Marketing

Is your marketing strategy in your employee's pocket?

In case you're wondering why I believe Social Business to be absolutely crucial to your marketing strategy, just think about this: In the very near future (think months), Social Business will just be referred to as Business, simply because everyone will be doing it as a normal course of their communication strategy.

 Apple's iPhone is a great example to illustrate what I mean.
Steve Jobs was laughed at for predicting the end of physical buttons back in 2007.

When it first came out, the handset was referred to by the industry as a 'Smartphone'. As more competitors rushed to catch up, the smartphone became more universal. Along with Samsung Galaxy's, Nokias and Androids, today they are just referred to as 'phones'. (Funnily enough the old style mobiles are now called 'Feature Phones'. How ironic.)

 Don't believe me?...


Today, most phones sold in the UK look like this:

So what does all this mean for your business? Well just remember that pretty much every chef, every waiter and every manager in your business has one of these in their pocket. 

 As do most of your customers. 

 Now THAT is a massive opportunity that Social Networking can give your business. You can't run from it, so you'd better embrace it before everyone else does.

 What are you waiting for?

Social Media and Social Business: Distant cousins

Over the past few months I have been very lucky to meet some key thought leaders in digital marketing and chat with them over pizza about latest happenings in the world of Social Media and Social Business. There is certainly some astounding stuff happening at the bleeding edge of innovation, but for one reason or another, I haven't written about it up to now. Hopefully this will go some way to putting that right before I stop being invited for that inspirational banter. Or pizza. Which wouldn't be very social at all.

The first question I guess is What is social media? 

We need a starting point, so let's begin with a loose definition of what social media communication looks like for most people, although this is changing faster than I can type.

Many colleagues and friends I talk to are very confused with all the brands they hear about. 'There is so much Facebook this and Twitter that', they tell me as they shrug their shoulders and in the end they give up before they've even tried to understand. 'Tis better not to engage, than to look foolish, seems to be the logic.

To be fair, I can't blame them, so perhaps this image might help to illustrate the various channels that most people are communicating through currently. And apologies for the uncouth spelling. Ugh. No really, 'ugh' is missing from every doughnut...


Now that's not an exhaustive list. My daughter for example, uses Snapchat and Kik as her social networks of choice. (No, I don't either.) Nor does it include Blogger, Wordpress or Tumblr (recently bought for $1.1B by Yahoo) which are kinda like personalised websites people like me use to write blogs (derived from the word 'weblogs'). This post you are reading is hosted on the Google-owned blogging platform Blogger.

What then, do we mean by Social Business?

This is a little more difficult to explain, but essentially it is similar to what a person would do in the above scenarios, but in the context of a business or brand talking to it's customers, stakeholders (think suppliers or employees for example) and each other. 

Please remember this is not a full answer to the question posed, just a starting point to get the conversation moving. First however, let's take a look at another graphic that I picked up from Sarah Duncan's blog promoting her fab little consultancy called Sleeping Lion. (Lions. I know, right?) It certainly correlates nicely with the previous image and helps to give some direction on how you might use social media in your business. 

I'm sure the Swindon factoid is tongue in cheek, but you get the idea...

In the next few posts I am going to try and explain more fully what I mean by 'Social Business', why this is such a perplexing challenge and most importantly, why this is so crucial to your business today.

[Video] Sky F1: Monaco GP by George the Poet

When it comes to marketing and creating that emotional connection with it's audience, nothing even comes close to Formula 1 these days. In case you missed it, take a look at this piece performed by George the Poet that SKY F1 put together for the Monaco Grand Prix which was shown live earlier today. A master stroke in bonding sport, glamour and history into one single point of sheer exhilaration.

 Enjoy.

Going viral is just the icing on the cake

I've mentioned Coffee within Social Media, so now it's time for cake because this picture has just gone absolutely ballistic on the Twittesphere. 

 Chris Holmes resigned from his job with the Border Force so that he could concentrate on his cake making business. The thing is, he wrote the letter ON A CAKE. 

 Naturally, he posted a picture of it on his personal Facebook account - who wouldn't? Next thing he knows, it's become an internet sensation. I retweeted his brother-in-law's reaction earlier this morning, but since then it has been picked up by the national press and news sites around the world.


For me, it's a fantastic piece of creativity, but I think the real reason it went viral is because it's such an inspiring story. The idea makes you daydream about jacking in that nine-to-five to chase your dreams. And even if you don't, you still want to root for him because he did in a spectacularly clever and engaging way. 

One thing is for sure, I can't think of a better way to get your cake business off to such a flying start. We wish you every success Mr. Cake. (Oops, looks like that link is down - possibly due to the intense interest it's generated including over 1 million views on Reddit as I post.)

 Here's Chris's latest reaction to that err, problem...

This calls for cake, I say!

Travelodge CEO recently interviewed: My 3 observations.

There's a great video interview in BigHospitality with Chief Executive Grant Hearn about how Travelodge plans to put some turbulent times behind them following a recent debt restructure. You can read the article and view the video in full by clicking here.
Travelodge CEO Grant Hearn has king-size plans for the chain

I appreciate it's a business focused interview aimed at the hospitality sector, but here are my three main observations on that particular interview:

  • Mr. Hearn mentions Premier Inn within the first minute 22 seconds of beginning his interview and goes on to discuss the focus that exists on that rivalry. 
There is a focus on that rivalry, but I suspect none more so than in his own Boardroom. And that's fine behind closed doors, but publicly you have to wonder why is the Travelodge CEO giving so much oxygen to his rival's brand? As a potential customer, I am reading an article about Travelodge, given by the Travelodge CEO and guess what? Premier Inn gets a mention even in the headline. That's gotta hurt.

