The fastest and best way to reduce costs for a restaurant is to boost sales.  Just a 2% increase in sales is equivalent to a 10% reduction in costs.

I’m ready to help arm you (or if you’re a supplier – help you arm your customers or clients) with 10 of the most sure-fired ways I know to boost sales.  To help make it all a little easier to digest and implement, this proven set of 10 strategies will be broken up into a 10 part series with one new recommendation going out per day (appearing first in my newsletter, so sign up today).

The recession has seemed to batter everyone’s spirits.  The global recession truly is/was global.  While we are seeing many emerging markets recover quickly and then start to accelerate again, much of the mature western markets (U.S., Canada, Mexico, U.K., and other parts of Europe) continue to lag.  While we are thrilled for our clients in those emerging markets who are bursting at the seams with growth an possibility, we are also optimistic about the opportunities for clients in flat or falling markets.  Fact is, the best time to gain better employees, grow market share, and outshine the competition is when the competition can’t afford to keep up.  Recessions are often when you see the biggest gains in market share (just ask Carlos Slim who catapulted to the top spot of the world’s richest men in 2010 with about a $25 billion advantage over Bill Gates and Warren Buffett).

[For more on how the restaurant industry benefits from a recession visit my "Restaurant Recession" blog post]

Okay, let’s begin.  We’ll start with a general premise:  “Sales cure all that ail you.”  It’s a lot easier to ride a bucking Bronco than to drag a dead horse.  When you have healthy revenue growth, you can fix a lot of bugs and pesky problems others with flat or falling sales have to suffer.  Here are a few of our go-to favorites when we need to get some quick wins for clients – and these are pretty universal so whether you run a mom and pop restaurant or a global chain, these can work for you too:

BOOSTING RESTAURANT REVENUE:

PART 1 of 10: Restaurant PR – A well placed story can be worth its weight in gold.  Restaurant public relations (PR) has entered a whole new era with the emergence of social media.  Just five years ago, the only way to build a buzz in the media was with dedicated media relations teams and intoxicating pitches to elite journalists.  While the fundamentals of media relations and importance of traditional media outlets have not become less important, the new media tools and vehicles to garner publicity have boomed.  Just five years ago social networking barely showed up on the Internet traffic monitors, but today it is the bulk of the traffic on the Internet.  Publicity and celebrity status are more in reach for foodservice organizations with skeleton crew marketing departments.  This isn’t to say publicity itself is “easier” just to say that it’s more accessible now.

Whether you asked Ray Kroc of McDonald’s or the founders of Outback or even the recent runaway success stories like Chipotle – their founders will all tell you the same thing; they had buzz and PR wins that began mounting on top of one another and helped rocket them to the top.  The restaurant marketing approaches billion-dollar chains use after they become billion-dollar chains aren’t the same ones they used when they were under that threshold.   A commonality is a well-oiled publicity machine.

Consumers trust what they see in the media.  Anyone with a checkbook can buy an ad, but not just anyone gets written about.  When a brand is worth writing about, it’s worth talking about.

Traditional public relations efforts targeting magazines and trade journals with long lead-times require a very professional, patient, and methodical approach.  It takes time – and a great story – to romance traditional media.  And traditional media is incredibly important.  The long-term impact of a solid PR campaign can be an absolute game-changer.  Fortunately, in the short term, for those seeking more immediate exposure for their story and offerings, new media and publicity strategies can be put in place that have an almost immediate result.  The ideal approach is to blend both traditional PR and new media, but no restaurant should be without either.  PR is a necessity, not a nicety.

Additional Resources:

Restaurant Advertising Versus Restaurant Public Relations

The Value of Restaurant Public Relations

The Fall of Restaurant Advertising

The Benefits of Restaurant Public Relations

Anyone With a Checkbook can Buy an Ad

Word of Mouth in the Age of Social Media

BOOSTING RESTAURANT REVENUE PART TWO

We can all agree that the best restaurant marketing is word of mouth.  However, if it’s not worth writing about, it’s not worth talking about.

