Niche Marketing Strategies
Marketing a Home Cooking Restaurant
The task of promoting a home cooking restaurant has to receive the highest priority in your organization. But what marketing techniques and strategies are successful in the current economy?
A single characteristic divides today's best home cooking restaurants from companies at the bottom of the food chain.
In some businesses, marketing takes a back seat to sales and operations. That's a mistake because without marketing, your brand messages aren't being heard. On the upside, great marketing is a real possibility for a home cooking restaurant owner who is willing to learn what it takes to promote their business.
Product Knowledge
Are you intimately familiar with your brands' product line? You better be if you're marketing a home cooking restaurant. Whether you outsource marketing or handle it in-house, the more familiar marketing personnel are with your products' distinctive characteristics, the easier it will be to devise marketing strategies that differentiate your home cooking restaurant in the marketplace. If you can't articulate your products' unique characteristics, your messaging - and revenue stream - will suffer.
Loss Leaders
The majority of home cooking restaurants understand that more customers will walk through the door if a few products are priced at less than full retail value. When applied skillfully, a loss leader marketing strategy can lead to overall gains in revenue. But to be effective, loss leader marketing requires planning, especially in product selection and price points. For home cooking restaurants, this approach is most advantageous when it is coupled with a promotion for complementary products or services that are offered at full pricing. Whenever possible, piggyback a loss leader approach with the purchase of bulk merchandise that can be bought at a discount.
Public Relations Strategies
The beauty of PR is that it can raise awareness of your offerings in a very credible and cost-effective fashion. For example, if you buy a premium mailing list and use it to conduct a direct mail campaign, that's marketing. On the other hand, if the Sunday paper runs a story about your home cooking restaurant, that's PR. The art of storytelling is a core PR competency. Storylines need to be believable and objective while communicating your brand's strengths and value proposition.
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