The menu has also reached the starting point of the one-year reform of many catering enterprises. Spring, summer, autumn and winter, the four seasons are different, just like we dress according to the seasons. Some catering products are obviously different in the four seasons, so it is a point to adjust them at any time to meet the needs of consumers in the four seasons.
For example:
Worried that the customer's slow order will affect turnover?
Worried that customers always say that we have nothing to order at home?
Worried about how to cut hundreds of dishes at home?
etc ......
Such a carrier that is closest to our consumers and directly produces consumption, we have the most important structural planning and design.
In fact, planning is inseparable from the overall structure of our planning. It is an important carrier to achieve our planning goals, the way to present to consumers, the click path and the experience.
Zege summed up "five principles that bosses must look at how to upgrade their menus." (See Zege's previous article for more planning articles. )
Principle 1: Who is it for?
As long as your menu is your favorite style.
Did the designer arrange your menu?
Have we ever thought about who our menu is for?
I often say that the menu is a silent salesman, so every product is different and customers will be different. Moreover, if any business does not know how to "think from the standpoint of consumers", it is easy to fall into arrogance and take chances.
The food passed down for thousands of years is not only a product with profound connotation and innovative spirit, but also a product with regional differences and humanistic characteristics. It is not only a product that civilians just need, but also a product with multi-dimensional spiritual needs such as banquets and dinners. Life looks ordinary, but it has changed a lot.
But it is very important to remember who I serve, their life radius, their preferences, and the demand scenario for eating.
For example, some clients I used to serve haven't changed their menus for ten years. This is because the previous times changed slowly and you made money at will. I saw that the menu really seemed to go back to the 1980s and 1990s, and many places of the menu were broken. Think about how neglected and loved the menu is.
Another customer's menu seems to be "mechanical-heavy metal style", but the boss said, "I like motorcycles very much, so the original menu designed by the advertising company seems to cater to my preferences, and I don't think it's right." Maybe it was the boss's change of mind that made me redesign the menu for him.
Let's take a look at the comparison between the old and new menus:
Who is it for? This is our understanding of consumers, and our enterprise will never forget it.
Principle 2: What is the presentation form of the menu?
Before, several catering people asked me, "Our house is showing, and there is no menu. Is it useful for me to learn menu profit structure planning? " Is the menu just a menu?
Is the menu just a piece of paper and an electronic version?
That's not true.
Menu is a restaurant's brand expression, silent promotion and profit model.
The form of menu is just a carrier of multidimensional structured layout. The real meaning of menu lies not in the carrier itself, but in how to plan the categories carried on this carrier, such as product structure, pricing, brand expression and so on. Menus can take many forms. As long as they are selling goods, there are actually menus.
Container array in the supermarket, classified index of e-commerce, on-site array of your restaurant products, etc. It is the embodiment of the menu. For example, we can see the arrangement of dishes in Hefu noodles. Let's just go to the counter and order it ourselves. A long showcase full of dishes is its menu form.
However, how to choose the expression form of the menu is related to the category, format, crowd and guest list we operate.
If we are fast food and light casual meals, then we don't need to make a thick and big brochure. If we are a big meal, it is not suitable to share a single page with a sense of cheapness. At the same time, we should also consider our service choice and payment path.
Principle 3: Who is the protagonist of the product?
A book, a play, a movie, who is the protagonist and what is the central idea we want to express are the main ideas we should think about first.
The transmission of the central idea often comes from the interaction and connection between the protagonist and the supporting role, which begins with the mental cognition of consumers. We can't remember so many characters.
So who is the main character on the menu? Who can represent the leading role of our catering category is particularly important.
In the past, we used to divide them into different cuisines. For example, the famous dishes in Sichuan cuisine include kung pao chicken, shredded pork with fish flavor, husband and wife lung slices, Dongpo elbow and so on. There are also Chinese hamburger and cold rice noodles in Xi's famous snacks. These dishes are inherited and representative, and what is important is that they have a broad mass cognitive basis. Of course, there are still many items classified by products, such as jiaozi, steamed buns and pickled fish. How to choose our protagonist, we must first make clear what kind of business we are engaged in. What is the trend? This trend is inseparable from the progress of the times and the changes of consumers.
The protagonist is generally what we call signature dishes and explosive products, but with the passage of time, the essence of our protagonist can remain unchanged, but it also needs to be upgraded.
When I often talk to my friends about certain brands, they often say that their family has been there many years ago, but they haven't been there in recent years. I feel that their family has always had those products. ......
Principle 4: What is the product personality and connotation?
The product is available, but how to attract consumers, or how to arouse their psychological resonance, is a problem.
Of course, we don't like superficial people, so how to mold our products into unique personality and connotation is a skill that we must master as R&D personnel and brand department.
Here is another point, even a very good product, the ability to shape value can not be underestimated.
Another example is a beautiful woman. She is beautiful, but she may be attracted by beauty alone.
If I tell you, this beautiful woman is not only beautiful, but also has a good writing style, and her thoughts are independent, she loves environmental protection and has done a lot of public welfare. Do you like such a person without seeing a real person? In fact, her attraction to you is not only beauty, but also a kind of inner love.
Therefore, products should have individuality and connotation.
Besides product development, how are dishes displayed on the menu?
Three main points:
1) photos
2) copywriting
3) background
Photos should capture the spirit, appetite and personality style you want to convey;
Copywriting can tell consumers who I am, where I come from, what's good about me, what's different and what's good for consumers; For example, when I first came to Beijing, a friend took us to eat a dish, and other products were also very good, but I only remember this dish now, because he wrote a beautiful poem, "300 lychees a day, I will grow up to be a Lingnan person."
The background is my cultural background, my honor background, giving consumers trust and reliability.
This is an interconnected world, a beautiful world that needs to be voiced and conveyed.
Principle 5: How to guide the design?
How to guide the design well, I think this is a very critical way of thinking in design.
Do you often see rows or columns of dishes, just like soldiers standing on the playground? Except for the different names, we can't tell who is who at all. However, soldiers can take a closer look at the appearance. Some dishes on the menu don't even have pictures, so you can only look carefully and guess. In this way, 100 customers may have 99 different voices about the dishes, and the dishes are still those dishes.
Guided design is an important design idea that I put forward when planning the menu. There are three main points on the design surface:
1) primary and secondary
2) Size
3) moving line
There are only three seemingly simple points, but when designing, we need to rely on the planned structure and objectives to guide the design, so we put forward "no planning, no design".