Journalists are trained even more acutely trained than the rest of us to see what’s different (see Restaurant Marketing: Be the Only).  They don’t produce stories in newspapers, magazines and feature restaurants on TV and on the radio that are just the same as everybody else.  They produce stories about what’s different, unique, has all of the elements of great story (hero, villain, antagonist, protagonist, conflict and resolution, etc).

Betterness claims don’t get published unless they can be substantiated by a solid point of difference – something unique.

Likewise, restaurant consumers don’t go out and sing the praises of a restaurant to all of their family and friends unless they experience something truly remarkable and DIFFERENT.

Restaurant PR (restaurant public relations) is about building credibility and getting the implied endorsement of media who write about your restaurant.  Consumers are savvy.  They know that ads are bought but that good editorial coverage is earned.  When a respected media outlet is so intrigued by a restaurant company that they do a story on them in their editorial section, consumers are more interested in visiting the restaurant (this is in part why both Chipotle and Celebrity Farmer Joel Salatin are the darlings of the industry – they have a great story).

Think of Restaurant PR like this – imagine the kid who got in to Stanford because his family had connections versus the one who got in based on the merit of his grades and contributions to his community.  Who would you root for if you were an objective outsider?  The one that earned it in most cases.

When consumers flip through newspapers, magazines, the channels, etc – they give more credit to those who earned editorial coverage than those who bought advertising.  If you want to shave money from your restaurant marketing budget and grow a strong local, regional, national or international brand, you need to invest in a solid restaurant public relations program.

Restaurant Consultant Aaron Allen

For publicity campaigns to be effective they must be sustained and ongoing.  In the short-run, publicity stunts can garner quick and substantial exposure which translates to revenues.  These publicity stunts can be created in a way that reflect the brand and propel it forward versus just stunts for the sake of publicity.

“Cause Marketing” (i.e. charity programs) is also a component of a multi-pronged PR campaign.  These programs garner goodwill and yield benefits well beyond just the positive financial impact they can have in the short-term.  PR can reach and impact investor perceptions, landlords, recruiting efforts, retention efforts, vendor relations and even vendor pricing, joint venture partnerships, future acquisitions, and nearly every other way you can imagine to apply positive goodwill.

Another of the many tools in the PR utility kit includes FAM Trips (or familiarization trips).  These are designed for attracting travel journalists and stimulate coverage in transient “feeder markets”. 

Public relations campaigns are about much more than just community or customer relations programs though.  They are about corporate image, corporate reputation and about out-smarting versus out-spending the competition.  Bill Gates once said if he was down to his last dollar he would spend it on PR.  We highly encourage our clients to consider allocating 10% – 20% of the overall marketing budget to the public relations discipline. 

In certain cases, these campaigns take months to begin to show results, but once they gain momentum they become freight trains and the positive traction can last for years. 

Restaurant Consultant Aaron Allen

The National Restaurant Association (USA) has reported the average restaurant marketing budget is three percent (3%) of total revenues. Critics argue this point and we’ve seen budgets ranging from zero to six percent (6%).  We believe this depends on the brand, operations performance, market conditions and a host of other variables. Yet, while many can generally agree on a reasonable allocation of overall sales, they pay surprisingly little attention to how the money is allocated beyond just falling into the “marketing budget”. Once you have the allocation, where does it go?

The Digital Marketing Toolkit

We recommend that of the three percent (3%) allocated to the marketing/advertising line-item, forty-percent (40%) of that be dedicated to digital marketing and publicity efforts. Going further still though, the budget, the strategy, timelines, the tactics, the messages, must now all be succinctly distilled and then divided among a number of cutting-edge new digital media categories. This list of vehicles is mind-boggling and it only continues to grow and fragment. You’ve got the Internet and Intranet, search engine optimization and Pay Per Click advertising, digital signage, narrowing-casting and Podcasting, RSS feeds, social media and social networks, Wiki’s, Widgets, Mash-ups, Analytics – the list grows and grows. These are sustainable emerging technologies too – not just fly by night digital jargon.

