I was reading through last week’s issue of the Westender, which is a local newspaper here in Vancouver, and they were talking about the top picks of city as voted by their readers. They had categories for everything from favorite street to favorite spa, and one of the most popular categories has to be restaurants. They talked about best burgers, best coffee, best Japanese, and so on.
As can be expected, many of these restaurants took advantage of the situation and purchased advertising space next to where they were announced as a winner of a particular category. Some of these ads were simple thank you’s to the readers of the Westender, but many also included coupons that could be used for a free meal, a free appetizer, or a certain percent off. After the readers see that you won the award for best Korean restaurant, they’re much more inclined to pay you a visit, right?
Thai Away Home won two awards: Best Thai Food and Best Take-Out. While I agree that their Thai food is pretty good, I think they need to rethink their marketing strategy. In the ad that they took out, they included a coupon for a free drink. This might work for a place like Cactus Club or another pub where you are able to get a free martini or something, but the Thai Away Home coupon has a maximum value of $1.50. To me, this doesn’t add value to the potential customer; it insults them.
I think that the Thai Away Home ad could have been more effective by taking one of two routes. First, they could have offered a more valuable coupon, like buy one meal get one free. Alternatively, they could have opted for no coupon at all and they would have maintained the respect of the Westender reader. What do you think? Is a coupon worth $1.50 a slap in the face when other restaurants have coupons with values of $10 or more on the same page?
Derek
March 6, 2008 3:23 pm
I would certainly agree that no coupon would be better than a bad coupon. Unfortunately there are likely enough people that will take them up on this coupon that they will feel it was successful and offer the same crappy coupon the next time.
Matt
March 6, 2008 10:52 pm
Great grammar in the title. :P
Do you also have to spend a minimum amount to get that free drink? :P
Michael Kwan
March 7, 2008 8:21 am
Ten bucks.
Liesa Billings
March 8, 2008 5:54 pm
How much is a Tai dish in comparison to a full meal at Cactus Club. hmmm I wonder how Cactus Club is going to do with Rob Feenie as their new Executive Chef.
$1.50 off Take Out Pho Restaurant is completely different than a 10.00 coupon for a full dinner in a Restaurant. You have to turn over a hell of a lot more customers than a restaurant does to make money. Why work harder and make less money? I’m sure those $10 dollar coupons are based on a purchase of a certain amount of food or one per visit max of 2 per table or something like that.
It is also illegal to advertise or give away free alcohol and you’d be shut down fast for doing so. A free can of pop is more expensive than a glass of pop in a restaurant as they use bags and per glass it’s about .03 – .07 cents.
These small businesses have to pay recycling fees on canned/plastic/tetra beverages so that makes it even more expensive due to the fact that they don’t get these back. The margin for profit is already lowered by these circumstances.
You want your customer to have a discounted or coupon advertise that every day the Fresh Sheet has nothing priced over $10.00 and give them something with perceived value with the same profit margin as selling something off of the regular menu.
I give that coupons are great for promotions in certain businesses. In others it’s a sign of desperation for a business. In my opinion as soon as you see a good restaurant start advertising coupons it’s a sure sign that they are going under. While if you open a new restaurant and always have coupons from the get go it’s impossible to lose that coupon or those coupons customers will stop coming in. If your a huge chain people expect to see them in those coupons books or have special dishes created just for that time running, like Panago or say Swiss Chalet.
So I’ve said enough I’m sure. Hope you don’t mind my rant !
Cheers