Opening a New Restaurant? Tell The World
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Free Download - Will a Sales Blitz Work For Your Business? By Scott Lorenz |
Opening a New Restaurant? Tell The World. With all the bad news in the economy these days anybody who opens a new restaurant is making some good news which is in short supply. Westwind Communications recently promoted the opening of the Frankenmuth Brewery in Frankenmuth, Michigan and has obtained some great PR as a result. How did we do it?
Pre-Opening PR
The excitement of the announcement of a new restaurant cannot be understated. It means there's someone who has faith in a community by spending their money to build a facility and equip it. Furthermore, the new restaurant is bringing new jobs to the area. With all the job losses these days a good-paying restaurant job that can't get outsourced to a foreign land is a very good job to have. With a new restaurant there's the excitement of the unknown and as a restaurateur you need to tap into that emotional curiosity.
How do you do that?
Depending upon how many people you plan on employing you can have a job fair. The Frankenmuth Brewery owners told me about the fair and we publicized it far and wide. When it was announced, the job fair attracted 1000 people in person and another 500who applied online... all for about 100 positions.
The localmediapromoted the event in advance and covered the turnout. TV stations from the affiliates of NBC, ABC and FOX covered the job fair extensivelywith taped or live shots, and print andradio did their share as well. The extra coverage made people aware of job opportunities outside the immediate market area. In fact, one new hire told me his mother saw the TV coverage in Chelsea, Michigan which is about 100 miles away and called him up and told him to go apply. It obviously worked. The job fair publicity does double duty too. Besides the job openings it also announces to the public that "Hey, there's a new brewery and restaurant opening in Frankenmuth." BAM. Free publicity for your restaurant. Can't beat that.
Have a Pre-Opening Event For Local Charities
Every restaurant needs a few days of operation to help train the staff - the so called 'shakedown cruise.' You want to make sure everybody and everything is working as expected and there are a couple of ways to do that. One way that can also raise money for a local cause is to have a shakedown cruise night where patrons pay a flat fee and then the restaurant donates all the money to a charity. Frankenmuth Brewery organized such an event and Westwind Communications announced it to the media. The media coverage was great again. TV and news reporters came out to see the activities and once again the resulting PR in effect announced the upcoming grand opening a few days later.
Announce the Grand Opening
We then announced the grand opening and again three TV stations did live shots from the brewery, The Detroit News ran a full page storyand numerous broadcast and print mediacontinued to mention the Frankenmuth Brewery opening many weeks later. National Beer Magazines are doing stories and more will come.
Why did the good publicity happen?
First, it's a good story in a down economy in an economically depressed state. Second, there was some serious cache that we were able to tap into considering this is one of the oldest breweries in America. People want this brewery to succeed and that certainly helps. Third... it's the secret sauce we use... no really... it's the beer... actually it's the numerous angles we took by promoting the sometimes mundane activities like a job fair and charity event, that combined with the fact that we went out and got the PR. We "told the world" and so can you. Don't be shy about your opening. Capitalize on every opportunity. Make sure everyone knows about it. Shout it from the roof tops!
One more thing, I noticed on this promotion: People REALLY LIKE BEER and the MEDIA REALLY LIKES BEER TOO!
Opening a New Restaurant Tell The World - To learn more about this author, visit Scott Lorenz's Website.
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development. He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Scott Lorenz Video - Book publicist Scott Lorenz
is President of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm with a special knack for working with authors and entrepreneurs to help them get all the publicity they deserve and more.
Lorenz works with bestselling authors and self-published authors promoting all types of books, whether its their first book or their 15th book. Hes handled publicity for books by CEOs, Navy SEALS, CIA Officers, Homemakers, Fitness Gurus, Doctors, Lawyers and Adventurers. Hes generated media coverage for numerous genres including, fiction, health, romance, business and children.
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