  • He goes on to state that Food and Drink sales are not central to the business plan as they represent "only about £30m" in revenues out of £400m in total. In a nutshell he says; "What's important about food and drink to me is actually... selling rooms." 
Again, as a potential customer, it leaves me wondering how good the food offer actually is if it doesn't appear a priority for the top man in the job? Or to look at it another way, is that kind of statement going to motivate all those bartenders, service staff and chefs on payroll now required to raise their game if Travelodge are to compete with 'those other guys'?

  • There was mention of a new bedroom design. I had to play it a couple of times to catch it, but there it was in the last line of the article and referred to just once by Grant in the video interview itself. 
This may simply have been down to editing, but what a missed opportunity for the CEO (the main brand ambassador of the company) to talk more about these exciting new changes within Travelodge and how they will benefit future customers. He could have then clearly articulated the company's renewed focus on great food, drinks and service from the fantastic people working within the group. 

Of course, Mr. Hearn did say all those things. But, to paraphrase the old Morecambe & Wise gag, not necessarily in the right order. I guess he forgot to take off his CEO Strategy hat and put on his Brand PR hat for a few minutes. 

 Within the boardroom, it is perfectly acceptable to talk about product, offer, ROI, strategy and even Premier Inn. In public however, surely the soundbites should be about customer innovation, service excellence, the brand experience and team spirit. Travelodge staff deserve to hear it from leadership, their competitors should start to fear it and most importantly their customers really need to believe it.
Getting out of the Boardroom to focus on bedrooms.

 As it happens The Telegraph made a much better job of selling the virtues of that new room design with those impressive king-sized beds. I urge you to read it here to get the full picture of Travelodge's business roadmap ahead. It does sound exciting.

 I wish Grant Hearn and all the team at Travelodge every success in rolling out this new phase. The financial restructure was a risky piece of business that seems to have been pulled off successfully. This should give the group a sure footing during these continued turbulent months and years ahead.

Kred Summit: Four new tools to empower your Social Media reach

As promised, I wanted to revisit the Kred London Influencer Summit and just give you a brief overview of the new products that Andrew Grill announced that are due for roll out in the next few months.

 For me, it was the sheer volume of data that Kred has at it's disposal that blew me away. For example they have access straight through to the Twitter 'firehose' which means live access to over 10,000 posts a second and so far have collected over 150 Billion tweets. Across Twitter and Facebook Kred has an audience reach of 500 million people and have picked up over half a trillion conversations to date. So what can you do with that 'Big Data' in a marketing environment?

 Well, first up was Kred for Brands, a tool aimed at Brand Managers. Thankfully they've produced a slick little video on the topic, but basically this sums up the application best:
It helps identify and engage key influencers on Twitter and Facebook to create successful word of mouth campaigns: it filters lists of influencers based on interest, network, connections, for brands to engage with the most effective brand advocates and community leaders, learn about them and activate their communities and increase social media ROI (Return on Investment). 


Next on the roll call was KredNet which was unveiled as a tool for creating what could be described as a 'pop-up' network for a specific event, timescale or company project. Again, because of Kred's access to the social platforms, it is a way of engaging with your key influencers or, if you're a company, you might want to find out who are the people in your organisation who are most engaged with the outside world on Social media channels.

 Then we came to what I felt was the most astounding product; the Social Simulator. Since Kred has access to all of the tweets on record, they can load up a particular conversation that happened around an event, almost like putting photos into a slide show. You then replay them in a classroom environment to learn form that experience. I can really see this coming into it's own as a training tool to demonstrate in a hand-on way how to use social media within a business setting. The example Andrew gave was a shop running out of milk. The simulator loads up all the tweets that happened around that event and you start to play them out. At any time, you can pause the simulator and ask participants what they would tweet next. And since it is a closed environment, they can tweet without it going public to see what the consequences might be. A terrifically useful training tool for any kind of organisation that wants to empower its workforce in engaging on social media and social business channels.

 Kred for CRM. The first thing you might want to know is what is CRM? Put simply, it's Customer Relationship Management. Beyond that it's the ability to leverage your customer relationships - and the interactions they have with others - to increase your brand's influence and ultimately lead to higher sales and visibility. This is taking the marketer's role to the next level in today's environment and is worth following up, if only to understand what is now possible as a result of all this big data that exists.

Domain Names. The final item on the agenda was a few new 'top level' domain names being unveiled which will be rolled out later in the year. Kred bid for and won the rights to distribute .kred, .best and .ceo. Personally, I like the .best err the best. If you get in quick I can imagine service roles being snapped up straightaway. For example if you're a piano tuner, wouldn't it be cool to own the website www.pianotuner.best. Or in my case I think www.hospitalityspeaker.best would work... come to think of it, save that one for me Andrew. Thanks.

 If you're interested in this kind of social media stuff , then here's the full video of Andrew's presentation. It is worth a watch just to see how deeply integrated this has become. But one thing's for sure, it's not going away.

Apple's Latest Acquisition Puts Them Inside the Building

Mitch Joel writing for the Harvard Business Review highlights a little-known story that Apple just bought a small start-up last week for $20M called wifiSLAM. Basically they provide GPS for indoors and it is thought this will help Apple to augment the shopping experience in or near Apple Stores (initially) as you walk around the Mall.

 The interesting thing here is that we as consumers, are willing to share our most private data with stores and brands that we wouldn't want shared with security firms or government agencies.
"Internet Retailer reported: "80% of smartphone owners want more mobile-optimized product information while they're shopping in stores, finds 'The Shopping Experience in a Smartphone World,' a study conducted by ad agency Moosylvania."
And what that might look like:
"This aisle by aisle, real-time ability to flip offers, while getting a better understanding of how foot traffic flows, where consumers stop and engage is going to affect everything from pricing to shelf space to how end-cap placements are sold."
Apple might suck at Social Media, but they're at the leading edge of Social Business.

