Actually this whole summer is full of sporting occasions – the Euros just finished of course, and then there’s Wimbledon and the Tour de France and the Olympics are due to start in just a few weeks’ time… So there are plenty of opportunities for catering businesses to capitalise on that holiday feeling that always comes when there’s a big national sporting involvement.
The trick is to find ways of promoting your business, or specific items within your business, in a way that relates to the sports events. This can be as simple as putting the sport on on big screen TVs, or as tenuous a link as slapping a new name on an old sandwich and calling it an “Olympic sub” (for example). Either way the name of the game is to get the punters interested enough to come in and stay in – and with luck to make them feel that you have in some way enhanced their experience of the Games.
Actually putting stuff on TV to pull in punters can be a big headache – because you then have to apply for all kinds of temporary event notices and licenses to let you use media and entertainment to attract business. So in many cases it’s better to focus on what you already do, supplying the food and drink your customers love – but give it a twist with some Olympic-flavour offers and deals.
One of the easiest ways to get involved with a national sporting occasion is by ordering in special catering equipment – blue and red catering cutlery for example, or Union Jack branded catering crockery. Then you make a lunchtime offer, like an Olympic meal deal – and watch the receipts rise for the period over which the Games are being held.
You can get creative with promotions too. Like having price slashes dependent on British medal wins, that kind of thing. By doing deals that depend on results or events taking place, you actively engage the customer with the Games – and that, in turn, makes he or she feel like you are really doing something to celebrate the occasion, rather than just trying to turn a profit out of the fact that they are on.
A lot of what you do depends on the precise nature of your catering business of course. For example if you are running a pub or bar, you may tie your promotions in with official offers put out by the companies that supply your drinks. In cases like this, the promotions teams at the head offices of Schweppes and Tetley and Anheuser-Busch have all done your homework for you.
Otherwise, it’s up to you and some good old fashioned opportunism. Get thinking about things you can do to make what you already do tie in with the mood of your customers. Encourage them to “Go Olympic” with a bigger sized meal, for example. Or create special meal deals – Gold, Silver and Bronze – that give different offers at different price points so every wallet is catered for.
Celebrating the Olympics in the catering business, you can turn footfalls into gold medals of your own!
Bernie Rosencrantz has been in restaurant business for 15 years now. He has thorough knowledge of the latest technology, especially in the field of Crockery & Cutlery, Glassware & Barware as well as Kitchenware and Cleaning Equipment. In this article he is providing us with some valuable information on Catering equipment and catering crockery.
