Practical Tips To Levitate Summer Sales

There is no better way to put some wind into summer sales than with a solid food strategy to accompany and to complement beverage sales at the bar.
    It’s a fact that when food is available at a venue, the dining experience keeps patrons in their chairs longer. And that is a better proposition for both proprietor and patron, as added revenue to one and part of a healthier attitude toward consumption to the other.
    Whether bar, club, tavern or lounge, the key to success and profitability in a summer food menu goes beyond merely having good food that customers will come back to enjoy with their pitcher of light beer or their ice cold bottles.
    First, you have to get customers interested and direct their collective attention to your summer faire with a marketing campaign that lets them know you are serious about it and that they ought really to order up and give the food a try.

Smart for the Season
    Before you ring the lunch or dinner bell at your establishment this summer, check out the following practical tips on marketing better edibles from the Memorial Day opening of the season to Labor Day closing time from Jennifer Kramer Williams, marketing director for Barmuda Corp., a Cedar Falls, Iowa, food and beverage and entertainment company with venues that run the gamut from sports bars to comedy clubs to restaurants, bars and lounges.
  If your venue has a patio or other outdoor seating areas, now is the time to make sure that they are in ship shape for patrons. “We’re in a cold climate,” Williams says. “Our outdoor dining and drinking areas are closed down during the winter. Now, we are starting to clean them up, getting any repairs made, and getting them ready to rock and roll.”
    Patrons most definitely prefer lighter faire when eating out during the hot months of the year, Williams says. “We adjust our food specialties and menus to include lighter dishes –– salads, pastas, sushi, and we add new offers and specials.”
    Following the lead of New York City restaurants and taverns, Barmuda venues are in the process of switching to a trans fat free cooking oil, Williams says. “It will likely be a long time before this is mandated in Iowa, but we are going to be proactive, There has been a lot of national press on the trans fat issue lately, and restaurants and bars have been called out on the cooking methods that they use. We plan to market the hell out of it.”

Summer Sports
    Summer-league baseball and softball sponsorships allow venues to feed their own demand for food and beverage, Williams says. Already, Barmuda’s Beck’s Sports Brewery is busy signing up softball teams, who in turn come into the venue after games.
    “If they come in wearing their uniforms,” Williams says, “we will give them a free beer.”
     She says there is a foolproof way to assure that the players actually frequent her sponsoring venue. “If they don’t come in, we don’t sponsor them again.”
    Barmuda also promotes its summer food and beverage though area hotels, wherein front desks personnel and concierges are given cards that their guests can bring in for special offers on food and beverage and entertainment.                 NCB