The restaurant industry continues to grow, no matter what the economy does. But that doesn’t mean every restaurant is growing. Ruby Tuesday, TGI Fridays and Red Lobster are up for sale, and Mimi’s café recently was sold. I’m sure that in the next year, a few others in the casual-dining segment will go up for sale.
How can this be avoided—for any segment? Here are four keys to invincibility that I think will keep any brand successful (that’s not totally dependent on the stock market).
- Offer value. That’s why fast-casual concepts are doing so well that casual-dining restaurants are opening fast-casual brands and extensions. But within casual dining, those two-for-one meal deals had better be written in permanent ink.
- Blaze trails with social media and technology. The wolves will nip at your heels if you don’t. That’s probably why Applebee’s and Chili’s aren’t on the chopping block with other casual-dining restaurants. Right or wrong, they both leapt into tabletop tablets. You have to at least try. Established brands like Taco Bell and McDonald’s can’t even exempt themselves from trail-blazing, even though they already beat new paths. Both are on their way to joining the play popularized by the pizza segment—offering mobile ordering and paying apps.
- Evolve the menu to appeal to your target customer. It’s a tightrope, because you can’t evolve the menu so much that nothing on the menu stands out. Can the customer picture anything on your menu that is a reason for them to choose you? At least offer a to-die-for dessert or drink that never leaves the menu. But stay up with the trends. A few are: spicy; spicy and sweet together; and appetizers and/or side dishes available in multiples and marketed as an entrée substitute. Gauge all this with judicious use of limited-time-only offers.
- Be craveable. This is my favorite one to think about right now. Craveable means you make addicts out of your customers. If they go for very long without a XX fix from your restaurant, they might just pass away.
It helps if what you offer is already addictive. Think coffee and Starbucks and Tim Hortons (in Canada). I got a kick out of a Feb. 15 Wall Street Journal article about the lack of Starbucks at the Olympics and how the athletes are barely coping, even though there are plenty of McCafe’s from which to buy coffee.
Starbucks is not an official sponsor of the Olympics and therefore is prohibited from being there. Ah, but the exclusive U.S. Olympics broadcaster NBC, that paid $775 million for broadcast rights and employs 2,500 people to be there, brought a Starbucks into its sectioned-off compound as an employee perk. NBC searched Russia for 15 Starbucks baristas and is paying for their accommodations. The coffee drinks they serve inside the compound are free to the NBC staff and unavailable to anyone else. Olympic athletes can only lust after the coffee when they see a Starbucks cup carried by an NBC employee.
The only other restaurant I can think of with such a cult following is Chipotle. Now just what is it about that place that is like crack to its patrons? Is it the fast-casual assembly line food that encourages your input as your order is prepared? After all, that is the appeal of the fast-casual segment right now. No, Subway has the same type of service, and it doesn’t have cult status. Is it the stand that Chipotle takes for environmental and social responsibility? I just read that the chain has developed a comedy TV series available on Hulu called Farmed and Dangerous about the ills of corporate agribusiness. Its brand name is not presented in the series, but maybe that’s a strategy, and it’s counting on the buzz that others will propagate on its behalf as they encourage others to watch.
What makes a restaurant craveable like that? I’d like to know what you think.
Jody
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