Bright ideas on a budget
Building your business doesn't always require ambitious plans and a massive outlay. Sheila McWattie investigates a few cheap, but well-targeted initiatives that are all you need.
If you'd been Nigel Page or Justine Laycock, the £56m Euro-Millions winners, there's no doubt you'd have found 56 million ways (or more) to improve your business — if you didn't jack it all in completely and jump on the first plane to the Caribbean that is.
Add on some accommodation rooms, perhaps? Splash out on a complete refurbishment? Invest in some state-of-the-art flatscreen TVs and a Sky subscription? Hire a top-notch chef or two?
It's easy to see how your business could be improved if you've any kind of spare cash lying around, but who has much of that these days?
On the other hand, maybe you don't need £56m or anything like it to improve your business. There's many a successful business person, in any industry, who will tell you that often good business is the accumulation of a lot of small activities, rather than the costly big-ticket ones. These are ideas you might term "low cost, high return" initiatives, but what examples are there in the pub trade? The MA went to find out.
Covering all the bases
Punch tenant Peter Gough, of the George & Dragon, in Thringstone, Leicestershire, is involved in a huge range of exactly these sort of low-cost activities that drive trade sig-nificantly and serve the community.
His ideas include a business breakfast club — a Friday morning Networking for Local Business Club that runs from 6.45am to to 8.30am and attracts around 16 men and women from a range of local businesses such as accounting, painting and decorating and IT. Participants pay a £100 annual subscription and £10 weekly, for which they get a full English breakfast and a guest speaker. And trade definitely benefits as members become customers and bring friends and colleagues to the pub.
Other ideas include live band nights, book-swapping, a charity fashion show and sales of cakes and jams that boost business, alongside home-cooked food and a warm welcome.
"We make about £150 a week from locally hand-made cakes and preserves," Gough says. "It's no good sitting there waiting for folk to arrive — be proactive about absolutely everything you do."
He is backed up by Punch bosses, who would like more of their tenants to follow suit.
"Pubs willing to adapt and meet changing consumer needs are seeing real results," says managing director Roger Whiteside. "Our focus is on ensuring that we help our partners drive sales effectively through targeted marketing and event support at key times. Our retail initiatives help our partners drive their businesses forward, from food development and sport-focused activity to coffee and Wi-Fi."
Under-promise, over-deliver
Over at the Scottish & Newcastle Pub Company, head of marketing Matthew Woodward is keen to point out that, by thinking along these lines, licensees will be able to compete with the managed chains more effectively without having to resort to slashing prices.
"The high street is full of price-led offers, but many customers seek more than just value," he says. "Great service, quality products and a good atmosphere, none of which cost money, encourage loyalty and in a difficult trading environment you have to attract them with extras."
He points to Rochelle Hart, of the Stag's Head, Lincoln, whose down-to-earth approach to dealing with the public and competing with managed houses has proved successful.
"Always under-promise and over-deliver," she advises. "We came up with the idea for a day-long family festival, which was really popular the first year, but the next year we had a monsoon. So we ran the activities as six fortnightly themed events on Saturdays and maintained momentum all summer instead."
Woodward points out that the support is there for all licensees willing to try a similar approach.
"Our BDMs encourage all lessees to try new activities and not be risk averse. Practical support includes our Road to Promotions handbook, weblinks and CD, and a website offering finished promotional materials within 72 hours," he adds.
Value of the personal touch
The power of creative thinking is also being emphasised at the Charles Wells Pub Company. Sales & marketing director Peter Wells testifies to the benefits of imaginative activities: "Thirty-three per cent of our estate is in double-digit growth, with none promoting themselves on price.
"It's very hard for pubs to move away from promoting on price, but, before long, service suffers as the overhead cost has to be reduced to pay for lost margin. A licensee promoting a great experience can offer eight to 10 times more value than a consumer can get at home, with that personal touch so often missing in many large managed outlets.
"There's no magic bullet, but many consumers will still be prepared to pay more for the old-fashioned ideas of great service and quality."
Charles Wells leaseholders Nigel & Sue Anstead, who have been at the White Horse in Bedford for five years, and leaseholders for two years, are a good example of this. Nigel says: "Our activities involve varying degrees of cost versus return, but they're all important to our business. Our Tuesday quiz costs less than £20 and has the highest financial impact. We sell 30-plus extra meals and 60 to 120 people buy drinks for the cost of one and a half extra staff - say £50. The benefits of our other events, including our themed dinner nights, days at the races and charity quizzes, are less clear — but they all give us great PR. Our monthly Irish night, with no admission and relying on people just turning up, was an exception - it didn't attract consistent trade."
Marketing through social media
Of course, if you are going to start running events then you will have to promote them. But if "marketing" screams expensive advertising or time-consuming leafleting to you then think again. With unlimited free text deals on mobile phones and a boom in social networking websites, cheap, effective marketing is at your fingertips — and therefore another low cost, high return idea.
Greene King has already spotted the potential of such marketing and has developed work sheets to help licensees get on Facebook and Twitter, and really get behind accessible ways to promote their pubs.
The pubco even recently held a social-media workshop to encourage its licensees to promote activities by taking this quicker, cheaper advertising route — and is amazed at the take-up and level of activity.
"People used to think you needed weeks to put on events, especially in relation to getting the message out — but that's all changed with social media," says recruitment & training manager Caroline Hollings. "You can organise a barbecue at your pub on a hot afternoon and promote it immediately online. This makes promoting events less expensive and more reactive to circumstances and customers' impulsive natures."
Victoria Kevans, who runs the Victoria, a vibrant community pub in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, promotes a £5 supper club on Mondays via Facebook. "I let everyone know what's on the menu and entice them with tempting ideas, such as 'there'll be a warm fire lit so get here early'," she says. "This simple idea results in a very profitable Monday night, with about 25 customers coming in when I'd normally be closed."
Listen to the customers
Key to any of this, however, is empowering tenants, as Fuller's assistant marketing manager Kiran Pal points out. "You have to encourage tenants to get creative, to ask their customers about events they'd like at the pub, and to involve them. This strengthens community spirit on which many tenants pride themselves.
"We advise tenants to set responsibilities for staff in the run-up to an event and at the event itself to ensure everyone feels part of what is going on and has a specific role," Pal says.
Lee Bartlett, of the Fuller's wet-led Lord Nelson, in Brentford, Middlesex, backs this up. "None