Social climbing at the Influencer Summit

Exchanging ideas with CEO of Kred, Andrew Grill, Karen Fewell, Tania Duarte & Mark Batchelor
Another trip to London and another epic evening in great company at one of London’s iconic hotels. This time it was The Mayfair Hotel for a very exclusive invitation-only event in the company of some of the most influential movers and shakers in the world of Social Media and Social Business (Yes, there is a difference.) You’d also be right in wondering what the heck I was doing there...? Looking around the room, I had to wonder myself now and then, but that’s part of the fun; It’s a brave new world and I want to be at the frontier. 

To understand what it's all about, I’d better just explain to those unfamiliar with this stuff, that on that thing we call the internet there are a couple of tools (think of them as websites that you sign into) for measuring how much ‘influence’ one has in their social groups online. The two major players in this arena are Klout and Kred. (I like that they begin with ‘K’ - it is a very influential letter you know.). Klout was first, but Kred is better due to it's transparency. Since it was the 'Kred London Influencer Summit' that I was attending, I guess you can figure out my allegiance at this stage. But how did I get invited in the first place?

Attending a party a few weeks ago, I was chatting with Jeremy Waite (Social Strategist for Adobe - Get Well Soon Jeremy!), when we were interrupted briefly by the very dynamic entrepreneur Andrew Grill who went on to explain why he had a free iPad under his arm courtesy of EE. (It’s a good story by the way and worth a read here.) On my way home I saw that he had connected with me on Twitter, which was very generous and that was when I realised he was the CEO of Kred. Wow. Since then, we’ve had a few exchanges on the philosophy of ‘Social Business’ and probably the reason why I found myself on this prestigious guest list tonight.

To put Andrew Grill and Kred into some sort of perspective, I learned tonight that they have
200 million subscribers with a potential audience reach of 500 million people on Twitter and Facebook. That’s a lot of influence right there.

Now before you get all hung up on the flaws and challenges of influence being benchmarked as a number, you have to remember that it is only relevant within your zone or sphere of influence. Justin Bieber will have massive influence in your life if you happen to be a hyperactive screaming ‘tweener, but he will have no influence whatsoever in the world of offshore oil exploration as an example. At least online that is. Furthermore, he also has a very low score in terms of ‘reaching out’, since he hardly replies to these hordes of marauding teenagers. So the bottom line is that your ‘influence’ can be very large when looked at through the niche audience that you might appeal to.

From a personal perspective, my twitter feed has about 375 400 followers made up of mostly Hospitality professionals, social media guys and some public speakers. So within the realms of talking and tweeting about hospitality and marketing, I could be described as a giant. Beyond that however, I am merely a footnote at the bottom of the page in comparison to the Stephen Fry’s and Jamie Oliver’s of this word who command huge influence over all sorts of people since they're exceptionally famous AND are generous enough to reply and engage with their respective audiences.

That said, I have found the ‘Social Media Set’ quite an interesting bunch due to the crossover nature of their medium. They operate in a place where IT, Marketing, Mathematics, Sales, Research, PR, Sociology, Psychology, Entrepreneurship and Communications all get together to drink from the same watering hole. But the one thing that brings us together is our love for humanity and that social interaction, even if it is with someone you haven't met personally.

I’ll write a little about the products and vision Andrew revealed tonight in another post, but I am honoured to have been invited to have a sneak peek at his new kind of future and wish all the team at Kred every success in the coming months with this hugely ambitious rollout.

You guys rock.

Playing the loyalty card with every acquisition.


There was a time when big was beautiful. When economies of scale for the mammoth supermarkets pushed more product out to more depots and into ever expanding trolleys in what became known as the 'space race' to become your one-stop-shop for everything. Soon this was mirrored by homogeneous coffee brands, casual dining chains and even monotone bed factories. While it does mean fewer rollout costs, staff and admin headaches, it also means fewer deviations from the plan. And eventually that has lead us all down a dark cul-de-sac of rancorous disapproval.

During all this empire building, the struggling independent operators lamented the lack of support from government, media and us the general public as we upped sticks and flocked to our new cathedrals of cheap. A few stayed, remaining loyal despite the treehugger label, but not enough to arrest the demise of our greengrocer, butcher and baker once so prominent on the high street. The holy trinity of shopping days gone by.

 Recently however the trade winds have changed tack across the retail landscape. As high streets dwindled to resmble back streets, we found ourselves forced to forage further afield. It was a novelty at first, but everyone piled on and now it's just a bunfight at the till. And with petrol prices skyrocketing, the trip out of town for the weekly shop has lost it's appeal as well as any potential savings on that 2-for-1 voucher.


One of many documentaries on how suppliers are treated by supermarkets.
As consumers we read stories of how some of our favourite brands weren't paying their taxes fairly. Or were forcing farmers to dump veg that was the wrong shape. (One onion grower who frequented our old pub in Bedfordshire said he ploughed 3 tonnes back into the ground.) Or paying dairy farmers less than cost price for their milk. Every month there seemed to be another story of supermarket dominance until finally we got to Horsemeat, the daddy of all the scandals. Supermarkets had put so much effort into winning the race to the bottom, they finally scratched the barrel floor. Had we at last had a glimpse of the fat little man behind the curtain who convinced us he was Great and Powerful?


