Proven Ways to a Profitable Menu - Part 3- The Menu as a Marketing Plan

Whether your restaurant or foodservice facility is a chain or independent, high volume dinner house, fast food chili doggery, casual outdoor bistro or corporate cafeteria, the menu is your immediate connection with your guests.

The menu is the purest expression of your marketing plan. It is the first tangible connection your guests have between their interest in buying (why they are there-to dine, socialize or otherwise have a positive experience) and what you have to sell.

So if true marketing is identifying who your customers are and attempting to meet their needs or satisfy their requirements, then the menu is the link between your food and service and the guests' expectations - it is the bridge between marketing and operations.

• The menu sets the tone for every oparation, whether quick service, mid range/casual or fine dining. It determines the need for management, staff and equipment. It affects the profit potential from energy cost to china breakage, from training protocols to comment cards, from table turns to uniform expense.
• The menu is the connective tissue that holds the entire restaurant together. Nothing happens that in some way is not directly (or indirectly) affected by the menu.
• The menu is a translation of the food offered. In a way, the menu is a form of a product brochure.
• The menu is the conerstone of profitable operations and the centerpiece of the guests' dining experience. It establishes expectations that the food will ultimately have to fulfill and which will, in turn, determine the guests' desire to return.

as an offesive weapon, the menu is, of course, only the means to the an end. Every operator's objective, one way or another, is to use the menu to achieve higher sales in one of four ways:

Increase the Average check
Encourage and stimulate selection behaviors that result in buying more from the menu per visit.

Increase frequency visit
The menu's fabulous selections attract more frequent oatronage, driving sales upward.

Increase party size
The menu stimulates guests to expand party size to share in the wonderful dining experience.

Attract new patrons
Properly merchandised, the menu is a powerful selling tool to be strategically distributed through appropriate channels to win new converts.

given these sales building strategies, the menu offers a uniquely flexible and adaptable format to creatively merchandise the food and beverage items available.