banquets will be arranged, which will set off a big catering consumption boom in a short time. Catering should make marketing plans as early as possible, carry out marketing promotion work in an orderly manner, and strive to make good gains in these off-season tides.

7. Keep moderate advertising in line with marketing activities in the off-season.

In the peak season, your advertisements are often submerged in the ocean of advertisements. In the off-season, moderate marketing activities combined with moderate advertising will make your catering industry more eye-catching, the effect of brand promotion will be better, and the effect of marketing activities will be better.

VIII. Joint marketing with other restaurants

It seems a bit difficult, because as the saying goes, peers are enemies. However, there are also many examples in which peers are friends. Aren't Hongxing and Darong and two famous catering enterprises in Chengdu better examples? There is a good metaphor: a chopstick is broken gently and ten chopsticks are tied together, so it's nothing.

if we can put aside the bad blood between restaurants and find a market, the cakes in this market may be made bigger and more fragrant. If a restaurant engages in marketing activities, considering the relationship between input and output, the momentum will certainly not be too great, but if ten or twenty restaurants jointly engage in marketing activities, the momentum will definitely be much greater if everyone's strength is added together, and the results of the activities will naturally be much better.

So, in the peak season, they are busy, and in the off-season, the catering bosses should move around more and contact more, and maybe they can meet some sparks and form a temporary alliance partnership.

Nine, chopping wood and sharpening the knife are correct

In the off-season, the marketing work should focus on both hands, and on the market, that is, the so-called "chopping wood"; The other hand practices internal skills, which is called "sharpening the knife". What I have described above is mainly some strategies for grasping the market. I have the following suggestions for practicing internal strength:

1. Summarize the gains and losses of marketing in peak season and constantly improve the marketing ideas and methods;

2. Re-examine the established follow-up marketing work plan, and revise and improve it;

3. High-quality products and services are better marketing, so in the off-season, when business is not very busy, systematic service and production skills training are carried out to continuously improve service quality;

4. Eliminate unqualified marketing personnel, recruit new marketing personnel and conduct comprehensive and intensive training;

5. Review the shortcomings of catering in brand display in the past, enrich the brand connotation, and strive to create a high-grade brand image.

Extended information:

Marketing is not equal to promotion

This seems to be a very superficial and naive problem, but some catering operators often make such low-level mistakes unconsciously. They tend to bury their heads in counting tickets when business is good and only market them when business is bad.

the marketing of catering is a continuous operation that runs through the enterprise, and it will never be a breakpoint. Whether you admit it or not, marketing always exists with the operation of your enterprise, but there are active marketing and passive marketing in terms of situation, and there are differences between successful marketing and failed marketing in terms of results. Therefore, there is no time to take a nap in marketing, whether in the off-season or in the peak season.