Hospitality Doctor
Max Hitchins
‘Slipstreaming’ for $$$$$ - #3
• Of course you can reward any number of your customers with complimentary lunches or dinners at YOUR place over the following four weeks.
As mentioned in the last two articles, throughout the year there are multiple opportunities to ‘slipstream’ on major days. St Patrick’s Day, on Sunday March 17 in 2024, is a classic example. There is absolutely no reason why you can’t change it from a one-day promotion to a 17- day promotion or even a week long promotion. It’s up to you.
• The most important part of the promotion is to involve you staff in the planning.
I say this because of experience. I recall when we took over a hotel at Bondi Junction in Sydney in the 1990’s I approached Eileen, a senior staff member who ran what was called Eileen’s Bar. Initially Eileen’s Bar was taking $3000 a week. Soon after we took over I told Eileen about a great idea I wanted her to implement. I remember her saying “It will never work!” She was right. It didn’t work…and the lesson I learnt from this was it is never try to force an idea onto your staff. (Top-down marketing). I found to give a marketing idea a good chance to work, the strategy and planning was best if the ideas comes ‘from’ your staff (bottom-up marketing). The key is for your staff to have ‘ownership’ of the marketing idea. And don’t forget to give the credit and a bonus when they make it work. By the way… when we sold the hotel eight years later Eileen’s Bar, with Eileen still in ‘control’ of the bar, was taking $30,000 per week. To help decorate your place here is a link to St Patricks Day Images you can download from Shutterstock (See: https://www.shutterstock. com/search/st-patricks-day-pub?cr=c&gad_ source=2&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI98G2-LqWhAMV06 tmAh327gS7EAEYASABEgKvQ_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw. ds&kw=&pl=PPC_GOO_AU_PM-) You might build another slipstreaming marketing idea, using similar idea to those above, around Mothers Day on the second Sunday in May (May 12).
Here are some guidelines:
• Ask your local travel agent to partner you in a seventeen day St Patrick’s promotion. Ask them if they can arrange for one or more ‘free trips’ to ‘somewhere’
• Also ask a five star hotel to give you several complimentary weekends for two
• Your bargaining chip to secure these two ‘partners’, is involving them in all your promotional material including your social media and emails to your database
• Perhaps you have a daily competition with a question about Ireland for your customers.
• Invite you customers and potential customers to submit answers to an Irish quiz that offers a different questions for the first 17 days of March • Encourage your customers to come to your premises each day to read/research the question and answer it • On St Patricks Day those who have 17 entries (or the most daily entries) immediately go in the competition for some of your prizes donated by your business partners (the travel agent and the 5 star hotel). Customers must be on location on St Patrick’s Day in order to win the prize • At a prescribed time on St Patricks Day you draw the ‘major prize’. Perhaps a holiday for two at a beautiful resort
Max Hitchins is know as the Hospitality Doctor. See: HospitalityDoctor.com.au
45 Tasmanian Hospitality Review February/March Edition
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