Tom & Barbara brought us self-sufficiency
Now add in a never-ending spate of unpredictable weather, changing work patterns and a grazing culture of dining out to see why some of those profit bubbles are bursting. Tired of jostling in the aisle, we have finally embraced the one-click browser experience and forced retailers to come to us instead of trundling out with our list and a bag for life. Younger shoppers are buying less albeit more frequently, baby boomers are rediscovering the Good Life and their joy of allotments (Fifty Sheds of Grey?), while pensioners conjure up that post-war spirit which has led to such popular TV shows as Super Scrimpers and Rip Off Britain. Heck, even my own work colleague Ian made the national press by shunning supermarkets for a year. Good on him, we cheer.
35 years later, it's back into fashion.
So where is all this heading? Well you could be forgiven for thinking the independent operators are finally on the up and up. The smart ones are, to be sure. However multinationals didn't get to be multinationals without adapting to market forces and consequently are very quick to learn, and emulate. This I believe is where the battle is morphing into something more deviant. The Big Four may have steamrolled their way across the shopping landscape, but they have made shedloads of cash along the way and now it's time to use that cash pile to beat the independent's at their own game.

 Ever so stealthily, supermarkets (as well as fast food brands and PubCos) are moving into new markets in ways they haven't done before. Who could have imagined Tesco becoming a silent partner in an artisan coffee chain such as Harris + Hoole? Or as I mentioned in my previous posts here and here, buying out a standalone restaurant chain like Giraffe to install into larger stores? Or Sainsbury's going into the high street takeaway business? Or that king of consistency, McDonald's varying their decor and hamburger prices according to region?

 These clandestine measures are more of a threat to independent operators than many realise because they are taking them on at their own game. The smaller operators could always differentiate themselves due mostly to some very niche targeted marketing, bags of energy, a fanatical focus on customer, staff and supplier relationships and of course by offering the one thing the big nationals couldn't replicate up to now, that personal touch.

 But with the big conglomerates hiding behind smaller outfits which are tightly integrated into their local community, they will undoubtedly seduce people into believing the new brand cares about us more than the old brand did. I saw this very clearly demonstrated by the 1600-outlet Mitchells and Butlers group when they relaunched the Kings Arms pub in Cardington (our nearest competitor some years ago) in a re-branding exercise that termed the General Manager as your new "village pub landlady". A hugely successful move at the time and a sign of things to come.

 Artisan traders can compete for sure, even if they don't have the safety net of astronomical hoards of cash to underpin their business model. But how are they going to tackle this newly evolving threat? I think this quote from Peter F. Drucker sums up that challenge very neatly:
“Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth."
As long as our independent operators continue to relentlessly innovate in meeting their customers' needs and exceeding their expectations, the multinationals will find it takes more than a cheque book and pen to re-write that Customer Service Promise which up to now hasn't really been worth the paper it's written on.

Take three tablets...

Here's an iPad ad that screams "Wild!"... "Bright!"... "Together!"




Meanwhile on his commute home "...every evening, at exactly 6:07 District Manager Thomas M. Wilkes" does this on his Dell XPS...


 Or in meetings, this young hipster executive daydreams of escaping a world full of spreadsheets on his Microsoft Surface Pro...


Which lifestyle do you aspire to?

 Bonus: And can you guess which tablet has the biggest market share in unit sales?

More points on that Tesco purchase...

While tidying up my last post on that Tesco acquisition of Giraffe, I was surprised to note the backlash being meted out to the restaurant chain's founders, reducing Juliette Joffe to tears of despair as she defended the move in emails from 'appalled Giraffe loyalists' according to this article in the FT.

 And, oh boy is there gnashing of teeth in the comments section at the end of articles such as this. So much so, I'm surprised they're not calling on our newly-annointed Dear Leader Pontiff to perform an exorcism on the Tesco Board of Directors to reveal which one of them is in fact the Devil incarnate. "Calm down Dear!" as ol' Winner used to say. (I do miss him, oddly enough.)

 I agree there is a lot of disdain for Tesco, and that is an issue for them to work through if they are to rebuild the nation's trust in their brand, but to take out such anger on hard-working risk-taking entrepreneurs like the Joffes - who simple made a VERY smart business decision - is just plain silly.

From what I can see, they dared to dream and took a restaurant idea from a holiday napkin through to realising a £25m return on investment within just 15 years. That sounds like the kind of opportunity most people would snap your hand off for. Why shouldn't they sell to the highest bidder? And more importantly, what business is it of ours to berate them for it? After all, they have said they're staying on to oversee the expansion. At least wait and see.

In response to my previous piece, the point was put to me this morning on Twitter that this might be a great deal for Tesco, but it's not so great for the consumer. I agree with the sentiment and certainly in this case, time will tell. For this deal to work for you and me, the Tesco Board should leave the Giraffe operation in the capable hands of the restaurant operators who started it in the first place.
Selling value while ignoring values
If anything the Board needs to keep a laser-like focus on the wider issue of Tesco's attrocious brand perception with the general public. I'm sorry, but A5 leaflets saying you're changing while STILL pulling products is not good enough. The company needs to get back to basics in delivering terrific customer service while concentrating on getting the supply chain, human resource and core business values right back to the top of the agenda. If you are going to turn the brand around, then do your marketing team a favour and work from the premise that you can't polish a turd.


 To Juliette and Russel Joffe, I say Congratulations to you both. Celebrate the success, persevere with the plan and ignore the spitefulness. After all.. haters gonna hate.

Menu Engineering: My Top 10 Ingredients for a great Dessert Menu.

This post is part of a series to help you build a winning menu that will engage with your customers, assist your team and most importantly, drive your bottom line.

We’ve looked at why selling desserts in your business is so fundamental and we’ve drilled down into the philosophy that goes into creating a great dessert menu. In this article, I want to share some of the Patissier’s craft and menu know-how: the basic ingredients if you will...

Oven-fresh bakes served warm
With so many great tarts, pies and cake recipes to choose from, this should be a no-brainer. Bear in mind that guests like to choose something they wouldn’t normally attempt at home. And remember the golden rule: SERVE IT WARM! This gives the impression that it is straight from the oven, even if your dessert is bought in (and there are some good ones on the market). 

Something tangy, fruity, light and moussy
From Key Lime Pie to Passion Fruit Bavarois, a tangy light mousse-like dessert will always be a popular choice after a main course. Personally I love to savour the moment by enjoying this with a teaspoon. 

