1. Restaurant marketing is not the same as promotion.

This seems to be a superficial and naive question, but some restaurant 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 restaurants is a continuous business activity 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.

second, do a good job in marketing conversion between peak season and off season.

don't be complacent when customers are full every day during the peak season of the Spring Festival. 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 will plummet in the off-season, whether it can operate continuously and stably in one year, whether it enjoys high satisfaction and reputation among customers, and whether it belongs to the leading phalanx among peer enterprises.

"Profit in peak season and gain momentum in off-season" should be the core idea of restaurant marketing. Profit-taking is to seize the largest sales volume and obtain the largest income; 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 the restaurant to obtain the "potential" it needs in the off-season. Restaurants that do a good job in marketing 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 restaurant marketing 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.

third, prepare for a rainy day, and the marketing pull in the off-season starts from the peak season.

Restaurant marketing is a systematic, planned and coherent business activity, and restaurant marketing should try to be ahead of market changes, especially in the case of clear market trends. Chinese restaurants 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.

fourth, recognize the market changes and deal with them calmly.

This requires a correct judgment and analysis based on the market positioning of the restaurant, from the aspects of the composition of tourists, consumption motives, and the adjustment trend of the post-holiday catering market, and then put the limited marketing resources into the most effective target market.

for the marketing of middle and high-end restaurants, the main customer groups during the Spring Festival peak season are the group consumption of officials (including the government and the army), businesses and other social groups. During this period, many restaurants have no time to take care of the general 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. During the holiday season, wedding birthday banquets and centenary banquets, which are submerged in many group annual banquets and celebration banquets, will become more prominent in the off-season and become one of the pillar sources of income for many restaurants. Another market, such as exhibitions and tourist groups, almost stopped during the Spring Festival, but it will also become an indispensable part of the catering market after the holiday.

in view of these market changes, restaurants should adjust their marketing methods according to their own positioning, so as to be targeted, simple and effective. For example, mid-range restaurants can offer more affordable family packages and white-collar lunches to attract the consumption of families and white-collar office workers; Introduce "cheap drinks supermarket" to reduce the consumption cost of guests' drinks and effectively overcome the contradiction of guests bringing their own drinks; Plan more detailed and thoughtful marketing plans for wedding birthday banquets and centennial banquets, and give more preferential items to attract the consumption of scheduled wedding birthday banquets and centennial banquets, 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.

5. deeply maintain VIP customers.

There is a famous 2: 8 law in marketing theory, that is, 81% of sales are often brought by 21% of customers. There is no doubt that these 21% customers are the most important food and clothing parents in the restaurant. Restaurants 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 by well-trained and specialized teams to the letter. Customer maintenance is of course a long-term job, but it is particularly important in the off-season.