make your
restaurant
menu INSANELY
profitable Your restaurant marketing starts with a great menu.
MENU MARKETING MADE EASY!
How to
You may know a lot about your restaurant, but that doesn’t mean you should design your own menu (nor should you have your agency/ distributor/family member do it for you either). It’s too important to risk the most important selling material in your business on people who don’t work on menus every day.
PHAN: Positioning Highlighting Mental Anchoring Strategic Pricing Positioning:
Where a product is positioned on a menu has a big impact on how well it sells. Knowing this, we can help position products to sell faster or slower depending on your plate contribution, throughput, transaction speed or even food cost percentage.
Highlighting
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Real Cheddar cheese, thick-sliced, hickorysmoked bacon and zesty barbeque sauce accent this southern favorite 7.49
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Burger with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and onions 6.99 Without cheese 6.49
10-piece shrimp dinner served with french fries and coleslaw 12.99
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SautĂŠed mushrooms and a slice of Swiss 7.49
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A Mo-Ron Burger topped with that famous Detroit chili, onions and mustard 7.49
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Grilled marinated chicken breast, fresh romaine and Parmesan cheese tossed in our creamy Caesar dressing and rolled into a our tortilla 7.49
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Sliced turkey and ham with chopped bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and mayo. Served with buttermilk ranch dressing 7.49
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Chicken ďŹ ngers smothered in our Buffalo sauce, lettuce, diced celery and bleu cheese crumbles. Served with bleu cheese dressing 7.49
Tender and juicy sirloin is sautĂŠed with mushrooms, onions and swiss cheese and served on a ciabatta bun 9.95
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Specially marinated chicken breast grilled to perfection and served on a fresh toasted bakery bun 7.49
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Grilled chicken breast covered in our famous Buffalo sauce and topped with Swiss cheese 7.49
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Hot dog smothered in mustard, onions and chili. Imported directly from Detroit. Take one bite‌if you’re not satisďŹ ed we’ll pay for it 5.49
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Tender shaved corned beef, Swiss cheese and sauerkraut on lightly grilled marble rye 7.49 Substitute turkey 7.49
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Tender, juicy 8-ounce sirloin steak is covered in our secret seasoning 11.49 Add sautĂŠed onions and mushrooms or bĂŠarnaise sauce for 1.79 each Or add both for 2.79
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Tender beef bottom round pot roast served with carrots and potatoes 10.95
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Oriental vegetables stir-fried in a teriyaki sesame sauce served over a bed of white rice. Steak, chicken or vegetarian available 9.99
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This mouthwatering Italian feature has pasta covered in our rich Alfredo sauce, topped with grilled chicken breast and broccoli 9.99 Substitute shrimp for 10.99
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Rich marinara sauce over pasta and meatballs, topped with freshly grated Parmesan and a garlic bread stick plus choice of soup and salad 9.49
Your choice of grilled steak or chicken fajitas served with pico de gallo, sour cream, guacamole, lettuce and shredded Jack Cheddar cheese. Served with all-you-caneat tortillas 10.99
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Our Walleye Szczerbiak is delicately breaded with bread crumbs and pan-seared in a light cream sauce 12.49
Each plate comes with your choice of soup or salad, potato and fresh steamed vegetable of the day.
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Specially seasoned slow-roasted sliced prime rib is served with sautĂŠed onions and mushrooms and covered in melted provolone cheese with a side of au jus and tangy, creamy horseradish sauce 9.99
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Our juicy hamburger patty is covered with cheese and fried onions and grilled in sourdough 7.49
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Two deep-fried chicken strips smothered in our homemade marinara and covered with provolone cheese 7.49
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Light and aky walleye is lightly breaded and served on a toasted bakery bun with lettuce, cheese and tartar sauce 9.99
All Bench Warmers are served with your choice of French fries or garlic mashed potatoes and a pickle spear. Add chili or cheese to fries for only .99, or add both for 1.49.
Grilled chicken breast, sautĂŠed red onions and bacon crumbles layered on top of creamy Alfredo sauce, baked with fresh Italian cheeses 11.95
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Fresh Italian sausage and pepperoni layered over our rich garlic red sauce, baked with fresh Italian cheeses 11.95
Add a small dinner salad or small Caesar salad to any pizza for 1.99 each.
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The all-time favorite: our very own grilled chicken Caesar salad with romaine hearts smothered in Caesar dressing and topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and croutons. Served with an oven-fresh bread stick and butter Half 6.99 Full 8.99 Steak or shrimp Caesar salad Half 7.99 Full 9.99
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Oriental greens with teriyaki chicken strips, sliced almonds, rice noodles and Oriental dressing Half 6.99 Full 8.99
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Crisp lettuce, sautĂŠed shrimp, green peppers, diced celery and tomatoes soaked in homemade buttermilk ranch. Served with an oven-fresh bread stick Half 7.99 Full 8.99
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South of the border style salad with spicy chicken breast, diced tomatoes, black olives, jalapeĂąos and Jack Cheddar cheese topped with guacamole and sour cream and served in a fried taco bowl 8.99
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Homemade Buttermilk Ranch | Parmesan Peppercorn Ranch | Thousand Island French | Bleu Cheese | Light Italian | Caesar | Honey Mustard
Mental Anchoring Example
Order your meal in Italian! Take our traveling language seminar and find out. Our trip includes travel to Italy, where you will be taught the Italian language and the finer art of Italian dining. Two-month advance notice is needed. $42,949.00
Strategic Pricing
Value at a restaurant is determined by the selling price and the functionality of the item being sold. Where the two points converge, you will have a high value. If the price is too high and the function too low, you will not have a good value. Conversely, if the price is too low, and the function too high, people will think it’s a trick.
