stuff4restaurants

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No, it’s not one of those secret service x-ray vision devices they advertise in the classifieds…

This is very clever place mat/napkin design that will give their guests a good laugh, and because they will be taken home to show friends, probably save your team having to clear up after the meal.

Once again, it is a great example of how a utility cost item can with a little imagination be turned into a “value add” for the customer and become an ongoing source of promotion.

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This New York business is obviously serious about their market segment… serving healthy food to kids in a fun way.

Kidfresh is a New York business that provides healthy meals for kids from a modern purpose designed store, plus runs a number of healthy food educational programs.

You can tell they are serious because, they are the first company in this segment I have seen, that have invested substantial upfront money in branding both their product and their premises, and the branding is truly very, very good, from the minute you see it, “You get what they are all about”.

All this healthy food stuff is great, BUT… I can’t help wondering why?

It seems to me a little sad that we have to cut sandwiches into pretty little shapes just to get our kids to want to eat them.

It seems a little sad to me that we have to add expensive packaging to fruit that already comes in its own very efficient package.

Why is it they we are prepared to pay far more for the branding of a product that we purchase direct from a fruit shop ?

Surely this is not about convenience, are we so messed up as a society, that preparing healthy food for our kids is a lower priority than the time we spend doing other stuff ?

I guess my point is this…

All this healthy food stuff is great, over the last few years we have discovered all the fats salts and sugars we have been consuming are not that great for us… But, I’m not so sure that all these trendy new health food stores have a long term future as viable businesses.

My guess is… Now that we have got the picture about the need to eat healthier food, the majority of consumers will slowly find their way back to their neighborhood green grocer/fruit shop where they can purchase healthy food more directly from its source.

The trend I believe that will bite in is: the Farmers Market Concept, where we can cut out many of the middle men and storage and preservative processes.

What do you think?

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Yesterday I was reading Carol Bentley’s Blog of Copy Writing Tips and came across a name I knew: Dr. Robert Cialdini…Several years ago Cialdini did extensive research (real tests, with real people, in real business’s) into what influences human behavior.

If you have not read his book, Influence - The Psychology of Persuasion, do yourself and your business a HUGE favor and get a copy, in fact go now, and I’ll wait right here until you get back.

This book earns its place as one of the best and most practical business books ever written. His material and research is not merely the re hashing’s of previous writers.

Cialdini’s book is totally original and based on the stuff that every business owner needs to know about how and why your customers make their decisions and the best way you can communicate with them and it outlines specific strategies everyone can put into practice.

BUT NOW FOR THE REAL GEM…

Carol Bentley has discovered five video’s on YouTube (part one is above) that are the good doctor delivering the best parts of his book live. I downloaded them last night and have spent a fair part of my day listening to and watching them. In short, they are the best business VIDEOS I have ever watched. They are an absolute must see for every serious business person.

To view them go to YouTube and enter Cialdini into their search (I have done it for you in this link) and all five parts will come up.

Now for the cheeky part, If you like me want to watch these VIDEOS again and again, and or show them to your team members, without blowing your bandwidth clean out of the stratosphere you may wish to do the following:

To download a video from YouTube to your own computer

1. Click on the video (in YouTube )
2. Copy it’s URL from your web browsers address bar
3. Go to: http://www.techcrunch.com/get-youtube-movie/
4. Paste the video’s URL into their download tool (it’s all very easy, it tells you what to do)
5. The download box will pop up and all you have to do is tell it where you want the file saved on your computer.
6. You may have to add a .swf to the file to have it recognized by your video player.

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Please let me know what you think of these, and don’t forget to visit Carol Bentley’s site, you will find some of the best business communication advise available on the web there.

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Now that we are well into the festive season this promotion has a very timely message…

Copy: Prison food doesn’t taste this good. Don’t drink and drive this Easter.
Created by Saatchi and Saatchi, Sydney.

It’s a great way to tell your guests you care, after all, who needs to lose good customers.

There is a great idea here for a local taxi company to pick up and sponsor, or the opportunity for the restaurant to provide a “Take home” service to their guests.

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Here’s a great way to differentiate a product and reduce waste…

If only more companies would take the time to redesign their packaging so that it can be reused.

With just a little creative thought, your packaging can live on as a constant reminder and advertisement of your business.

Again, it is a prime exampler of turning a non valued, disposable utility item into something that has a high perceived value to your customer.

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What ever did we do without this vital item…

Just imagine, before this was invented, we had to reach down the table and pick up a bottle of sauce, what a major inconvenience.

Actually, these gimmicks do have a real place, they make great promotional tools. Their pointlessness makes them conversation pieces that have the power to be “Talked About”.

