O’Dell Restaurant Consulting Blog

Do:
Know your target market. Your target market is not the people you WANT to buy your food, but rather the ones MOST LIKELY to buy your food. A big red flag in any marketing plan is an assumption that your concept appeals to everyone.Don’t:
Have a large menu. Large menus confuse your concept, increase ticket times, [...]

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We currently have 60 entrees and 24 soup/salad/apps. We are known for our pizza, so we have a full pizza section which includes 6 sizes, 2 types of dough, 33 toppings, calzones, strombolis, 6 specialty pizzas, 7 sandwiches, beer, wine, and standard beverages.Which is better, 50 items or 100?
If you ask me, you need to [...]

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Is the cost of food and supplies less when you own a franchise because of their buying power, or the same, or even more because of kick-backs from suppliers?
The franchise I am looking at shows cost of goods to be from 34% - 38%.
This sounds a little high to me. Is this what the norm [...]

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In most cases, coupons are a path to disaster. Coupons undervalue your product, and getting customers to come in with coupons doesn’t give them a good idea of what type of value you really offer. You end up with customers that think your restaurant is a good value, “with a coupon”. Then, they wait til [...]

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Here is a reply I once posted to an assistant manager’s inquiry from a foodservice operation. It deals with a common situation in the food service industry. One that I have not been asked for advice on before, but one that I do have a strong opinion about, especially considering the initial response of other [...]

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Controlling Losses – Implementing a Slip and Fall Prevention Program
                                                By Brandon O’Dell                                      
 
All over the country and the world, owners and managers are asking themselves, “What can we do better? What separates us from the really profitable companies?” Operators want to know what the most successful companies do different that makes them consistently [...]

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The following are excerpts from discussions I had with restaurant owners in the Restaurantowner.com discussion forums regarding pricing by gross profit.

From “Pricing by gross profit” thread – RO.com

Posted Jul 30,2004 1:08 PM

brandon

I realized while typing a post in the bar pricing program thread, I might as well start a thread discussing pricing as a whole and [...]

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It’s common for startup restaurants to budget an initial 10% of their sales to go toward marketing in the first few months. If no one knows who you are, it can take some $’s to get known.
After that, it’s more common to see 2-4% of your sales being directed toward marketing. As far as how [...]

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You’re not comfortable with the level of effort your staff is putting forth lately. You get the urge to give the “it’s your restaurant too” speech. Is it a good idea?
I don’t know if I’d want my staff thinking they owned my restaurant. While it’s nice to think we can motivate people to behave like [...]

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See “Unique selling points - vol. 1
I hear all the time from owners and operators that companies like Applebee’s are successful because of their big advertising budgets. I say “bull”. Applebee’s, for example, is successful because of it’s branding. It’s the effectiveness of their marketing that gives them their competitive advantage, not the number of [...]

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