It’s Natural for it to all Seem Overwhelming

The marketing rules have changed in the digital era and the train is moving like a bullet. Yes, the principles of marketing – the four P’s, brand strategy, etc. – these remain as true today as ever.  They are bedrock and all too often marketers chase the latest fad while forgetting proven principles to restaurant branding.  While maintaining a close connection to the fundamentals of restaurant marketing we should also be reaching out to discover the innovative new approaches that will prove to be game-changers.  It all sounding complicated and overwhelming isn’t a good excuse for ignoring the seismic shift that’s afoot.

The Trend Will Pickup Velocity

Digital marketing is has only started to become recognized as a powerful tool in the restaurant marketers toolkit.  Today it represents a tiny fraction of the overall restaurant marketing budget for chains and independents alike.  Given that more than 30% of restaurant customers will visit the restaurants website before visiting the restaurant itself, getting a solid web presence and supporting it with a strong digital marketing and publicity campaign is more important than ever. 

Restaurant Consultant Aaron Allen

Especially in this economy, every restaurateur is looking for ways to cut costs. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about the cost cutting – if you do the wrong things to reduce costs, you can create problems and even incur hidden costs in the long run. Sometimes when you’re trying to solve a problem, it helps to consider what not to do.

So here are 10 things you shouldn’t do when looking for restaurant cost-cutting ideas.

Top 10 ways NOT to cut costs at your restaurant:

1. Lower Quality – Whatever you do, don’t trade your reputation for a short-term and incremental decrease in your costs. Customers can tell when a restaurant lowers quality. One restaurant I used to love stopped putting pancetta and fresh parmesan on their Caesar Salad. The Caesar used to be the best I’d had in the U.S., but it wasn’t the same without the original ingredients. They may have saved a few pennies, but the end result was a lower quality option. I used to spend $200 a week or more at that restaurant – I’ll bet that the money they saved on that ingredient switch didn’t make up for losing even one customer who visited as frequently as I did.

2. Skimp – Another trick we see implemented in hard times is to skimp on ingredients. Let’s say you have a pizza restaurant and the manager gets a bonus for maintaining a 32% food cost. What happens next week if he misses his bonus because he ran a 34% food cost? Yep, you guessed it, the next week he comes in at 30%. Now, the owner may be happy at first because the food cost balanced out, and the manager is happy because he got the bonus, but the reality is there were customers last week that got fewer mushrooms and less cheese on their pizza. They notice the skimping and go to a competitor. When customers defect, you lose more in lifetime customer value than you ever gained by cheating them with skimping.

3. Overstock – When the recession hit, manufacturing took a dive as businesses began depleting existing inventory rather than ordering new inventory. Par levels were reduced to get more in line with reduced demand. When you get your inventory levels in check with demand, you perform at a healthier level in terms of cash flow and liquidity. Of course, this is a balancing act: if you run inventory down too low, you run the risk of running out. Your inventory levels are important to keep an eye on when you’re cutting costs – be mindful, but don’t cut back too far.

4. Close Too Early – When you close early, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. No matter what, your last hour will be slower than your peak hour. When you close earlier and earlier, you will start to notice a shorter peak period. You may think that you’re saving a few hundred dollars by closing early, but you will probably come out worse-off in the long run. As I write this I am in Seaside, Florida (www.seasidefl.com). A local restaurant keeps closing before 9 p.m. Last night the kitchen closed at 8:25 and earlier this week the restaurant closed by 7:30 (they don’t even open for dinner until 5:30 p.m.). The overhead of having a sprawling restaurant on the Gulf of Mexico is fixed – you already are paying rent, utilities, taxes and a bunch of other costs just to plant your flag in the sand each day, and those costs are not diminished by closing a few hours early. The other problem with closing early is that you start to train your customers to expect you to be closed, and so they decide to avoid your place altogether the next time they go out. A lot of these customers will end up converting to your competitors and, for the few hundred dollars you “saved” by closing early, you lose untold thousands in real “lifetime value” from the customers who defected to your competitors that were open while you were closed.

5. Destroy Morale – It is impossible for you alone to cut your costs – every restaurant is connected to a network of people, from vendors to employees, and you need their support if you’re going to make meaningful cost reductions. If you beat up on your vendors too hard, if you push your staff too far, you may get your short-term results – but at the cost of your long-term partners. No one wants to work for a tyrant, and your vendors and staff are even less likely to go out of their way to save you money if they feel stepped on or disrespected for the sake of corporate profit.