Mmmm… Chocolate
No self-respecting dessert card should go without a dream choice for Chocoholics. Keep it small, rich and luxurious. And remember a really good quality bitter chocolate pairs beautifully with Red wine… perhaps to finish after that steak?

A Nursery Pud
Old fashioned favourites will never go out of fashion. Serve them hot and with lashings of custard or some ice cream.

The Best Quality Ice Cream you can afford
Always include a selection of good quality ice cream. If you have the luxury of making your own, then offer an interesting choice. Vanilla will always sell, but asparagus ice cream will engage the customer to browse more closely. A great up-sell technique is to pair your flavours with a suitable liqueur to pour over e.g. Vanilla Ice Cream with a shot of Baileys… 
Low Calorie, High Impact

Offer Fresh Fruits and/or Sorbet
Always have a low fat or healthy option so that nobody feels left out when the table is ordering. (My favourite lines from Fawlty Towers when two diners requested if they could cancel their Fresh Fruit Salad: “Ah, I’m sorry, the Chef has already opened the tin.” That’s NOT what I’m talking about here!) 

 Classics add class 
Connoisseurs of a good pud will appreciate any nod to the classics. From an authentic Zugerkirsch Torte made with fiery Kirsch from Zug itself to a flamboyant Crepe Suzette flambé cooked at the table (isn’t it time this came back into fashion?). Or perhaps an understated, but perfectly executed Tart au Citron. 

A Creme Brulée to die for..
Personally, I always judge a restaurant on it’s Creme Brûlée. Why? Because with so few ingredients and limited presentation (this is a myth), there is so much that can go wrong. Right? But get it perfect and it’s a real treat. And don’t be afraid to throw in some flavours. Caramelised Roasted Hazelnuts or Berries soaked in rum can really lift a brulee out of the doldrums.

All cheeses great and small
Whether you offer a full cheese trolley presented at the table or a simple plated selection, no dessert menu is complete without it. 

 - Here’s a strategy if you have a small operation and are worried about wastage. Choose 3 to 5 good quality cheeses across the range and offer them as a small slice paired with a drink that compliments their flavour. So a vintage stilton paired with a wee glass of Port, or an aged Cheddar with a small bottle of Ale. When I did this in my business years ago, I was amazed at the number of people who chose the cheese option because they fancied that particular drink to round off their meal. Give it a trial.. you might be surprised too. 

Are you making the most of your cheese selection?

Use the full Flavour Palette
- A few for reference: In Winter think caramel, coffee, hazelnut, peanut, pistachio, cinnamon, clove, baileys, whiskey or almond as flavour bases.
In Summer think orange, lemon, lime, vanilla, cardamom, lavender, raspberry, strawberry, passion fruit, mango, banana, Malibu, cointreau and blackcurrant as flavour bases.

And finally, add a touch of humour
Laughter is the best medicine so the saying goes. For that reason, it’s always good to throw in a quote or a funny reference. Here’s my favourite, which I have always put at the top of my dessert menus to get the ball rolling:
“Stressed spelled backwards is Desserts. Coincidence? I think not.” - Anon

Hopefully this advice will give you some inspiration to go back and revisit your dessert menu to see where you can maximise your sales.

And don't forget to keep checking back as I have a few more menu engineering tips to share with you soon, including a Price Point Strategy and, in answer to a great question from Jenny on LinkedIn, the impact your Font choice can have on your guest's perception.

Menu Engineering: 14 Principles for Selling Great Desserts


This post is part of a series to help you build a winning menu that will engage with your customers, assist your team and most importantly, drive your bottom line.

Before you start building your dessert menu, start with this in mind: What if you had to offer desserts to a family of six (perhaps your own family..)?

Now, go round the table and try and guess their choices… What would Granny have? (Something soft, perhaps some ice cream.) Or that teenage daughter watching her waistline? (How many calories are in sorbet Mum?) What about Dad? (Creme Brûlée… I like what I know.) Or Mum? (Ooh chocolate, ‘cos I deserve a treat!) Or Granddad who’s kinda stuck in his ways? (I like me custard, does it come with custard?) 

As you can see, a picture of what might be on you dessert menu starts to take shape...

With this in mind, here are my topmost guiding principles in creating a powerful Dessert Menu that will generate sales:

Keep it to eight items
The more choice you have the more wastage you have.
Rotate your dessert list on a fortnightly or monthly basis
Achieving consistency takes a little time, so changing your menu too often can have a negative impact on quality.

 Daily Specials
If you have a lot of regular diners, then offer one or two daily specials. These then tie in with the seasons and annual celebration days such as Shrove Tuesday.

 Think contrast
...creamy vs crunchy, gooey vs brittle, warm vs frozen, perfumed vs tangy

 Portion Control
- To ensure you control your food cost, items served in ramekins, glasses or coupes should be encouraged, especially if you are on a tight budget. And since everyone pays the same, they should get the same.
- For pies, tarts and gateaux, use one of these. They’re available in different denominations.
- If you’re following the latest trend of rectangular shaped bakes (what Patissier's sometimes call a tranche) then use a ruler (or scale) to ensure portion control.

 - Bottom line? The trick is to leave your guests full, but wanting more...

 Garnish, not garish
Creme Brûlée: Clever use of Caramel to add lift.
Get rid of that stupid out-of-season strawberry or mint garnish on everything. It costs you on every single plate you send out and doesn’t have the impact you think it does. Clever use of Chocolate, Caramel or even Tuille Biscuit can be far more dramatic.

Take a blank canvas
Invest in some great plates. I mean, really great plates. You can add a premium for this and it will have the impact you were looking for with that stoopid strawberry thingy.