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It’s all about location
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Seasonally
Work on your menu at least four times per year. If you don’t you run the risk of having to take a price hike that will shock your guests. And consumers do not like money surprises unless it’s a discount they didn’t expect.
Living Document
Your menu should be a living document. It’s paper and ink, not stone. Change it up now and again!
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Value Is Abstract
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your guests will have a huge impact on how much money you will make.
Impressive Entrée
1
Rolex Encrusted Hotdog
Your eye will fall here first, so place something worthwhile in this general area. Steaks and seafood work best. Do NOT worry about it being an expensive item.
Your check averages will increase when you have a more expensive product on your menu.
Prose & Poetry
Better descriptions and stories will help your products sell for more money more often. A burger is worth about a dollar, thanks to McDonald’s, but if you can describe your burger in a way that entices a guest, yours may be worth closer to ten bucks.
Men Scan, Women Read
Make It Fair
People like fairness. Not that life is ever fair. But if your guests think for a minute that you’re cheating them, they’re gone, and you will be too.
When you write descriptions, keep in mind that women read descriptions and men scan them. So when you write a menu, try to think like a woman.
What’ll You Have?
Simple Processes For A Better Menu
Starting with some simple planning will save you a lot in the long run, and make you even more when the menu is well engineered.
Stars are your best items.
®
Ethnography
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Plow Horses
Fairy Godmother or Menu Design Engineer
sometimes referred to as Cash Cows, these items are not always as profitable, but are very popular.
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Dogs are not as profitable, nor
are they as popular as other items on your menu.
Handling Groups Of Items
In any grouping of items, the top and bottom items will sell better than items in the middle. Place your best contributors in the top and bottom of groups.
The best way to add value to anything you offer is to provide a unique selling proposition. To do this you must answer the question: why is your food different and better than other food someplace else.
HOTOPERATOR MENU MATRIX
Puzzles are more
profitable items that are not very popular.
Point Of Difference
When a customer goes into a restaurant, they are thinking about what would be good to eat. Money isn’t a top concern; in fact, it’s not even in the top 10 on a list of importance. Here’s a tip from your uncle Mark: Don’t make your menu about price!
Studying your guests in your restaurant is the best way to learn what is working and what isn’t. A Menu Matrix is the best way to do an initial Ethnography study in your restaurant.
They are both popular and profitable. Promote from this category.
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When Should I Work On My Menu?
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What if, as if by magic you could make some of the items you sell more attractive and as a result more popular and profitable? Well, it isn’t magic, it’s menu engineering. But it works just like magic.
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Featured Tip
Menu Boards
Mostly they should be called menu bored. It’s like the quick service industry is in the Stone Age when it comes to menus. Everything that applies to a hand held menu applies to a menu board. Everything.
Go Clean The Bathrooms
Clean bathrooms are the single most important place in your restaurant. Your guests think the bathroom reflects the kitchen. So if you’re thinking about design-engineering your own menu, go clean the bathrooms. If you still have the urge to design-engineer your own menu, go clean the bathrooms again.
TEXT TIPS:
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• Never use dollar signs • Tuck the prices into the paragraphs • Never bold, color change or highlight prices • Use a typeface that is easy to read • Make sure the type is large enough for older guests
Trans Fat Free—Does that mean the trans fat in the oil is free? And if olive oil comes from olives, and peanut oil comes from peanuts, where does baby oil come from? –Lily Tomlin
About Bookends Dessert To Begin With
Dessert is more likely to be ordered when offered early in the meal. It’s best to try to get the dessert thought planted right after the guest orders, but before they have eaten anything.
Permission Marketing
But not the permission you’re thinking of. The kind of permission you need to sell dessert is the kind you give your guests by saying: “Go ahead, have dessert. You deserve it.”
Brand Hijack
Allowing your guests to hijack a product is a good thing. It offers them a personal connection to your products. If they want something different, do your best to accommodate them. If enough people want it, you’ve got a hijack (and a money maker) on your hands.
Category Size
Categories of 7 work best. 6 is OK, and 8 is too, but 7 is tops. It’s a bell curve with the best sales with 7 items per category.
Quick Service Dessert
Make it visible, put it up front and make it easy.
HotOperator® the nations leading authority for menu engineering and design, can take your basic information and transform your menu into a cutting edge marketing power tool.
Call now for more info! 800-316-3198 or visit www.hotoperator.com BECAUSE IT ALL STARTS WITH THE MENU