6. Cut Maintenance – Maintenance seems to be another of those areas that gets cut when times are lean. Don’t do it. Even if it means borrowing money, you can’t cut maintenance. When maintenance gets cut, lights start to get burned out without being replaced, bathrooms fall into disrepair, hood systems get clogged, fryer oil is replaced less often, and ultimately you run the risk of causing long-term and expensive damage to your equipment, your staff and your customer perceptions. There’s nothing more depressing than a dim, poorly maintained restaurant.

7. Carry Dead Weight – Cull through your ranks. Make a clear-headed, unsentimental evaluation of who is with you based on tenure, seniority or nepotism and who is there because they are actually loyal, committed and high-performance contributors. Turnover of staff is costly, but keeping bad employees and dead weight can be even more costly.

8. Fragment or Splinter – You can find a cheaper price on nearly any individual item you stock or service you hire…but there are hidden costs to being cheap. When you start fragmenting your purchasing across several vendors, you lose leverage and often get hit with costs you weren’t expecting (such as delivery costs, accounting work, unredeemed rebates, etc). Long-standing deep relationships with vendors are often more valuable when you need to cut costs, rather than fly-by-night vendors who you only work with to save a buck.

9. Be Penny-Wise and Pound-Foolish – This goes hand in hand with many of the other suggestions above, but keep in mind the negative impact that can happen in terms of reduced focus or decreased morale with penny-wise approaches. For instance, getting rid of free coffee for staff may save a bit of money each week, but it can have a demoralizing effect on the staff – especially in a recession, people don’t like to feel nickel-and-dimed in the workplace all the time. Some small things like free coffee are highly valued by your staff – more than you may realize. Don’t let the pressure to cut costs lead you astray from your core values and the moral principles your brand stands on.

10. Spend more time in the back office than the front of house – A downturn can cause stress, depression, anxiety and frustration for everyone involved, especially restaurant owners. These emotions can wear you down and sap your happiness and passion. If you feel this starting to happen, take a break. When you worry and get run down, it will invariably impact staff morale and the levels of hospitality your restaurant delivers, which will only make matters worse. Remember, you’re in the hospitality business – you’re in the business of delivering a joyful and pleasant and relaxing customer experience. Yes, it’s a business and that means tending to the numbers, but it can’t be done at the cost of the customer experience and levels of passion, professionalism and hospitality you deliver.

I hope you have found this article helpful. Please share your comments and suggestions on other ideas you have for restaurant cost cutting using the reply form below. We’d love to hear from you and share your insights with other readers.

There was a time when a good reputation alone, spread by word of mouth, was enough to create and maintain a successful restaurant. Those times; however, are long gone. More than it ever has been, positive public awareness is vital to a restaurant’s success, and this positive public awareness is today best achieved through a restaurant public relations campaign, versus traditional restaurant advertising.

An effective restaurant public relations campaign that generates favorable exposure through newspapers, magazines, TV stations, radio stations and the Internet has a wider reach than word-of-mouth alone. And the public lends more credibility to articles they read and stories they hear about your restaurant than advertisements they read and see.

A carefully crafted restaurant public relations campaign will raise both media and consumer awareness of your business. Simply put, the “buzz” about your restaurant begins and remains through the media. By cultivating positive relationships with the media and creating publicity via the media, restaurant operators enhance their chances for continued prosperity.

So what exactly is restaurant public relations, and why is it the best route for you to create positive awareness? People often confuse public relations with advertising, but the two are dramatically different.  Simply put, advertising places ads while public relations places news. Restaurant public relations helps form a favorable public opinion through the “implied endorsement” of non-biased industry authorities (namely print and broadcast media members). Consider, which holds more weight – an advertisement about a new restaurant opening or a positive article written in editorial style about the hottest new restaurant in town?

People are skeptical of what they see in an advertisement. It’s easy to toot your own horn. It’s more difficult to get someone to believe your claims through advertising alone.

