There’s no doubt about it, people are finally paying more attention to what they’re putting in their mouths. What they’re putting into their mouths and, consequently, into their bodies. Offering healthy (or at least healthier) choices isn’t really an option for the industry anymore. Unfortunately, if you’ll pardon the pun, customers want to both have and eat the cake, which makes transforming an established menu an awkward process. Enter portion control and enter a solution: Offer tiny tastes of your traditional dishes and find that happy medium to satisfy your customers. Mignardise, Amuse-Bouche, Canapé, Oh My!
There are several leaders on this trend: T.G.I.Friday has had amazing results with their “Right Portion – Right Price” menu, now heading into its third year. Fashion Week 2010 in London unveiled an impressive new crop of canapé-centric catering companies, while chefs like Gray Kunz, Wylie Dufresne, Anito Lo and Jean-Georges Vongerichten have always used the tiny taste to test-drive a new composition before committing to it on a menu.
Whether you let your patrons choose to have a dish pared down, or whether you space out smaller dishes with intermezzos and the like, just make sure that you let your customers take their time. No matter the size of the bite, guests who feel as if they have the time to literally pay attention to what they’re putting in their mouths, definitely leave happier.
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Confused by the lingo? Here’s a great summary of their history and definitions.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
The Better to Convince You With – Understanding what Makes Us Say “Yes”
When it comes to sales and marketing, it’s hard, sometimes, to realize how similar we all are. At heart, we each want to be seen as likeable, as reasonable, as an authority on our given product, as committed and consistent. Surprisingly, this is true whether you’re the seller…or the buyer. Understanding these frequently unconscious desires can help you better position yourself as a quality purveyor, and, more importantly, better your chances of convincing your customers to make appropriate purchases. The principles of persuasion are simple and finite and, thanks to Dr. Robert Cialdini’s seminal work Influence: Science and Practice, easy to put into practice.
Written in 2001, Cialdini’s book reflects the three years he spent working, undercover, with restaurant servers, car salesmen, and pink ladies, trying to determine how the best in the biz close their sales. Additionally, the just-recently-retired Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University assembled an enormous amount of empirical research supporting these same methods.
My personal favorite? The principle of social proof or consensus: When uncertain, people tend to look around and mimic what other people – similar to them – are doing. Just watch an indecisive table all order the same entrée! Practically, this means that we are susceptible to sales pitches that invoke a comparable majority. Think of Amazon.Com’s “Customers Who Bought This Also Bought…” link. Cialdini himself found that just by adjusting the wording on a sign requesting hotel guests to reuse their towels – from ‘Help Reuse for the Environment’ to ‘The majority of People who stayed in this room Helped Reuse’ – nearly 20% more guests complied.
Ultimately, Cialdini defined a total of seven persuasive principles that, when properly employed, tend to color the bottom line black. Here’s a great summary of all of those techniques; you’ll be amazed at how recognizable they are! Truth is, they’ve been probably been used on you before…Or, you can watch the Doc explain them himself in the video below.
Written in 2001, Cialdini’s book reflects the three years he spent working, undercover, with restaurant servers, car salesmen, and pink ladies, trying to determine how the best in the biz close their sales. Additionally, the just-recently-retired Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University assembled an enormous amount of empirical research supporting these same methods.
My personal favorite? The principle of social proof or consensus: When uncertain, people tend to look around and mimic what other people – similar to them – are doing. Just watch an indecisive table all order the same entrée! Practically, this means that we are susceptible to sales pitches that invoke a comparable majority. Think of Amazon.Com’s “Customers Who Bought This Also Bought…” link. Cialdini himself found that just by adjusting the wording on a sign requesting hotel guests to reuse their towels – from ‘Help Reuse for the Environment’ to ‘The majority of People who stayed in this room Helped Reuse’ – nearly 20% more guests complied.
Ultimately, Cialdini defined a total of seven persuasive principles that, when properly employed, tend to color the bottom line black. Here’s a great summary of all of those techniques; you’ll be amazed at how recognizable they are! Truth is, they’ve been probably been used on you before…Or, you can watch the Doc explain them himself in the video below.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
The Facility of Sustainability - Which Fish are the Right Fish?
It’s easy to make the decision to focus your menu towards more renewable proteins: You’re helping to replenish the environment and you’re saving money – without the big name, a fish rarely costs the big bucks. But how to implement the change? Loblaws, for example, has announced plans to only sell eco-friendly fish by 2013. Yet which fish are the right fish and what are the right words? Navigating the murky waters of sustainability can definitely be a challenge.
Thankfully, there is the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) to help! A U.K.-based non-governmental organization founded in 1977, the MCS is dedicated to protecting marine wildlife and preserving future fish stocks through educational outreach and proactive conservation campaigns. In my opinion, their best contribution is a frequently updated list of which fish to purchase and which to avoid – including an explanation why. Actually, their website is an absolute potpourri of information designed to educate the food service professional looking to go green. They even have a handy guide that you can print out and keep with your other purveyor-related papers. So it’s easy…once you know how!
Thankfully, there is the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) to help! A U.K.-based non-governmental organization founded in 1977, the MCS is dedicated to protecting marine wildlife and preserving future fish stocks through educational outreach and proactive conservation campaigns. In my opinion, their best contribution is a frequently updated list of which fish to purchase and which to avoid – including an explanation why. Actually, their website is an absolute potpourri of information designed to educate the food service professional looking to go green. They even have a handy guide that you can print out and keep with your other purveyor-related papers. So it’s easy…once you know how!
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