The restaurant industry is incredibly competitive. An estimated 60% of all restaurants do not survive past their first three years. Restaurants that do succeed tend to do so by differentiating themselves from the competition.
As a restaurant owner, it is important to take all possible steps to set your brand apart. One of the best things that you can do is develop custom branded products that you can distribute. These products will help make your brand more memorable.
Here are some benefits of branded promotional materials.
They are a cheap way to solidify your brand in the mind of your customers
There are plenty of ways to grow your brand as a restaurant owner. However, some are going to be much more cost-effective than others.
I recall reading about the ROI of different promotional strategies and mediums from Marketing for Dummies about 15 years ago. Online marketing was a relatively new concept, so it was not covered in much detail. Of all the different mediums, using branded products had the highest ROI after word-of-mouth.
Product marketing is great for reaching people of almost any demographic
Restaurants have very high expenses and operate on slim profit margins. The average profit margin in the restaurant industry is only around 4%. Therefore, successful restaurant companies need to use the most cost-effective marketing strategies possible.
Some marketing mediums have an excellent ROI. However, they are not ideal for reaching all customers. For example, digital marketing is a very cost-effective way to reach many customers. However, older consumers and people living in certain world communities are not the most avid Internet users.
One of the great things about using custom, branded products such as custom printed magnets to reach people is that they are universally popular among almost every demographic. This means that they can be especially useful for restaurants that want to appeal to a wide demographic base.
You can recoup your costs
One of the great things about promotional products is that you can often sell them through various retail channels. This means that you might be able to make up for the costs of producing and distributing them. This will help significantly stretch your marketing budget.
One way that restaurants can do this is by selling these products in their own facilities. I recently visited a lobster restaurant in Maine that has its own gift shop, where it sells pens and clothing with the company name on it.
Customers will have a more tangible perspective of your brand
Some businesses focus on delivering services. Restaurants sell physical products. Therefore, it is important to get customers to think of your brand in a more tangible way.
Product marketing is a great way to do this. Since your customers will physically interact with the products that have your branding messages on them, the brand will seem more real to them.
You don’t have to pay for repetition of your branding messages
The average customer has to be exposed to a brand around seven times before they commit to making a purchase. With most other mediums, you need to pay for every interaction with the customer.
This is not the case when you are conveying your branding messages through physical products. People will be exposed to your brand dozens or hundreds of times after purchasing one of your branded products.