By tweaking how you describe your menu, you can raise the perception of the food and command a higher price that customers are willing to pay.
The cost of running a restaurant, cafe or bar is rapidly increasing. Landlords are pushing up the rents every quarter, and the shrinking labour pool makes it expensive to hire quality staff. As a result, many restaurants are closing down because they need help to sustain and grow their businesses. If your business’s bottom line is declining, the only way to keep up is to find ways to increase your top-line revenue. This means you have to either serve more customers or improve the profitability per customer.
Descriptive menus can increase the customer’s perception, making them more willing to pay a premium. After all, your menu is the most hardworking “salesperson” that ensures your customers spend more. In addition, language on your menu is part of what defines your brand and communicates why your food is different from others and more desirable.
Here are four ways to highlight your dishes and command a premium price tag.
1) Specialty Ingredients
If your restaurant prides itself on serving quality food, chances are that your ingredients are also unique. For example, instead of giving a common name, “Beef Tenderloin“, decide on a more descriptive name, such as “Grilled Grass Fed Tenderloin“. This highlights the meat quality by communicating to the consumer that the animal was specifically grass-fed and unlike average mass-produced meat.
Another example is to reiterate the type of ingredients you are using. So instead of calling a salad “House Salad“, include the type of lettuce you use and describe it as “Oak Leaf salad with sun-dried raisins“. This allows the consumers to consume a typical dish and indulge in various culinary ingredients. Lastly, your word may be inspired by a certain cuisine from another geographical area or country. For example, you could offer Hue-style Vietnamese Noodles, Southern fried chicken or Hokkaido Cha Shu Ramen. These names carry an association with the dish that can be used to amplify your branding.
2) Preparation Method
The uniqueness of your dish may be the way it is created. Did you slow-roast the beef for hours? Or was the pizza handmade in a wood fire oven? Maybe you serve speciality cheeses with your burgers and drizzle the finest Italian extra virgin olive oil on your salad. These vocabularies appeal to the sensory area of the brain, which allows the consumer to imagine the dedication and effort to craft the dish. Your food plays an integral part in the customer’s dining experience. You have to excite their taste buds and entertain their mind.
3) Tell a Story
Some of you may be inspired to start a restaurant because your Grandmother passed down a secret recipe from which you can create a concept, or your Uncle has a fantastic organic farm from which you can utilise products. Could you highlight that in your menu name? Dishes with names of mother, grandmother and relatives signal a feeling of nostalgia and home-cooked speciality. Eating at a restaurant should be a sensory experience rather than just filling a stomach. People want to feel educated and know that they eat fantastic food. So grab your notebook and start writing down ideas to rename your dishes and create a branding unique to your business.
4) Paint a Picture
This may only suit some restaurants; however, for most people, pictures sell. As the saying goes, ” A picture days 1000 words”. So why not add images to the menu? Ensure the photos are professional and represent the dish and your brand. Highlight items that would entice people to choose starters or sides to increase average checks. If images do not suit the menus, step into the electronic world and offer tablets with a picture library of your dishes. Please make sure that all words are clearly labelled and categorised correctly.