Restaurant public relations allows personalization of your story. Because they are so costly, advertisements do not give you ample room to personalize the story of your restaurant. A restaurant public relations campaign does. By generating multiple story angles designed to reach different media outlets, (such as business journals, food service and hospitality trade publications, daily and weekly newspapers, city and regional magazines, regional dining and entertainment publications, and major national magazines) you enhance the number of published and broadcast stories about your restaurant. And each of these stories educates the public of what your restaurant is all about.

Take, for example, a high-end Middle Eastern restaurant, Leila, that was opening in West Palm Beach. To create a broad base of media coverage, the restaurant public relations firm wrote and distributed an assortment of ongoing press releases focusing on such story angles such as the integral role the restaurant is playing in the revitalization of the historic district it is located in; the health benefits of Mediterranean cuisine, and a profile on Leila’s owner, who is a successful entrepreneur born in Syria.

The restaurant public relations firm also created story angles detailing the cultural elements of the restaurant, including the true and often misconceived art of belly dancing, the Arabic tradition of smoking the arguileh (water pipe) and the Middle Eastern custom of mezze (which involves sharing generous portions of appetizers among family and friends).

As a result of the press releases, stories were published in local and regional newspapers and magazines, creating a buzz leading up to the grand opening and beyond. In fact, a month before the restaurant even opened, it was booked solid with private parties because planners read about it.

Restaurant public relations is also more cost-effective. Compare the cost of a direct mail campaign or a display ad in a publication with the cost of writing and distributing a press release. There is no comparison. The cost of hiring a restaurant public relations firm to produce press releases and get them placed in media outlets is a fraction of what you pay for advertisements. In addition, the articles the press release generates may be viewed by a larger audience since consumers tend to pay more attention to stories than advertisements.

Consumers also often clip articles they read about a restaurant they would like to try or a destination they would like to visit. Also, a copy of the publication containing your article can be passed around, mailed or generally distributed to customers and other contacts. This is another way to “touch” customers and prospects; they typically like to be informed about special accomplishments and kept up-to-date on both you and your company.

If the newspaper or magazine is noteworthy in your area, you can cite “as seen in” on all printed advertising, e-mail signatures and point-of-purchase marketing. “As seen in Palm Beach Illustrated” or even “The Boston Globe” can give you tremendous credibility and set you apart from your competition in a significant way.

Of course, one public relations opportunity often leads to another. For example, assignment editors and reporters at TV and radio stations read the local and regional newspapers and magazines, and sometimes get story ideas from published articles they read. In addition, editors and reporters at newspapers and magazines sometimes get ideas from stories they hear on the radio or see on TV.

The ultimate goal of a restaurant public relations campaign is to get you noticed, and to attract guests into your location. A flattering article in the local newspaper or regional magazine creates a celebrity status for the person or place profiled. This truly separates you from your competition.

A major misconception of restaurant public relations is that media exposure is only beneficial if it appears in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times. Landing a story in a national publication or a prominent television or radio show is certainly reason to cheer – and it will provide valuable publicity that an advertisement could never achieve – but an effective restaurant public relations campaign starts closer to home. There are a variety of accessible, well-targeted media opportunities eager for good story ideas.

Chains of small weekly and daily newspapers, major metropolitan newspapers, city magazines, state magazines, local and regional women’s newspapers, local and regional senior lifestyle magazines, local and regional family publications and local and regional dining and entertainment newspapers are among the media outlets that are ideal targets for stories on your restaurant.

You don’t want to serve as your own restaurant public relations firm. Some people think they can write a press release, send it to the media and watch the publicity from published and broadcast stories pour in. If that was the case, then public relations firms wouldn’t exist. Effective restaurant public relations is an art that involves writing well-crafted press releases with story angles that interest the media, not self-serving marketing verbiage. There is nothing more irritating to reporters than receiving poorly written press releases with no newsworthy angles.

This is why you should hire a restaurant public relations firm to design and implement your public relations campaign. It allows you to focus on your core business. When choosing a restaurant public relations firm to coordinate your restaurant’s campaign, it is vital to hire an agency that knows the industry inside and out, does not require long-term contracts and has staff members who have worked as journalists since they will think like reporters and editors.

