Restaurant Marketing Ideas

[marketer]

I am writing a new book on restaurant marketing and am seeking case studies to include. The premise of the book is that there are far better ways to build sales than using traditional, stale and ineffective mass media advertising. At my firm, we're be believers in public relations, neighborhood marketing and retention-building programs. We already have some great case studies, but we're looking for more so that the book is chalked full.

Do you have any examples of off-beat, non-traditional tools you have used that didn't require mass media? We're looking for out-of-the-box publicity stunts, unheard of local store or four-walls marketing ideas, special events programs, and other cut-through-the-clutter ideas you may have heard of but not necessarily tried yourself. If it wasn't an ad and it drove sales, we want to hear about it.

Looking forward to starting a fun new thread with you!

[Jim]

When I was catering, we often would package up a meal for 10-15 people and drop it off a local law firm, real estate office, etc to 'introduce' ourselves. As a result, when they need catering we were in the door... most of the time. Also, on Secretarys' day ("Administrative Assistants' day") we would blanket our current customers and potential customers with something special for the Secretarys... like a little choclate cake or chocolate covered strawberries, etc. This isn't earth-shattering marketing, but it was effective and really didn't cost nearly as much as print or radio advertising.

[Suzanne]

Dear marketer --

Before our members get too deeply into this project -- as I'm sure they weill be happy to do -- may I ask what credit will be given for the stories we may supply to you? How about a quid pro quo from your firm to this site?