Introduction to Marketing

The day started off with odds n' ends, the class' restaurant experiences since we last met. Lenin-pisser was at Cafe Lulu in Brooklyn over the weekend, and while dining, there was a horrendous crash in the kitchen and several people shouting, "Kill it! Kill it!" Mmmmm, delicious. Russian Pam Anderson brought up the news about Tavern on the Green, about how despite the fact they are the 2nd highest grossing restaurant in the country, they're probably losing their lease from the city.

Another student spoke of an article about crock-pot cooking, a new fad in times of lowered economic prospects. This reminded me of the crock pot I found in an old farm-house I was invited to cook at for a weekend over the summer. There were piles of crap from the 70s there, and the thing that stood out was the crock pot (pictured above) -- all it is is a slow cooker!! You can use any pot with a cover and wack it in an oven at a low temp and -poof- no need for another piece of equipment. Silliness. What is old is new again.

The next part of the class was dedicated to literally deconstructing the menu of LI DeNiro's family's restaurant, an Italian restaurant and pizzeria. The original menu is just a big friggin' mess. It's 6 pages, 100s of items, and a border of crammed, garish close-ups of food which gives the impression of poorly-composed piles of noise. It seems items were added chronologically since the place opened in 1965, without too much sense or clarity. Spelling mistakes abounded, sections broken over multiple pages.

By taking photocopies and cutting them up and pasting them, it wasn't that hard to make it make sense. However, if I was answering to an old-school off-the-boat pizzaman whose business has been just fine without the menu rejiggering, it may be a challenge! Just removing 15% of the items would loosen up the menu, a lot of dishes who use the same ingredients in different combinations. Veal 10 ways -- really?

The last part of the class was an introduction to marketing.Richard presented us with a simple 2 page mini-case study of some wealthy individuals who open a luxurious Asian restaurant in a small town because they were tired of traveling 90 miles to the closest city to get the food they liked. Unsurprisingly, the place flops and when they hire marketing consultants who tell them that the market in the town is not big enough to support this concept, they fire their manager and hope for the best. They soon go out of business and get bought out, and the new owners turn it into a family steak house with great success and live happily ever after.

The moral of the story -- it all starts with the wants and needs of the client. You ignore that at your peril. If you want a restaurant that serves what YOU want, cool, but what YOU want better line up with what the client wants. And off we go!