To find such a firm, you can conduct a search on the Internet, ask for referrals and look for companies that are generating favorable press for their clients.  Chances are great that the restaurant companies you read about in trade publications are being supported by an effective restaurant public relations firm.

It’s also extremely important to make sure the firm you’re considering has a genuine interest in your business, background and future potential.  If they can’t get excited about what you do, it will be harder for them to get the media excited enough to write about you.

Remember, the goal of a restaurant public relations campaign is to create and maintain a buzz about your restaurant, build your credibility, position you in the market place and save you money over traditional advertising. There are lots of media outlets within your reach if you have a well-crafted plan, and the right restaurant public relations firm to execute it.

Not just Volkswagen, of course, but hundreds of other brands became successful because of advertising. Timex, with retired NBC News anchor John Cameron Swayze, showed its watches run over by trains or dropped from airplanes and announced, “It takes a licking, and keeps on ticking.” People believed it and Timex took off.

Dozens of restaurant advertising slogans passed into everyday language, from “Breakfast of champions” to “The Big Mac Attack” and “Have it your way.” Restaurant advertisements that we would call “great” made up only a small percentage of total advertising – getting something new and unusual past the consumer was always a tough sell – the restaurant advertising revolution continued into the 1980’s. Agencies competed to outshine each other with attention-getting wit based on what Rosser Reeves, the founder of today’s mega agency, Ted Bates, called the Unique Selling Proposition.

Then, something happened. Let’s fast-forward to today, when restaurant ads we’d call “great” are not only scarcer than hen’s teeth, but amateurish to boot. If you’ve leafed through a Newsweek or Time in the past month, can you recall any ads? How many times do you see a commercial on TV where you don’t know what they’re selling? So much for the Unique Selling Proposition. And often, you’re not even sure whose ad it was. So much for branding. Whether restaurant advertising stopped attracting the brightest and the best, fell asleep resting on its laurels, or market forces simply dampened people’s enthusiasm for it, the fact remains, that restaurant advertising is just not working like it used to.

Taking the place of restaurant advertising, in efforts to garner brand recognition, is public relations. Today’s public relations is not what it used to be, either. Even if some public relations firms may still rely on the stodgy, stiff press release of yesterday, to the new wave of public relations consultants, PR is much more.

Let’s say that today’s PR, particularly for restaurants, is “interactive.”

This is the era of events. Events such as a restaurant grand opening become must-attend events that no one wants to miss.  When frogs parachute from the sky, as they did to mark the grand opening of Grupo Anderson’s Senor Frog’s in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, people were talking. Events aren’t limited to grand openings either. Events can be staged to attract news coverage and publicity, as long as it’s carefully linked to tactics planned in the restaurant marketing plan, the event should maintain newsworthy value.

Then there is the bread and butter of the restaurant PR business, the press release. It has become interactive, too.

We don’t look at a press release as an announcement written AP style, ready for the editor to whittle down to one paragraph. AP style is fine, but what we try to do is make a story people want to read and make the client part of it.

Having taken a firm position on the dissolution of restaurant advertising and advocating, as we do, restaurant public relations as the most effective way to promote a restaurant, we don’t turn our backs on restaurant advertising completely.

No one would disagree that an outdoor sign is an important means of guiding transient traffic off the interstate and into a Cracker Barrel, or that McDonald’s finds great media efficiency with their 30,000+ restaurants. However, if you’re in any way a unique concept- and in today’s competitive environment you better be to stay alive – then you need to leverage your story and uniqueness. You also need to connect with your audience in a real and personal way. Restaurant advertising simply can’t do it.

It is important to keep in mind: whatever it is, no matter how small you think the news about your restaurant may be, it can always be turned into a story the local press will be glad to carry. Often, it can also be made attractive to the regional and national media too. And remember, the more famous you become, the more they’ll write about you. Restaurant PR gains momentum on a constant budget, restaurant advertising does not.

If you contact me, I’ll be happy to fill you in on the cost-effectiveness of restaurant public relations vs. restaurant advertising and share with you case studies on how our style of public relations has made a big difference in the bottom line for specific clients.

