6th step for a successful restaurant / pub – Positioning & Differentiator
Having a good restaurant or pub is great, but what if there are many great restaurants and pubs in your area? Well, that’s less great, but it doesn’t mean you should close your business. As we already mentioned in the previous step it’s very unlikely to have no competitors at all. You can be different or be better then them. These are two separate ways.
Being different is much easier then being better. But what that means? In the previous step, we already talked about the three different types of competitors: direct, indirect and replacement. You can be different if you choose a profile and target an audience where you have no competitors. If, for example, it turns out that there are no vegetarian restaurants in your town, but there are enough vegetarians, you are in a perfect market position. To be honest it’s not easy to find a market gap like that, but still you have to check the number of direct competitors you would have with different target audiences.
Once you have chosen your market position, you must do everything you can to be better than your direct and indirect competitors. You have already collected all the information you need about them in the previous step. Your job is to find the pattern where your competitors are not performing well enough, where you can be better than them. Always try to view things from your customer’s perspective, as a customer why would you choose your business instead of any others on the market. Many restaurants and pubs are putting the accent to their menu. It’s true that you have to have an outstanding menu, but it’s far from being enough. This can be the point where you can win. People make decisions based on emotion, so you need to have an emotional impact on them, that will make them come back to you more often. They should remember and talk about your business, after they have left it. One single aspect is not enough to achieve this, everything should be outstanding, quality service, surprisingly nice design, good menu, etc. For example, we know of restaurants where all the waiters have previously completed a course where they have learned how to behave with the guests. I cannot stress it enough, service is one of the most important aspects in a restaurant. Be creative, find ways to differentiate yourself from your competitors, compensate their weaknesses and influence people’s emotions. As usually, do not forget to write down all the decisions you have made in this step.
Hope you enjoyed, see at the next post.
