Target Marketing in Restaurants

Updated October 21st, 2013

Different consumers have different tastes, and marketing to everyone is impossible unless you market water or you have an unlimited budget which also does not makes sense. Learn how to best develop your marketing strategies to target a specific segment of the population.

Target Marketing is a marketing strategy that should attract the customers that you want in your restaurant, whatever your reasons are. As opposed to mass marketing, which aims its advertising and promotions to a general majority of consumers, target marketing focuses on attracting a specific type of customer.

Market Segmentation

You probably already know what kinds of customers you want in your restaurant, but it is important to tailor your promotions to these specific consumer groups. Different market segments – or groups of customers with similar characteristics and needs – will respond to different types of marketing strategies, so you should make sure to gear your promotional techniques toward the segments you want.

It is very common to target customers based on their age or income. This allows businesses to adjust the pricing of menu items according to their customers’ disposable income levels. However, you may also choose to develop promotional strategies that target one or more of the following segments:

Teens, students, young adults, generation X, generation Y, families, seniors citizens, DINKS (Double Income No Kids), Tourists, Vegetarians, Eco-conscious people, Business people, Sports fans, Gay community, after-work crowd, happy hour crowd, etc.

Targeting your marketing allows you to select the appropriate communication channels to distribute your marketing content, which again should result in a controllable or measurable ROI. This will allow you to determine whether your marketing is successful or needs to be improved.

Here are some common issues that restaurants come to realize. Ignoring them does not help at all. Accept and correct if possible and if needed, even consider radical changes instead of continuing an obvious mistake. But before I list some general mistakes here is an important note:

Targeted Marketing includes Marketing and not just waiting for sales to happen. During my consulting career, I saw too often small restaurants and even magnificent hotel restaurant concepts do no marketing or wrongly targeted marketing activities, leading to bad results and finally spend a fortune on changing the restaurant concept instead of fixing their marketing issues. There is fierce competition out there and with social media, online or offline advertising, you simply cannot expect to be competitive with letting bricks and mortar speak. (I think this is worth another article ;-))

But here, as mentioned, are some general findings when marketing is targeted and ROI is measurable:

1. Wrong Location - Perhaps you are not in the right location to attract the kind of customers you want. Always remain up-to-date with the demographics. Attitudes and trends in your area can change, and your restaurant needs to change with them or move to another place.
2. Wrong Concept - While customers like variety, it is important to consider from a business perspective the nearby competition. It is possible that your concept is failing to attract the customers you want or they are looking for another concept.
3. Attracting the wrong customers - While most restaurants are happy to see any customers, we are talking here about the quality of your marketing activities. If you target a specific audience and this audience is not coming, you are spending money for nothing. However, if the marketing campaigns are attracting another type of customer, then it is up to you if it is accidentally a positive outcome of a bad campaign or a strategic mistake having targeted the wrong customers with a specific concept.
4. Wrong promotion- make sure that you are using the right promotions for your target market and never hesitate to consult with professionals regarding this matter, as mistakes get very expensive with possible long term effects.
5. Ignore additional segments - Targeted Marketing is not about deciding for one target market and blindly just chasing that one. You may have a venue that is popular for business people at lunch time, families come in the afternoon, popular singles hang out and dining place in the evening and after 22:00 it changes into a dance club. I know this example may be a little exaggerated but I hope you got the point.
6. Avoid customers that clash - simply said you will never put business people and families into the same venue at the same time.

If you have the right location and concept, and you choose a good target market and the best promotional techniques for that segment, your restaurant will be far more likely to succeed. When accompanied with proper restaurant management and operation, a good target marketing strategy will make a considerable difference in your profits.

Written by Daniel Grossmann