The end of the year festival is approaching. When the government unlocks the area to allow dining in restaurants, it's time for restaurants to attract customers with promotional strategies that appeal to customers. But if the promotion is not organized well, there may be a loss. Or if the promotion is not interesting, people are not interested. Today, MHA will introduce techniques for organizing promotions during the end of the year festival by an experienced restaurant guru, Ajarn Tai Pornchai Nitmethawong, on how to create promotions that appeal to customers, create more sales, and do not risk losses.

The answer is “yes”. However, if other stores have promotions during this period, there is a high chance that we will lose customers to stores that have promotions because other stores have more interesting offers, especially during festivals when we need to boost sales. However, not all stores can have promotions during festivals. It depends mainly on the type of store and consumer behavior.

First, you need to understand the nature of each type of restaurant because each type of restaurant has different costs, different customer behaviors, and each festival has its own unique characteristics. Therefore, promotions cannot be organized in the same way.

For the end of the year festival, focus on "large groups" of customers, whether it is a group of friends, family, or work group because it is the time for the year-end party. Especially if you haven't organized a party for a long time because of the Covid situation, it will stimulate customers to want to party more than before because they have felt "suffocated" for a long time, especially company parties. Therefore, if the restaurant has a space for parties, parties, karaoke rooms, or a garden restaurant, use this opportunity to do promotions with companies, stores, and there will be a chance to sell more than other types of restaurants because they are more prepared to organize parties.

The nature of companies and stores is to organize year-end parties for employees. Some companies may organize their own parties within the company, but many choose to organize parties at restaurants instead because it is convenient to manage food, arrange the venue, and clean up. There will always be a budget set for the year-end party for employees. The organizers themselves want good things, both good food, good service, and promotions that feel worthwhile. When employees and executives come to the party, they will not feel “lost face”, but will feel happy after working hard for a year. They also want employees to love the organization more.

Even families need a New Year's Eve celebration because it is one of the few times a year that family members are together, doing activities, eating, talking, and socializing together. Especially for large families with many members, it is difficult to get together every time. And to avoid the problem of having to set up the venue, cook, and wash a lot of dishes, holding a family party in a restaurant is also a very popular choice, which everyone is willing to pay more than usual for.

Therefore, the promotion of a set meal for a party is very interesting for this group of customers because it is easy for them to choose a menu. For example, a set meal for a party for 10 people includes fried sea bass with fish sauce + mixed seafood tom yum + mixed shrimp vegetable stir fry + crispy three-course salad + steamed rice at a special price is quite interesting.

But the problem with set meals is that sometimes customers don’t want to eat every dish in the set. Some dishes are not eaten by anyone in the group. When this happens, customers tend not to order that set. The solution is to try to arrange the set meals using the same model as “Laem Charoen Seafood” by categorizing the dishes in the set and allowing for more choices in each category, which is better than setting a fixed price.

- Menu 1: Choose 1 of 4 menus: fried sea bass with fish sauce, fried sea bass with chili sauce, fried sea bass with garlic sauce, crispy fried sea bass.

- Menu 2: Choose 1 of 4 menus: fried catfish cakes, rice fish salad, stir-fried cabbage with fish sauce, steamed mackerel in banana leaves.

- Menu 2: Choose 1 of 5 menus: crab egg chili paste, oyster omelet, glass noodles stir-fried with fresh shrimp eggs, clams stir-fried with chili paste, shrimp stir-fried with asparagus.

- Menu 4: Choose 1 of 6 menus: Squid stir-fried with salted eggs, seafood soup, green curry with fish balls, minced shrimp jungle curry, salted fish curry, and tom yam po taek.

If we consider each option, we will find that it is a distribution of food according to type and cost-profit of the food as well. By choosing the fish menu that has a high cost but high profit as the main menu first, then distributing it according to suitability. Or we can apply this model by adding a top-up, encouraging to order more food to reach the specified price and receive the right to exchange for other menus such as dessert or drinks, which can be included in the list.

However, organizing a promotion like this requires taking into account food costs and understanding food pricing first. Then you will be able to calculate the cost, profit, and promotion safely without losing money. You can study food costs and pricing at the course. “Professional Food Pricing Techniques” By Ajarn Tai Pornchai Nitmethawong and must understand other costs that vary according to the time period, such as the higher cost of oil, does it affect the price of raw materials or not?

