What are the marketing strategies for the catering industry?

Marketing is not just a single sales model, it involves a wide range of aspects, including marketing research, hotel product design, development and pricing, product promotion, product circulation, etc. content.

Hotel marketing is related to the development and prospects of the hotel, so how can hotel marketing take full advantage of it? This must always be considered in the entire hotel operation. In my opinion, to do a good job in marketing, we must first formulate the best marketing orientation, choose a better target market, and actively use and develop various marketing strategies to achieve high-quality marketing. ultimate goal.

Organizing Marketing

When marketing is carried out in an organization, the following must be done:

1. Delineate the sales area and scope. The marketing department manager cooperates with the sales staff to delineate the sales area and scope, and actively guides the sales staff to expand the sales area on a lump sum basis. The distribution of sales areas and scope should be based on the sales potential of regular customers, the geographical location and categories of customers.

2. Set sales targets. The marketing manager sets sales targets based on the hotel's sales goals and policies. Sales indicators are divided into quantity indicators and quality indicators. Quantitative indicators include: (1) Sales quantity, such as the number of days of room sales, catering sales, average room price, sales revenue, etc. (2) Number of sales, the number of sales visits that should be conducted per day or per month. (3) Indicators and control of sales expenses, monthly sales expenses involved by sales personnel, such as transportation expenses and entertainment expenses.

Since the customer demand potential of each salesperson is different, while the salesperson is required to achieve the sales quantity, the quality standard of the sales must be determined. The quality standard includes the product and sales knowledge of the salesperson, the effect of the sales visit , the sales staff’s work attitude, work ability and relationship with customers, etc.

3. Performance evaluation of sales staff. Sales managers should use appropriate channels to understand and obtain performance information of sales staff, formulate rules for monthly "sales reports" submitted by sales staff, understand the sales situation, and provide timely feedback on sales information.

4. Well-arranged organizational structure. Based on the comprehensive consideration of the geographical location and categories of hotel customers, the marketing department organizes sales staff to divide sales according to geographical location, reducing travel time and improving work efficiency. According to the current development status of hotels, hotel marketing should actively tap the potential of hotel products, increase the attractiveness of products, attract guests to spend, and attract business.

Product mix

Hotel marketing can develop various combination products that are popular with guests according to the sales requirements of the company and the different needs of guests to attract customers. Various combination product methods can be opened There are:

(1) Business guest package products. Special services for business guests, including discounts for business guests: such as a free basket of fruit in the room, free welcome drinks, free use of facilities and equipment in the recreation center, free participation in bars, singing and dancing entertainment activities.

(2) Conference combination products. The conference package product includes the use of the conference hall, snacks and coffee during the meeting break, and working meals during the meeting, which are provided at a discounted price per person.

(3) Family accommodation combination products. For example, a double room is available for the whole family, children sharing a free extra bed with their parents, child care services are provided, children can use recreational facilities for free, and the restaurant provides a children's menu.

(4) Honeymoon vacation products. Honeymoon vacation products are only provided to newlyweds. They generally require beautiful and quiet rooms and some special services, such as a beautifully decorated bridal chamber, free American breakfast before bed, free champagne, and flowers and fruit baskets in the room.

(5) Wedding combination products. This type of product is mainly aimed at the local residential market, combined with the form of wedding consumption, adapting to the consumer psychology, emphasizing the festive atmosphere, and attracting consumption: the product portfolio includes luxury Beijing-style or Cantonese-style banquets, free soft drinks for the whole audience, four floors An exquisite wedding cake is provided. The wedding banquet hall is grandly decorated with flowers and double happiness banners. The atmosphere of the wedding banquet is created according to specific requirements. The wedding march is played. The bridal suite, flowers, fruits and champagne are provided free of charge during the wedding night. Free American breakfast is delivered to the guest room.

(6) Weekend combination products. Weekend package products can attract guests to have some rest and entertainment after work during the week. Therefore, it is necessary to plan and organize some entertainment and sports activities: such as holding weekend parties, weekend acrobatic performances, etc., and combine entertainment activities with the hotel's food and accommodation services. Into a cheap package price product.

(7) Off-season holiday products. During the off-season, accommodation and meals for one week or ten days are provided to guests at a package price. At the same time, in order to attract guests, we must also plan and organize entertainment activities for guests to enjoy for free.

(8) Special event combination products. The development of this type of combination product requires marketers to have creative and factual thinking to design products that are both novel and economically and salesly feasible. They can make use of existing facilities and service organizations, such as table tennis, tennis, bowling matches and other activities. Improve the hotel's reputation and image.

Planning and publicity

In addition to developing new products and new activities, marketing must also launch unique publicity methods to attract customers. This requires more efforts in advertising planning and promotion. article.

(1) You can choose TV, radio, newspapers and other media to regularly report on the hotel’s newly launched special dishes, guest room environment, activities, etc., to improve guests’ sensory impression of the hotel.

(2) Use industry magazines, newspapers, travel itinerary brochures, guides, advertising flyers, direct letters, etc. to promote hotel products.

