There’s a lot to learn by looking at the current promotions that other restaurants are running. We’ve chosen some of the restaurant promotions we’ve seen and are dissecting them in “restaurant promotions deconstructed” to see what each of us can learn for creating our own promotions.
Subway’s Pickleball Sub
Subway has introduced a new sandwich that features their new ingredients – Honey Mustard and Crunchy Dill Pickles. Add those to Black Forest Ham, American cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and red onion, and you’ve got what they’ve named the Pickleball Sub.
What’s interesting about this promotion is not really the sandwich, but the name they’ve chosen for it. It has pickles on it but really as nothing to do with the sport of Pickleball.
Pickleball is growing in popularity which makes this a trending topic to tie into. But you can do the same with anything that is popular in your city. Just confirm that it’s not an event or item that a company holds the copyright for.
You can also promote yourself as “unofficial,” such as the “Unofficial Rib Joint of Summer!”
Mix and Match Promotions
Mix and match promotion have been popular recently. Burger King and Arbys are just two of the major chains who have rolled out a fixed price for a choice of two items from a limited menu.
This is an easy promotion to implement. You can do it with your current items and it doesn’t even need to be a large discount. It can increase check average and frequency.
Domino’s Tips Customers to Pick-Up
Creative marketing happens when the promotion becomes and answer to the challenges a restaurant is facing. Dominoes has achieved this with their “Carryout Tips” promotion.
When a customers acts as their own delivery driver and picks up their order in-store, Dominos gives them a ‘$3 Tip’ as a credit to their account in the Domino’s app.
As the company experiences a shortage of delivery driver, this helps reduce the need for quite as many delivery trips. It also is less expensive than the high fees that 3rd party delivery companies charge restaurants.
And at the end of the day, it’s just a fancy Bounceback. The $3 Tip is a discount on your next purchase at Domino’s!
Applebee’s Wings Add-On Promotion
Applebee’s current promotion supported with a major media buy, is “5 Wings for $1 with any Handcrafted Burger.”
This is a great example of using an addition as a promotion, instead of promoting a discount which cuts into your income. The fine print explains this add-on offer is only good on full-priced burgers, so there’s no double-dipping allowed with multiple discounts.
And while this has a strong perceived value, it still brings in $1 for each upsell which at the very least should cover their food cost, so there’s really no hit to the bottom line.
The other benefit is that customers will try their wings, which if they usually order a burger they have probably never sampled this item. It’s a paid form of sampling!
Wanda’s Scone-of-the-Month Promotion
Wanda’s Cafe and Bakery on the North Oregon coast offers comfort food for breakfast and lunch. Every month they switch the flavor of the ‘Scone of the Month’ which provides ongoing content for their promotional efforts on social media.
The Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip scone is the best in my estimation, however it is only available during one month of the year. This fact alone helps build guest frequency, as those who love the flavor of the month will stop in an extra time or two just because of that scone.
The monthly featured item is a great strategy to use in your restaurant. It will provide something new to promote each month, and can be done without a complete menu change.
