Catering & Delivery: a different business, a different promotion strategy

3. Print media

Local papers have the advantage of being targeted to the areas you want to reach, but they don’t always speak to the clients you want. Even when advertising rates in mass print media are relatively low, better value may be found in targeted business publications.

You can also bypass print ad spending altogether by getting your name out there in a service review section or by participating in a newsworthy event. These take some creative thinking. Sometimes, engaging a PR professional can come at a fraction of the cost of ad spending; compared to advertisements, news and lifestyle stories usually carry a lot more weight among readers.

4. Promotions to existing customers

Keeping an existing customer can be much easier than gaining a new one. Promotions to existing customers helps keep regular revenue alive, and can help uncover unmet demand. 

Imagine having a group of customers that order your breakfast or lunch service five days a week. Einstein’s has that.  By providing on time delivery of a good, consistent product. Vance Carlton, Sales Director for the national Catering & Delivery program for Einstein Noah’s Restaurant Group, will tell you that there is quite simply no customer retention without great execution of delivery. Meetings require food delivered right and on time. Period. Vance’s inspiring account of expanding Catering sales, even during a recession – recorded at MonkeyMedia in early November 2008 can be heard here.

Retention starts with giving a good product and service experience. Arguably, the best leave behind is the active memory of a good experience with your service offering. There is a physical leave behind to consider too. Restaurants go to great pains to establish the right décor, service style, menu and signage, forming a cohesive brand imprint.  In catering, the only persistent brand physical brand imprint, besides the food and beverages delivered, is the box that the food came in – which is often left on the boardroom table.  The box carries your message, as well as handy contact information. Make the box count. Related MMnet article: How a Catering Box Changed Everything.

It’s good business to let your customers know that they matter to you. Study your customers’ order frequency, trends, favorites, and their seasonal ordering. Design promotions based on what they customers buy, and what you think they might buy, and introduce loyalty programs and seasonal discounts to strengthen your reach.

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(0) Comments • Permalink • 11 21 2008

• Erle Dardick, MonkeyMedia.net
• Photo by: Rick Audet

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