On todays show we interview Marcus Kilvington again from food profits talking about the proliferation of 'Meal Deals" springing up in practically every restaurant, pub, coffee house etc.

Marcus recently wrote an article for the Nottingham Post and this caught my interest so I invited Marcus to talk about the article and of course grilled him for some great restaurant marketing tips.

The 'Two Meals for a Tenner" ( the working title of this show ) is becoming ubiquitous with many restaurants round the country feeling they have to compete with the big chains to get in with a shout.
Its a competitive business and just a short walk into Peterborough town centre last Friday I spotted 4 or 5 meal deals, some as low as £5.99.
A local Weatherspoons had a Fish and Chip deal for 2 people for 6.99, or if you found yourself drinking alone you could enjoy fish and chips and a alcoholic drink for a measly £5.99.
In fact the more attention I paid to the boards sat outside various venues I realised the level of the competition. Pretty fierce!!
Show Notes
Two meals for 10 pounds sounds like such a bargain. The reason most caterers are doing this is to get people through the door. That is your primary objective. The second objective is to get the customer to come back through the door.
My Question is can you make any money? Is a question of mathematics. How many more people do you need to to come through the door in order to make it financially viable?
My Parents came back from a 'meal deal' and they both agreed they would never go for another 'meal deal' experience again.
If the quality isn't there people will not come back.
Everyone is doing it! and people feel that if they don't do it people won't come in the door. My first point is if you cant make money you cannot afford to do it. Competing with the big chains just isn't possible. They have huge resources, but even they could be facing trouble in the long run.
Can the big chains even afford to keep doing these deals... is it sustainable, even for them.
Big Hospitality mention that many of the chains are restructuring large amounts of debt. The truth is your not making money, even if your a large pub group, eventually even they can go pop or bust.
So restaurant owners need to think about being different, and here is a question, what is going to make people come into your establishment and not somebody else's.
The Moral Question:- If we, as consumers, keep lining the pockets of the big chains, what we are really doing is taking the money away from our community led business's. Eventually they will go out of business and the choices we have will be limited.
The East Midlands Food Group:- Local community led food business's where people come together to benefit each other. Butchers, greengrocers, and business owners.
Part of looking after our planet is looking after each other, and supporting local business and the community we are all part of.
I have just moved to Castle Donnington and wanted to look around for local suppliers of food etc. I found a lovely farmers shop and checked it out. Actually the perception is the supermarket is always cheaper, but what I found was some things are but many things are not. I found some proper, proper organic eggs that were cheaper than Tesco's.
The race to the bottom.:- Competing with the chains is a short cut to bankruptcy.
Offer something different and don't follow the herd.
PART-2
How do we get people to come back into our restaurant, the second part of the equation.
This is a huge subject and part of the course we offer at Food Profits, learning how to get people to come back to our food business is a full day course, some ten hours, so ill be as succinct as I can.
Here's the thing, even at 2 for £10 pounds if you don't give the customer a great experience when they come in they wont be coming back no matter what. If your thinking well its only £10 it doesn't have to be very good does it? Well NO, it does have to be good,