Mark McCulloch: 'If I am going out, I expect to be entertained, wowed and inspired'
When meeting with clients or any operators, a big focus is always: how can we create more business? And they usually want to focus on filling their venue when people are at work, as well as at times where they do not usually perform well (breakfast versus dinner) and also when people simply do not want to go out.
This takes a lot more thought and guile than merely a discount or a promotion. For example, if I am going out on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday evening, or going to eat breakfast at your restaurant, which I see firmly as a place for lunch, or even if take valuable holiday time off to spend time at your venue, then I expect to be entertained, wowed and inspired.
Well-thought through
The types of promotions that have wowed me and left me thinking how clever the companies and venues have been to run these are well-thought through, attended and publicised, which all equal more business.
The first of which is Young’s Scotch Egg challenge hosted at the Ship in Wandsworth and Fuller’s equally brilliant Sausage Roll Off held at the Red Lion, Barnes. They are fast becoming a must-attend event and will only grow as the years go by. They might need to find a bigger venue and could create a whole weekend of pub-based skills. The buzz this creates is immense, and includes mentions on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, huge promotion from the Twitterati including the incredible Gizzi Erskine and blogs like @hotdinners. This type of amplification would never happen with a standard pub quiz or a karaoke eveing (unless Cheryl Cole or Adele popped in).
National Burger Day was a rampant success and the main factor was enlisting the help of men’s weekly free magazine Shortlist.
Slow days
YO! Sushi’s Blue Mondays and (what was) Sumo Sundays are also smart because they offer the same great food on (what would be) the slowest days of the week. However, by some clever engineering of the menu and a few simple rules that ‘don’t get in the way of ops’, they can offer people a real incentive to get out and enjoy a start-of-the-week treat on what many would consider the most boring days of the week.
Other ideas that made me sit up and think about what can help my clients are Drake & Morgan butchery classes and the Coffeesmiths Collective’s barista classes. I used to work for an experiences’ side of the lastminute.com business and it is the experiences that people are seeking, self-improvement and sharing in creating memories that people seek now in the ‘age of me (MillEnnials)’ that we live in.
For inspiration on what you might do to create more business, I would also look at experience days sites such as www.virginexperiencedays.co.uk and self improvement courses like this at the Guardian www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/browse-masterclasses and School of Life www.theschooloflife.com/shop/calendar.