We are convinced, through these tested and proven tactics, that restaurant public relations is the answer to the growth of the restaurant business in today’s market.

Through a variety of vehicles, an effective restaurant public relations campaign lets your intended audience become familiar with what your business is all about. Other forms of advertising, like billboard advertising, limit you to post a single message that customers may only see for a split second.

What are examples of elements that compose an effective restaurant public relations campaign?

• A series of ongoing press releases cover specific story angles targeting different print and broadcast media outlets.
• Online and print newsletters showcase various elements of your business.
• Web site copy entertains and educates your target audience.
• Hard copy and/or online media kits provide detailed information about your business to reporters and editors.

Restaurant public relations builds credibility while restaurant advertising breeds skepticism.

“Advertising you pay for, public relations (PR) you pray for.” Though the adage is an old one, it is especially true today. People often confuse restaurant PR with any form of restaurant advertising, but the two are dramatically different. Simply put, restaurant advertising places ads while restaurant PR places news. Both are designed to elevate consumers’ interest in product or service. Both often use the same media; print, radio and television and the Internet. This is where the similarities end.

The late entertainer Will Rogers once said, “All I know is just what I read in the papers.” Restaurant PR generates news coverage, and news coverage builds credibility. The objective of restaurant PR is to tell your story through third-party outlets, primarily the media. People believe what they read in newspapers and magazines, what they hear on the radio and what they see on television. People are skeptical of what they see on a billboard or in any advertisement. A published article or a broadcast story on radio and television is more credible than the most well-placed advertisement.

Restaurant PR is cost effective; restaurant advertising is costly.

It would be difficult to find an executive who would prefer seeing his company’s ads on a billboard instead of a news feature in a newspaper or magazine. The article builds credibility, positions the company as an industry leader and generates awareness without costing a penny.

Some people believe that the higher the price, the greater the value. In the case of advertising, figures indicate companies pay Rolex prices for Timex value. Brands are best built with a long-term public relations plan, not a short-term advertising blitz. Figures show that in the eyes and minds of consumers, what they see and read in the media has more of an impact and is more viable than what they see and read in advertisements.

Restaurant PR builds brand awareness and loyalty.

In their book, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, Al & Laura Ries make the following statements: “The birth of a brand is achieved with publicity, not advertising.”

Simply put, restaurant PR keeps your company’s name and your brands in front of the marketplace. An ongoing restaurant PR campaign helps you rise above the noise threshold of other selling messages that are constantly competing for share of mind.

Restaurant PR stimulates qualified sales leads.

Studies show that articles often pull more and better qualified inquiries than ads for the same product in the same magazine. This is no doubt related to the credibility and personalization issues.

It is also due to the fact that restaurant PR has more staying power than billboard ads. When readers see stories in newspapers and magazines that interest them, they tend to clip the story or keep the entire publication.

Restaurant PR broadens your reach.

With restaurant PR, you can extend your selling messages into markets that cannot be cost-effectively reached with paid advertising. For example, when you post a billboard advertisement, even when drivers happen to spot your ad, they only see it for a short moment.

When consumers read newspapers and magazines, they devote their full attention to articles that spark their interest. With an effective restaurant PR campaign, articles on your business are published in print and online publications. If a particular story angle has a certain appeal, it is told on TV and radio news and talk shows.

Restaurant PR builds relationships with the media.

Think of the editors and journalists covering your industry as the “gateway” to millions of readers. A key to successful PR is building and maintaining cordial business relationships with these key opinion makers. By limiting your marketing to billboard advertising and other forms of advertising, you are unable to develop relationships with media members who can tell your story to a wide audience at a fraction of the cost of advertising.

The key to effective restaurant PR is a consistent campaign, which includes ongoing press releases and media relations. By keeping your company’s name in the media’s eyes, certain press release story angles will capture the interest of a reporter or editor.

Restaurant PR establishes you as an expert in your industry.

When consumers read an article and see a source that is often quotes in stories, they develop the idea that the source is an expert in his or her industry.

Not only is effective restaurant PR about writing press releases and placing them in media outlets, it’s also about educating the media about your background and expertise so they will call on you when they need a source for a particular story.