Just think, Who bothers to talk about one of those measly, portion controlled, sachets of soy sauce. Turning your utility items into conversation pieces, is a great way to add value to a part of your business that is currently taken for granted and has no perceived value to your customers.

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I’m still trying to work out weather this is a serious product or a gimick…

Either way, it would make a great giveaway for a pizza company. I recently organized a promotion for one of my major restaurant customers where we asked people to invent a product that went with their food item.

Not only did the competition draw an enormous amount of entries, the display of them created huge local interest and free publicity.

We involved all the local schools and universities in the project. It resulted in the single largest increase to sales all year and attracted many new frequent purchasers.

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Here is a great opportunity for some smart marketing company.

All you have to do is match up some local businesses who want to advertise to the customers of local coffee shops.

The coffee shop gets free cups and publicity, whilst the advertiser gets access to all the customers of the coffee shop.

It’s a great win win promotion with the potential to generate a great deal of “word of mouth” flow on.

The example above was produced for a beauticians in New York.

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What a great way to turn every delivery into an Advertising event…

My understanding is: the hot box/oven is merely an insulated container, however, the effect is powerfull, they have not had to say we deliver hot pizzas to your door. The box says it far more eloquently and memorably.

The real take home concept here is: turning the delivery process into an Advertising event, that really is clever and it’s well worth taking the time to think about how you could do something like this.

Each delivery has the potential to put your message in front of a lot of potential new customers, and you are already paying the major cost involved.

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What is there for me to say about this…

A BBC reporter visits China’s famous penis restaurant where they serve… well penis’s, what else ?

What menu is complete without this delicacy? No jokes about Big whoppers or anything base like that thank you.

Just think of all the FREE publicity, no customers, but heaps of publicity.

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Just imagine opening tomorrows newspaper to find Brad or Tom featuring in a advertisement for cigarettes…

It makes me wonder how our cutting edge Advertising techniques will be regarded 30 years from now.

I found this on an excellent site of interesting old magazine articles at Modern Mechanix Where you find lots of stuff that will make great conversation decor pieces for your restaurant or cafe.

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I defy any viewer to ignore this powerful image…

The poster is for a new American based restaurant serving traditional African food.

However, I’m not sure that this attention grabbing poster will translate into sales. The image is so “in your face” it almost overpowers the message.

I believe this poster would have been made far more effective if it included some cleverly written copy encouraging the viewer to try some new and exotic flavor sensations.

In its current form, it has the potential to trigger some unintentional negative emotions.

What do you think?

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Here is a clever way of being different and remarkable so you will be noticed.

Can you imagine coming across an area of your city like this?

Wouldn’t you have to pay attention for long enough to find out what it is all about?

The power of this, is it’s almost magnetic ability to engage your “What the …. ?” instincts.

This is exactly the same process the artist Christo successfully used to grab world wide media attention when he wrapped well known landmarks in cloth.

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Ocean Basket Seafood and their South African Advertising agency, Joe Public Advertising, obviously know how to reach out and communicate creatively and; memorably.

Apart from this add being a very clever parody containing several layers of stuff that makes Advertising work, not the least of which is the nostalic place fish and chips has in many peoples memories.

This nostalgia thing, is a very powerful Advertising tool, it can lead a viewer to positively (or negatively) associate a whole lot of emotion with your message, very quickly. Nostalgia, illustrated as above can provide a very powerful visual shorthand.

A second cleverness used in this add is: the newspaper pictured in a newspaper. Whilst not easy to explain or describe, we all enjoy the “getting it”

of these visual puns. It’s almost as if we go through some inner cycle of self congratulations when we “get it”… All this associating and getting it stuff builds memory and awareness.

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THE OWNER of a restaurant in Marsh Benham has said that restaurateurs would earn more respect from their communities if they sourced food locally.
Xavier Le-Bellego, who owns The Red House, believes that buying locally produced food to put on the menu cuts his business’ carbon footprint, bolsters the local economy and ensures that his customers are fed fresh ingredients.
“We need to use produce which reflects the season. It’s no good using strawberries in the winter. And what is the point of buying things that come from miles away and travelling miles when you have the food right on your doorstep,” he said
Mr Le-Bellego’s turkeys and lambs come from Benham Stud, a farm 300 yards down the road from his restaurant, his beef comes from Highclere, and his pork and chicken is all locally sourced.
“Only restaurants with a bit of personality can sustain this. Others do not have the demand or the skill to do it,” he said.
The Red House is on the verge of introducing a “30-mile menu”, which will only use food bought within a 30-mile radius of the restaurant.
Mr Le-Bellego wants other restaurants to follow suit and said more should be done to support local food producers.
The avian flu outbreak in Norfolk and the foot-and-mouth scare in Surrey were additional reasons for buying local produce, he added.

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