Page 18 - gfs0717_Magazine

NRA MILITARY TRAINING

centers that make sense. effectiveness is limited to how good the recipient list is.
Design begins by deciding on the basic flow process, Street teams visit people who live and work nearby, he
or the ratio of the restaurant space that is devoted to said. “Don’t just stand there, go and get some customers.”
front- and back-of-the-house uses. Typical front-to-back Promotional messages leverage something the restaurant
ratios are 50-50 and 55-45, Varnum suggested, and the has, and should be used for a while to be effective and
next decisions involve selecting equipment and deciding reduce costs by spreading it out over time. It should be
where it goes. strong enough to drive incremental business by motivat-
Within the back-of-the-house plan are decisions affect- ing customers to come in, and be unique compared with
ing the flow of food from the receiving lane on through nearby competitors. “Nobody’s going to come to your
preparation and serving, including storage, quality control restaurant for a 10 percent discount; people will take it, but
and whether or not to devote space to a manager’s office. it won’t drive business,” he said. “People want to support
Menus significantly influence equipment choices. The restaurants that care about the things they care about.”
right pieces have to be in place, and some single units are Sales marketing plans are built to get customers to
versatile enough to perform multiple functions and cut spend more. “As restaurateurs, we don’t want to discount
down the amount of kitchen equipment needed. “Do I every time,” he said.
have the right pieces of equipment?” Varnum said. “Do Nolan suggested building a possible marketing platform
I have everything I need to make that cycle happen?” by partnering with local community organizations.
Versatility also helps maintain production flow when Executing an approach to business requires being pur-
equipment breaks down.
“Research, don’t be afraid
to research,” he said. “Plan for Culinary specialists visiting the Sysco booth
on the National Restaurant Association
the long term; these are high Show floor learn about the company’s
investments.” role in supplying the items used in dining
The basic questions to ask facilities to prepare daily meals
when planning a restaurant
kitchen, he said, are: what
is on the menu? how many
meals will be served per day?
how many people are being
served? and how do you want
to prepare the items?
Peter Nolan, principal, 5th
P Marketing, emphasized the
value of building a marketing
infrastructure to effectively
communicate a message and
attract customers.
His three key components
of a marketing program are:
a plan for the initiative being put A team of culinary specialists
into the marketplace; a calendar for works to design a dining facil-
arranging when and where imple- ity from scratch as part of the
mentation will occur; and a budget. three-day training program.
The first step is to make a
thoughtful plan before beginning poseful and thought-
any creative work. That involves ful about identifying
understanding the difference be- which aspects need to
tween the message and a platform, be improved, such as
he said, explaining that the message a particular day part,
is a promotional idea, like burger building take-out or
month, while the platform is the delivery.
place where it is communicated,
such as a table tent, email or window banner. PLANNING BEGINS
Once a message is settled on, then it can be executed After the classroom instruction, the military culinary
across different platforms. “A good marketing plan is a specialists were organized into four teams and spent the
marriage of opportunity and resources,” he said. afternoon receiving some additional training before be-
Email marketing is an easy way for a business to get ing separated into the four teams to begin planning the
its message out to existing customers; the problem is that dining facilities. —Continued
18 GOVERNMENT FOOD SERVICE • JULY 2017