The hospitality industry is a huge one in today’s times. With the increasing demand of customers and competition, you need to put in that extra effort to ensure that your customers remain loyal to you at all times. Let’s first understand the concept of the hospitality industry before going in-depth.
Hospitality Industry — The Concept!
It refers to categories of businesses and services linked to leisure, spending past time, and getting satisfaction on certain activities they long for. The hospitality industry is associated with the ideas of personal gratification of pleasure, luxury, freedom of movement, and activities.
They are not essentials and necessities. In contrast, the travel industry is related to the activities of people who have traveled away from home from the usual location, intending to get hospitality.
Hospitality Marketing
As you market other products or services, hospitality marketing focuses on customers’ needs and satisfaction. For the overall success of the hospitality industry, marketing strategies have to be adopted for promoting various elements of hospitality such as luxurious accommodation, tongue-watering foods, and drinks.
One of the ways of enjoying and deriving pleasure is having something edible that you did not taste earlier. Therefore the hospital industry should include food promotion items in their marketing strategy.
Food Promotions
Food promotions include discounts offered via email, showcasing of signature dishes, QR codes, running of happy hour deals, coupons, etc. It is a part of the hospitality industry, and its promotion adds to the success of your hospitality industry. While strategizing your promotion deals, you should be careful about your profit margin, categories of your customers, business challenges, and your press reporter.
The ultimate aim of food promotion is repeat business and regular visits of your customers to your hospitality centers. The quality of food items is of utmost importance. At the same time, offering customer satisfaction is no less critical. When people are on travel, they are in a luxurious living and luxurious eating.
Money is not a more significant concern for them. But because of severe competition in the market, you need to promote your food promo items by adopting the following means.
1: Happy Hour
This promotional strategy is designed to entice the after-work crowd to visit you for your hospitality. The offerings for happy hours are appetizers and discounted drinks. They have some snacks and drinks and then stay back for dinner. Statistics reveal that more than 60.5% of the average weekly sales are generated in the US through Happy Hour. Because of the discount, the brain chemical related to happiness, love, and stress relief increase. As a result, your promotional Products draw better marketability and increased revenue.
2: Combo Specials
When you offer two things for the price of one, you are offering great discounts to your customers. While the customers get deep satisfaction, they are enticed to spend more on dishes and drinks, thereby increasing your sales. They may be inclined to buy extra items such as desserts or appetizers. Another promo item is buy-one-get-one-free, which could be applied for apps, drinks, and entrees.
3: Loyalty Programs
In this promotional item, you offer perks such as discounts or free items when you make a return visit to your hospitality center. Instead of a single promo, it encourages long-term business. But, it would help if you kept in mind the program’s cost-effectiveness. It should be designed not to eat away a more significant portion of your margin. The increase in turnover could compensate for a little lower margin. Loyal customers are likely to bring in more customers to your business.
4: Get them in the Door
Another sure-to-hit strategy is to offer heavy discounts on your menu filled with items typically not eastern by them. They get the pleasure and satisfaction of getting the deal. At the same time, they get the occasion to eat soups, sides, and snacks that they do not usually eat. Once they get the taste and flavor of these unusual items, they are inspired to buy more.
5: Virtual Access
You can make an emotional investment in your customers through augmented reality, video, or other digital platforms. You can make arrangements for video tutorials of cooking your favorite dishes.
6: Pop-Ups
You can make your food truck parked in an open space where the crowd can assemble and enjoy the taste of your menu. The open area may be a nearby farmers’ market, brewery house, or open-air setup. Visual exposure urges for eating a particular eatery.
7: Leverage a Local Event
Many significant events such as concerts, local sporting events, or festivals could be organized nearby. These events generate awareness and drive big audiences into your hospitality center, and they could become your regular customers. For instance, you can offer 5% off your food items to those who have a ticket to a local hockey game.
8: Holidays Offering
There are holidays like Christmas, New Year, Mother’s Day, and many more when people want to enjoy the day, particularly by eating and drinking with friends and relatives. You can inspire them to link with you on a great occasion. It would help if you made the event so unique and exclusive that they could hardly resist joining you. For instance, you should have a different offering for each day of Christmas.
9: Bundling the Poor Performers
The POS system of some restaurants could assist you in identifying items that are not selling well and needs specific promotions. You can attach this item to better-performing items and tag an attractive discount. As the top performer goes, as usual, the reduced price of the other thing will get a good boosting..
10: Community Events
Many organizations in your community are prepared to do charitable work for the community. These are non-profit organizations or non-profit organizations (NGOs). Allow them to use your space for their network and allow them a bonus. They will do all the promotional work for your food. Even if you don’t want to host the event, you may consider sharing a part of the profit with them. Alternatively, you may donate the total amount of the profit, or a portion can be donated to the organization.