Bill Gates once said, “If I was down to my last dollar, I’d spend it on public relations.” Restaurant public relations generates news coverage, and news coverage builds credibility. The objective of Restaurant Public Relations is to tell your story through third-party outlets, primarily the media. People believe what they read in newspapers and magazines, what they hear on the radio and what they see on television. People are skeptical of what they see in a restaurant advertisement.

Many restaurant advertising campaigns are mathematical successes and marketing failures. Restaurant advertising may reach it’s intended mass audience with enough frequency and still not increase sales of the product or service. The emphasis of restaurant public relations is not on reach or frequency, but the credentials of the medium and the quality of the placement.

A published article or a broadcast story on radio and television is more credible than the most well placed restaurant advertisement. Credibility is critical. Consumers will trust a feature in Car & Driver or Consumer Reports describing why the Ford Taurus is the best in its class more than they will a slick advertisement from Ford claiming that it stands above the competition. Volvo didn’t gain its reputation of safety through advertising. Instead, it gained consumer trust through publicity from stories like its invention of the three-point lap-and-shoulder safety belt.

In an attempt to fool readers, some companies even attempt to create restaurant advertising that is designed to look like features. These are known as advertorials. Publications; however, make sure readers are aware the advertorial is paid restaurant advertising thus eliminating credibility in the minds of readers.

Restaurant Public Relations Is Not Intrusive, Restaurant Advertising is

In one of Aesop’s fables, the sun and the wind disagreed about who was the stronger of the two. They saw a man walking down the road, so they decided to settle the dispute by seeing who could make him take off his coat. The wind took its turn first. The harder the wind blew, the more closely the man wrapped his coat around him. The sun then began to shine, and it wasn’t long before the man felt the sun’s warmth and removed his coat.

Like the wind in Aesop’s fable, restaurant advertising is often perceived as an imposition. The harder the sell, the harder the wind blows and the harder the prospect resists the sales message. Restaurant public relations is like the sun. It leads to action and produces results subtly by presenting its message through an objective third party; the media.

Restaurant Public Relations Is Cost-Effective, Restaurant Advertising is Costly

Some business executives have the wrong impression that, because it appears on television or in a slick, glossy magazine, restaurant advertising is worth the expense. History has shown that, even though a commercial may have entertainment value, it doesn’t move consumers to purchase the product. People enjoyed the Pets.com sock puppet, but apparently not enough to purchase their pet products online. David Leisure was funny as Joe Isuzu, but his comedic advertisements did not cause a rush to Isuzu dealerships.

Versus advertising, a news feature in Forbes or Fortune builds credibility, positions the company as an industry leader and generates awareness without costing a penny.

Restaurant Public Relation’s Life Span Is Longer than Restaurant Advertising

To the typical consumer, an ad is like a butterfly. Its life span is short-lived. This isn’t the case with restaurant public relations. A well-placed story can reap benefits for an extended period. The fundamental restaurant public relations strategy is to place a story in one publication and move it up the ladder to another magazine or newspaper, or transfer it to another medium such as radio or television. A story can also be sent down the ladder. For example, an article in the Wall Street Journal often later appears in smaller publications, further enhancing the story’s effectiveness.

When determining whether to spend your marketing budget on restaurant public relations or restaurant advertising, weigh the importance of credibility, cost-effectiveness and a positive corporate image.  Though your restaurant public relations campaign may not be as expansive, the figures show that in the eyes and minds of consumers, what they see and read in the media has more of an impact and is more viable than what they see and read in advertisements, making the phrase, “Restaurant advertising you pay for, restaurant public relations you pray for,” fact and not just an old adage. High-volume restaurants, chain restaurants and leading supplier companies looking for cost-effective marketing should first consider restaurant public relations as a tool.  Effective restaurant public relations can create record sales for your company and often for less than the cost of a single newspaper ad or billboard.

If restaurant advertising isn’t working for you, strongly consider appropriating 15% – 30% of your total promotional budget on an effective restaurant public relations campaign.  You’ll find both short-term and long-term gains from this approach that will have a positive cumulative impact far greater than traditional restaurant advertising approaches.