Artistic flair
Dusting your plate with cocoa powder or icing sugar is a quick and dirty way to making a dessert look artistic. You can even cut out a stencil of your logo and use that. (Make sure the waitstaff know to serve any dusted part of the plate AWAY from the guest to avoid getting it on their clothes.)

Keep your reader informed
Don’t forget to mention if a dessert is Gluten Free, Low Calorie, Fat Free; Contains Nuts or any other dietary information that your guests should know about.

All good things
And if it takes time to prepare (such as a souffle), let them know in advance on the menu as well.

Create the experience
Never miss an opportunity to celebrate a guest’s birthday with a candle in their dessert. (More on this to follow in a separate post. Yeah, it's THAT important.)

Sell the Experience
If any of your desserts have a story, or an inspiration, or a unique selling point, then tell it. People are intrigued by this and will give it a go to see for themselves.

 Don't ignore Cheese
In my experience, the type of person who orders cheese tends to be a good spender, especially when it comes to wine. If you offer a great cheese selection, you will encourage them to come back often more. At whatever level you decide to pitch it, make sure your cheese is fresh and preferably at room temperature, biscuits crunchy and fruit/celery washed.

 A sale is a sale, even if it's half a sale
And if your guests are wavering, make sure service staff know to remind them that all of your desserts come with two teaspoons should they like to try one to share. It may even lead to coffee or digestif sales…

 Apply these guiding principles to your dessert menu philosophy and you will have a range of products and services that your Service Staff can believe in and SELL. 

 In my next post, I will be looking at the dishes that all good dessert menus should have. 


Menu Engineering: The Profit's in the Pudding

Worth a re-read. 
Especially this:
If you want to enjoy your 'just desserts' through increased dessert revenue, here are three simple rules: 
• Mobilise your team: if they believe they have a fabulous product, they will sell it. 
• Sell the experience: an engaging menu that tells a story will pique the imagination. (Perhaps you recently served a celebrity... Share that story and people will want to try the dish they had.)  
• Keep it simple: reasonably priced, homemade, classic puds served elegantly will always win through. 
(Originally posted on 16Jan11)

Menu Engineering: Winning Words Your Menu Needs Today.

This post is part of a series to help you build a winning menu that will engage with your customers, assist your team and most importantly, drive your bottom line.

Dining out is a social experience. Think about those words for a moment: Social. Experience. 

Mrs K. enjoying a chat over lunch at The Cube. (R)
Social in my mind means conversation, to regale a story or to enjoy your dining companion’s perspective. And what better way to trigger those stories, that human interaction, than with the document your diners collectively hold in their hands: your menu. As your guests browse the Chef’s list of recommended dishes, any emotive words or descriptive phrases will help trigger conversation. THAT is where the experience comes in. Your guests don’t just eat - they have a dining experience. And customers WILL pay a premium for the pleasure.

The funny thing is, they may not even remember what they ordered when they later tell friends about the meal they enjoyed at your great restaurant, (put that down to your awesome wine sales technique), but they will remember what a great conversation they had as they reminisce. Before you’ve even lifted a pen or a pan, your menu has captured the imagination and generated some great word-of-mouth referrals. Now you’re really cooking.

So here are a few pointers that I tend to use when describing my dishes:

Use Femininity 
If your menu appeals to ladies, then the fellas will follow. How many restaurants have mid-week tables of ladies enjoying a girl’s night out? Get them returning on the weekend with hubby or that dishy new beau with words like fluffy, softly, lightly-scented, gently folded, delicate. You get the idea...

Steaks are Masculine
So use words like Seared or Pan-fried or Char-grilled - all manly things to do to a steak or a piece of chicken.
What other dishes could be framed as ‘masculine’?
Who Cooked It?
One of the most powerful ways of engaging your customers and your team is by mentioning the people involved. If Chef Robert makes the bread, then say so. Anna's Red Cabbage Coleslaw or Jan's Sandwiches (as we had in our pub once upon a time) really personalises the experience and wins loyalty. In fact Jan used to have to come out to personally inform our guests what her sandwich of the day was. Why? Because they loved it and came back time and again for more.

Drop that letter ‘a’
This drives me absolutely nuts. Welcome to Mediocrityville.
“Steak served with a Mushroom Sauce”. Why is that ‘a’ in there? Get rid of it.
Char-grilled Steak with Mushroom Sauce

Avoid the word ‘with’. 
Your page is valuable real estate. Don’t clutter it up with unnecessary with's, and's and a’s. Use a comma instead.
Fish Cakes with a Mustard Sauce becomes 
Fish Cakes, Mustard Sauce or 
Dill-Scented Salmon Cakes, Wholegrain Mustard Sauce or 
Salmon Cakes on Lightly Foamed Creamy Mustard Sauce
(Which dish would you choose?)

Invoke that sense of Smell 
Smells tap into your reader’s memory bank and that can be very compelling when making a choice on what to eat.
Scented with, infused, minted, pungent, caramelised

Describe Textures in your dish titles. Again this is great for feminising a dish.
A sauce can be creamy, shiny, silky, velvety...

Think Nigella...
Think Nigella: Use terms that invoke luxury
Smothered, rich, oozing, Luxurious, tipsy, soft-centred, gooey...

Think Heston: Invoke memories (Think of school days and apple pie here...)
Old-fashioned, retro, childhood, vintage, classical…

Think Delia: Mention the cooking method, but in a feminine way.
Gently Baked, lightly poached, herb-roasted, slow-braised...

Think Jamie: Describe how it’s dressed on the plate:
drizzled, a squeeze of, shavings, a cordon, sprinkled, layered, piled, bosh!

Compare and contrast
It’s a writing trick, but it’s also a way of constructing a dish, so an example could be:
Iced Parfait of Caramelised Hazelnuts, Warm Chocolate Sauce (Hot/Cold) or
Velvety Chocolate Mousse, Peanut Butter Brittle (Soft/Hard)

Talk up your Provenance
If you’re not mentioning how you source your food, then start today. 