Or if the shop has a karaoke room, try adding karaoke as well. If the number of people arrives as specified, it will help attract more companies, shops, and families to come and have a party at the shop. But it must be under control measures during this COVID-19 outbreak.

Another interesting place for a party is Buffet restaurant Suitable for party groups who love to eat a lot, eat heavily, and focus on value for money. There are many companies and factories that bring their employees to have a party at a buffet restaurant. Therefore, the promotions that will receive the most attention are the ones that make people feel that if you come in large numbers, it's worth it, such as the promotion "Come 4, pay for 3" or "Come use the service according to the specified number, get free soft drinks + ice!" In addition, if there is a separate room service, it will receive even more attention.

At the end of the year, people tend to drink alcoholic beverages. Try to organize a promotion with a beverage company or have a free corkage promotion to help stimulate visits to the store and increase food orders in another way. And don't forget to give out gift vouchers or discount coupons when using the service next time to encourage repeat use after the festival is over.

But for other customer groups, such as couples or individual customers, it may not be a major issue for this New Year's Eve festival. But it's okay because there are still many other times and festivals to organize promotions for this customer group.

For small shops such as single-dish restaurants, made-to-order restaurants, or street food restaurants If you are not ready to organize a promotion, set menu or discount, try using a promotion that gives away inexpensive menus for special occasions or buy a certain amount and exchange for another menu at a special price. This will help stimulate sales. Or organizing an activity is interesting. There might be a lucky draw to receive prizes or discounts when buying a certain amount. This will add color to the shop with not much cost and help stimulate sales, especially for customers who still have to live normal lives, go to restaurants as usual, do not celebrate or go out to eat in groups.

Or for restaurants that have considered and seen that they are unlikely to be able to do promotions because costs are still high and profits are still low, and do not want to risk doing promotions, try to improve the management of the restaurant system first. Because sometimes the reason the restaurant has low profits is from unnecessarily high costs due to poor management and no standards, such as poor management of raw materials, ordering too many until they are left over and spoil and have to be thrown away, excessive menu editing, no fixed recipes, no stock checking, etc. However, I would like you to try studying about managing a restaurant to have standards in the course. “Systematic establishment of restaurant standards” Then try to improve your store during this time. You may see more profit and can plan promotions to increase sales in the future.

Restaurants are like tourist attractions, which have low and high seasons, which are called Strong month-weak month Depending on the type of shop, for example, a large restaurant might have a hard month during the festival season when there are a lot of customers, around 3 months from November to February, which is the period when there is a lot of profit, while the remaining 9 months might have a loss in sales, but when averaged out yearly, there is still a high profit.

While street food shops may have good sales throughout the 10 months, sales will drop in November to January because this is the period when people are “willing to pay” more money to eat at more expensive restaurants to celebrate the end of the year with friends and family. Therefore, if you consider that you cannot stimulate sales because it is against consumer behavior, it is better to prepare well or do small promotions as gimmicks, such as lucky draws or focus on using LINE OA to collect members, distribute coupons via LINE to build a customer base and create communication with future customers.

You may use this time to develop your restaurant's menu so that it sells well and has good profits and stays with the restaurant for a long time. Analyze and find menus that should be cut and create new menus that are more appealing than before, both selling better and making more profits. We may see profits immediately after developing the menu. We recommend that you study about menu development in the course. “How to develop a menu to increase sales and profits!” With Ajarn Tai Ponchai Nitmethawong

Or if you want to create new menus, design a menu to meet customer needs, always thinking up new menus, designing menus according to trends, designing set menus to add value to each dish, along with designing advertising media both in the restaurant, outside the restaurant and on the table, to designing a food menu book, recommended menu pages, how to arrange a menu book to sell well, try studying more in the course. “Design a menu that will win hearts and generate income like a pro.” By Ajarn Tai Ponchai Nitmethawong as well.

Note: Ajarn Tai Pornchai Nitmethawong, who has more than 10 years of experience in the food business, has worked with world-class brands such as McDonald's, Ichitan Group, Gateaux House, Zaab E Lee Restaurant, Operation Manager at King Kong Yakiniku Buffet, and is currently a Co-Founder of the Facebook Page "Puen Tae Restaurant" and a Restaurant Consultant.