(3) Invite well-known performances to build momentum, enhance influence, and create a consumer hotspot in the hotel, such as inviting provincial and municipal model competitions, fashion shows, large-scale singing, dancing, and instrumental music performances and other promotional methods.

(4) Design and launch the Oktoberfest and the way of appreciating dishes to increase hotel consumption and increase benefits.

Hotel marketing should not be limited to one stage, stick to one model, and indulge in one state. It must use the most keen, advanced, and unique sense of smell to create and design suitable for hotel operations. The development of the best business model makes hotel operations more complete, advanced and unique, so that it will not be defeated in the fierce competition in the hotel industry.

Five taboos in hotel marketing

One taboo: subjectively judge the credibility of the consumer unit

At a regular meeting of department managers, the sales manager reported that a foreign company came to the store Consumption hopes to be credited. The boss asked the manager: Is it state-owned or private? The answer was that it was privately owned; and he asked what the investment amount was? The answer was nearly 10 million; so the boss warned that it is not convenient for a small-scale private enterprise like this to have debts. With just one sentence, the convenience that the business hoped for was blocked, and at the same time, the hotel unknowingly lost one of its most loyal customers.

Currently, among all hotel consumer groups, especially some mainland hotels, consumption on account accounts for a considerable proportion. When the hotel measures the consumption qualifications of the billing unit, it will naturally determine whether it can handle the billing based on the strength and credibility of the unit to avoid bad debts, bad debts, and dead debts. Over time, old customers and relatively well-known companies in the area are easy to grasp, but for similar new consumer customers, you cannot determine their credibility based solely on the company's attributes and existing strength, let alone thick "public" books. "Private" emphasizes "big" and despises "small".

When dealing with customers, the positive and prudent approach is to greet them with a smile on the one hand, and on the other hand, use strong and powerful supervisory measures to prevent the hotel's interests from being harmed. As the boss at the beginning of this article asked, you can take measures such as entering into detailed contracts, shortening the checkout time, and arranging special personnel for supervision to open up a convenient door to achieve the purpose of adding new customers. Once signs of problems are discovered, it will not be too late to cancel the billing qualification.

Secondly, bosses rarely visit their customers

Hotel bosses visiting customers at the right time is an effective way to enhance understanding, strengthen friendship, and consolidate customer base. This has been recognized by the majority of peers, but In specific implementation, it is far different. Some either don't have time and forget to go; some have no intention of going at all and let their subordinates go about their business; some even marketing directors and managers rarely go there and just build cars behind closed doors. There may be several reasons for this: It's okay for people at the same level as yourself, but it's hard to face a client who is lower than you; you're stuck in the hotel's chores all day long, doing everything by yourself, doing everything, and you're exhausted as a result. Taking into account; having a weak sense of responsibility or not understanding the essentials of the work; managers with these reasons only care about their own feelings and facts, and ignore the thoughts of the customers who depend on them for survival.

Three Avoidances: Visiting in a revolving door

When a sales manager formulates the quantitative indicators of a salesperson, he must not use the number of visits to measure a salesperson's performance. This seems scientific. In fact, doing things that go against common sense can have negative consequences. The relationship between the salesperson and the customer is only a working relationship. Frequent appointments and interruptions due to work are obviously not welcomed by customers, so there is a saying that they are clearly working in the office but pretending to be in a meeting.

As time goes by, the salesperson becomes aware of the customer's resentment and hopes to frequently bring good news such as offers, discounts, gifts, and free items to the customer to liven up the atmosphere, add content to the conversation, and increase his or her own weight. However, this is very limited. of. In addition to formulating visit plans for each customer, the marketing department's first priority is to achieve the goal through multiple channels and multiple means.

The planning of the four taboos is only the responsibility of the marketing department

A well-known hotel has a very good tradition. Before every festival, the boss will take the lead in organizing a Zhuge Liang meeting for all the backbones of the store’s foremen and above. Yes, please come up with some ideas. This is a good practice worth promoting. No matter how professional the people in the marketing department are, their number is limited; no matter how many ideas they have, they are still weak; three cobblers are like Zhuge Liang, and the participation of many people will help the event to be successful. They also set up part-time marketers among the heads of various departments to fill the shortage of sales personnel in collecting customer information and communicating with customers, basically forming a three-dimensional network for external marketing, which is very practical.

Five taboos: Do your own business and engage in promotions

I once heard a joke that a boss received more than ten New Year cards from the same hotel during the Spring Festival, some from the hotel, and some from various hotels. Department managers, supervisors, and even employees. Generally speaking, they all mean the same thing: I hope you will continue to take care of me in the coming year. The boss's reaction when receiving the greeting card was: Is this necessary? This shows that doing promotion in separate ways is a waste of manpower and material resources, and it also fails to gain the approval of customers. At present, many hotels carry out quantitative management of the income of each operating department, which effectively improves their enthusiasm. Managers and employees each try their best to protect the amount and increase income. The starting point is understandable, but it often breeds some negative effects. The hotel has the style and taste of a hotel and cannot be destroyed by some vulgar and vulgar techniques. This requires hotel management to take effective measures to avoid this fragmented promotion phenomenon in order to maintain the integrity of the hotel's external marketing.