Be aware however, of how you go about that. There is a current trend to mention the farmer, butcher, grower, cheesemaker, trawlerman or every man and his dog to get across the point that you are sourcing ethically and locally. If you think it makes sense to your customers, continue doing it. 

Personally, I find it clutters up the menu (Pan-Seared Red Tractor Sirloin, Creamy Sauce of John Smith foraged Wild Mushrooms just doesn’t work.) What does work is perhaps a small text box at the bottom or at the back of a menu that mentions all of those acknowledgements and logos in one hit. 

Oh, and train your staff to be ready for the question from inquisitive or enthusiastic guests. Those you nourish will flourish.


I hope this has given you some inspiration to revisit your menu wording and create that connection with your customers that’ll have them coming back for more. For more ideas on how to be creative with your dish descriptions, open any cookbook and have a browse. More than recipes, they are lifestyle aspirations. Have you got that on your menu?
Bookmark or Subscribe now: Upcoming posts will look more specifically at unlocking Dessert’s Hidden Treasure and the psychology behind a great Price Point Plan.

Menu Engineering: Emotion is an Ingredient


This post is part of a series to help you build a winning menu that will engage with your customers, assist your team and most importantly, drive your bottom line.


Using emotional touch points to describe your food is a sure-fire way of engaging your customers. They know chefs are passionate. They know it’s hot in the kitchen and tempers flare. They know chefs are great in bed. (I made that up. Patissier's are.) So why can’t we display some of that raw emotion on our Menu. After all, it’s a key ingredient in what inspired any dish in the first place; a memory, a concept, an occasion, or as a tribute or even to emulate perhaps.

If you ask any Chef what his all-time favourite dish is, invariably it’ll be something cooked by his Mother or Grandmother. Or where does he like to eat out on his night off? Again, I would lay good money on the choice being Indian or Chinese. So why on earth does that same Chef insist on handing us a shopping list of ingredients in any restaurant worth wearing a tie to. 

You know the Carte I’m talking about; weighted sheet, off-white, textured, say 200gsm and sparingly held together in some kind of bamboo or leather contraption. 5 Starters, 5 Mains, 4 puds and trolley of cheeses, at a supplement. Naturellement. And don’t be surprised if you find the price spelled out in longhand at the bottom. There is after all empirical evidence this will increase sales. Your eyes wander down the page and we’re back to that seemingly random list of things: 

Scottish halibut, fregola, blood orange, sea kale

Marcus Wareing
“What the hell is fregola?” “Sshh, the waiter’s coming?” That particular dish is taken from one of Marcus Wareing’s menus at The Berkeley. You can see the rest of it here. (And for the pedants: Times regular, 17 point and very sparing on the capitalization.)

Now, what’s worth mentioning at this point is - and I want to make this very clear - there is NOTHING WRONG with that style of menu. OK? I am not saying it is wrong. For Marcus Wareing, it is the culmination of many, many well thought out decisions and it works for his business. What I am saying is that we can’t ALL be Marcus Wareing and we don’t ALL have two Michelin stars to back up those little words he sprinkles sparingly around the page. 

So how should ‘the rest of us’ describe our menu choices? Let’s go back to that chair you are sitting in where your customer normally is. Now, imagine a very suave Italian (or French) Maitre d’Hotel describing the dish above to the lady next to you. Actually, if you’ve seen this in real life, it’s a thing of beauty - these guys really know how to turn on the charm. The Halibut could be described as ‘very light’ or ‘beautifully fresh’ (say it with the accent) or even ‘incredibly delicate’. The Fregola is from Sardinia, so again our Italian friend would invoke the beautiful sea breeze where his Mother used to make such a delicate pasta. The blood orange adds ‘zing’ and the sea kale gives it a beautiful ‘finishing touch’. Now you tell me... what have we learned about this dish? Nothing. Except my dining partner now wants to go to Sardinia with Señor Sassi and orders the fish just to make him happy. Sold! And the side to go with it.

If only we could take all that flirtatious charm and sprinkle it on every guest. Oh wait... by invoking the emotive power of language on our menu, WE CAN. 

 So the next time you are writing your menu Chef, try to imagine standing AT THE TABLE and explaining the dish IN PERSON. Yeah. Use those words.

In my next post, I will share some of the winning words and phrases that have proven to drive sales in my business.

Menu Engineering: The Power of 'Recommended'


This post is part of a series to help you build a winning menu that will engage with your customers, assist your team and most importantly, drive your bottom line.

 In a previous post, I talked about the importance of having a great introduction on your menu. Suddenly, this gives the feeling of having a conversation with the owner. Now, you ask, which dishes should I try to further the experience. 

The best way is to highlight certain dishes is with a ‘Recommended’ symbol. But it is a minefield. Yes, they have to be dishes that will work best for your business in terms of revenue, but they also have to work for the guest in terms of quality. Balancing that customer satisfaction with meeting the targets of your bottom line is a very tricky business. 
A great example of Recommendations influencing choice.
To start with, every chef will say that ALL the dishes on their menu are good and will naturally gravitate towards the ones they like to eat. But let’s take a hard-nosed approach for a change..

