One of the classic traffic drivers for restaurants
is the Kids Eat FREE promotion. It used to be found mainly in family style
restaurants such as the IHOPs and Dennys of the world, but now as guest traffic is down
across all categories, you see more and more types of restaurants running a
Kids Eat Free promotion.
The
question is, "Does it work?" The easy answer is, yes it works to
drive traffic, but the better question is, "Is it right for my
business?" Free is a very good price, and will always bring people in to
get the free food. Nor grocery stores are leveraging one of the staples of the
restaurant industry kids eat free platform. Kroger Kids Fresh Friends launched last year has created a
platform once dominated by restaurants. The Kroger program provides kids with a
card that enables them to get a free piece of fruit each month.
Ken
McClure, customer communication manager for The Kroger Co stated “Kroger gave
away 39,654 items in the first eight weeks of the program, or nearly 5,000
pieces of fruit per week. So I guess it
is working for grocery retailers as well.
Now if we could get those retailers to think fresh food.
Look at the lines out the door each time a national
restaurant chain has a free food giveaway promotion. The problem is, just
getting people in the door no matter what it costs is not why you're in
business. Sure you need customers, but you need to make a profit on those
customers. Your ultimate job is to make money for yourself and your investors,
not just drive guest counts.
The typical Kids Eat Free promotion has some
strings attached so you can be guaranteed to recoup your food costs. Some
restaurants require the purchase of a kid’s beverage in order to receive the
free meal. Others require the purchase of a regular priced adult meal in order
to receive the free kids meals. These requirements protect you from going into
a negative transaction territory where you're actually losing money on the
deal.
There's also often a limits on the number of
children allowed per adult, usually 2 kids per adult meal purchased, so you
don't get a busload of kids from the local camp and only sell one adult meal to
their leader while you give away 27 kids meals.
A price based promotion like this does not build
loyalty. It attracts customers who are price sensitive, and without the low
price incentive to come in, they won't continue to keep coming. It's much like
your coupon customers. If they have your coupon in hand this week they'll visit
you, but if they have your competitor's coupon in hand next week, they'll visit
them.
I was involved with a chain that offered Kids Eat
Free on Saturday and Sunday nights, two very slow nights for this chain. While
we promoted Kids Eat Free, guest counts grew quickly, but as soon as we took it
away the counts went right back down to their previous levels.
The other factor to consider is the length of time
you're willing to offer this promotion. Many owners roll out the kids promotion
as an immediate fix to low guest counts on a certain day or daypart. Once that
fix starts working, the increase in guest counts is like a drug and you want
more and more.
If it worked
for Tuesday, let's also offer it on Thursday. And at some point you've devalued
your product in your customer's eyes. Why should I pay $5 for this kid’s meal
today when it's FREE tomorrow? And if you keep the promotion in place for any
length of time, your customers grow to expect it. There may be a backlash of angry
customers when you decide that it's time to stop offering the promotion.
Should you rollout a Kids Eat FREE promotion? If
you do, go into it with a plan. Know what it costs you. Know how much growth
you need to offset the food costs. Prepare a marketing plan because you have to
tell the world about it, otherwise you're just giving away money to current
customers. And make an exit strategy.
Offer it for the summer or a certain period of
time, to keep customer expectations under control, create some urgency, and
keep yourself out of the situation where customers expect to have their Kids
Eat Free at your restaurant forever.
United
Supermarkets in Texas started Kids Free Fruit. That program allows kids to
choose a snack-size apple, orange or banana “all day, every day.” PCC Natural Markets, Seattle, and Whole Foods Markets, also offer free healthy
snacks for kids.
Since 1991 retail food consultancy Foodservice
Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for
more on Foodservice Solutions® Visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us or Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant,
twitter.com/grocerant or Facebook Steven Johnson
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