 Here are the key questions that you need to ask in deciding a recommended dish:

Which dishes are super-popular and bring people back for more?
A bit obvious, but surprisingly it’s not necessarily the dish the Chef thinks it is. He might think it’s his fantastic Duck a la whatever-he-calls-it, when in fact it’s the lemon tart served after he’s gone home. That’s why patissier’s rule!
Which dishes are really straightforward to prepare in terms of mise-en-place?
The dish looks good in terms of food cost, but it might be killing your labour budget. At St Cross College, our chef loves to serve soup for big functions. Makes sense… doesn’t it? The problem is a waiter can only carry two bowls to a table, so I need more staff. By encouraging the chef to change to a risotto for example, the waiter can carry 3 bowls. Now we can serve 120 guests with fewer staff.
Which dishes are easiest to dress on or have plated during service?
Prepare for success by making sure you don’t get a traffic jam at the stove. It may be popular with the guests, but not if they have to wait for an hour for it to be served.
Which dishes use the least expensive ingredients?
Sometimes a dish can be just that simple; cheap and easy to prepare. Nursery dishes and homely classics will never go out of fashion it seems. So don’t overlook them in favour of celebrity ingredients.
In terms of dietary requirements, which dishes appeal to the widest audience?
This is especially true in banqueting or for weddings where pork, shellfish, beef, horse (couldn’t resist) or fois gras are best avoided, unless of course you know your audience really well.
Which dishes are priced the most expensive on the menu?
One lesson I learned in my restaurants in Kathmandu is that people love to show off. To flaunt their wealth. So let them. Sometimes it does make sense to recommend the most expensive dish.
Here’s a sneaky one: which dish requires one or two sides to make it complete?
The dish itself might seem reasonably priced, but throw in a couple of sides and your bottom line is looking good. Sound familiar?
Another bonus one: Which dishes offer supplementary upgrades? e.g. Prawn vs Lobster Surf n’ Turf?
So you recommend the basic version and allow guests to ‘upgrade’ if they wish. What’s wrong with that?
And would the Chef know which dishes promote the sale of some great wines?
This is where good restaurants become great. Involving the sommelier, the maitre d’ and the chef in the conversation will really drive sales. A very delicate terrine, will encourage the sale of a Premier Cru in the hands of the right Sommelier. But if you allow the Chef to recommend his homely soup, which probably is great and ticks lots of boxes, you do lose the opportunity to upsell on your wine.

I know there are a lot of analytical tools out there to help you arrive at the right recommendation list, but here’s what we did at my place in Kathmandu. We monitored sales over a six week period. Then we costed EVERY SINGLE dish. Next we got the Heads of Kitchen, Dining Room, Bar and Accounts around a table and we thrashed out the merits of each dish on whether it should be recommended or not. 

What we learned was that, our two most popular main courses happened to be our least profitable. (And it’s hard to put the price up when competing with the hundreds of restaurants nearby). We decided to keep them as ‘Recommended’ because people would choose them anyway, and they’ll come back for more if they do. However we offset that with a couple of delicious starters that were surprisingly inexpensive to produce. Our secret weapon however is our dessert menu which we believe is the real differentiator between us and our competitors in Kathmandu. That will be the subject for another post soon.

Menu Engineering: Selling the Sizzle


This post is part of a series to help you build a winning menu that will engage with your customers, assist your team and most importantly, drive your bottom line.
http://www.my-hospitality.com/2010/04/diners-want-guilt-free-eating-opportunities

You most probably have a menu in use in your restaurant. You may even be very proud of that menu because it has been a labour of love. Good for you. Or you may have put something quick together as you dealt with consultants and contractors trying to get open on time, promising yourself to come back and improve it. Good, do it now. 

In any case, I want you to take a long hard look at your menu and start to think about it in detail. If someone has NEVER been in your restaurant before, what is this menu saying from the second they get it placed in their hands (or read it on the blackboard; or click it online). Is it beautifully weighted, to match the tablecloths? Is it brightly coloured to reflect the buzz of the place? Is it desktop-printed to reflect the freshness of the daily specials? Every menu is different, but they all have the same objective: to grab your customer’s attention and convince them that they have chosen the right place for spending as much as they can afford on this visit.

So where do you begin? The first thing I like to do is put myself in the chair of the customer. Things look awfully different from this perspective. You start to ask yourself, as a customer would, Why have I chosen this restaurant? Who owns this place? Who is serving me? (It could be the owner or is it part of a bigger chain.), Who’s cooking my food? What made you guys open this place? And now get someone to hand you your menu. How does it feel? What does it say about you as a customer? Do you feel valued by this business? 

Now, ask yourself this: where on your menu does it answer all these questions? This is where I think there’s an opportunity to ‘sell your story’. Raymond Blanc does it at Le Manoir. Peter Boizot did it at Pizza Express. Even Nandos do it. 

And they’re all pretty successful, so do YOU put an introduction on your menu? You know, something like... 
“Welcome to Peaches & Cream Restaurant, My husband Renoir and I had a vision of growing our own organic fruit and vegetables and thought wouldn’t it be fun to have a place where our friends could come over to taste the latest produce. Our Chef Antonio is passionate about letting the ingredients stand out in every dish he cooks. And don’t forget to leave some room for dessert. We wish you Bon Appetit, Candice” 

Suddenly, I feel I’ve just had a conversation with Candice…. She’s married to Renoir (is he French?…). They grow organic fruits and vegetables; Wow, how idyllic. It must taste amazing. They mention friends, so they must be popular. And they opened this for them? What a generous couple. Chef Antonio... nice name, sounds Italian - wonder if he looks like Antonio Banderos? Hey, perhaps the pasta is good. Simple food, the way I like it. Hmmm, 'leave some room for some dessert’ … interesting. I love dessert. I wonder if peaches and cream are on the menu? Bon Appetit? Why, thank you Candice. This is going to be a real TREAT!

So many assumptions based on such a short intro. But most importantly of all, you have moved the value proposition AWAY from cost and made it an emotional one. In other words you sell the sizzle, not the steak.

By sharing your story, you put your guest at ease and invite them in. Now they’re thinking ‘I’m going to browse this menu and see what else I can learn about my new-found friends. I’m starving…’ Now it’s time to bring on a very under-utilised sales opportunity: nibbles while you browse. Check in with my next post to find out more.