I’ve said it before, and folks like Jeffrey don’t like it a lot but the numbers prove him wrong, that putting butts in seats, regardless of how you do it, has long term value. Spike trial, show ‘em how good you are, treat them right, invite them back – get them more often.

You can’t have frequent customers until you have customers. Many a post has been written about why this is and why it’s not crack, and you can continue the discussion at our local store marketing forum, but for now let’s just figure trial / frequency pairs that modify behavior and boost sales. Now might be the only time for a while that people loosen their purse strings. Time to grab a little share.

- Free catering for 5 people. It’s a sampling of your service at a time when businesses are ordering catering for larger groups. It’s pretty common to hear “How much if we have 20 people?”

The result is a 25% discount to someone who wasn’t already a customer, but now will be long term. You can’t take percentages to the bank.

- Free app to groups of 4 or more (increase party size). No restrictions on this – only struggling businesses and tight-wads put parameters on this kind of hospitality.

- Black Friday = Triple Punch Day. Frequency punch cards are crack if used incorrectly, but GOLD if you do it right. This does it right – don’t let people eat somewhere else on the day they are most likely to blow their budgets!

- Every customer for 3 days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday after T’giving) gets a bounce-back coupon: BOGO with a 7 day expiration. If they’re in your place twice within 7 days this time of year, more power to them.

- FREE dessert tray with every catering order. You’ve heard of loss leaders? You make it back. I promise.

- Gift Cards – you can sell $20 worth to someone (a stretch for some fast casual places) OR you can sell 10 – $5 cards to someone who has a lot of people to buy for (people for whom they’d rather not buy)

Think like a customer, not like an owner / manager.

Producing a web site for a company, any company, highlights all of that company’s process challenges and business opportunities in a single spot. Sure, you’ve got a web form for customers to fill out, but who within your company gets the information? How do they process the information? What phone number do we use for this promotion?

I’ve been working with Delta on their web site preparing for the merger with Northwest. If there is one thing that stands out in terms of their marketing ability it’s this: everyone there understands the importance of measuring, monitoring, and making incremental improvement toward gaining share of wallet and more profitable sales.

In other words, they focus on their existing customers to get them more often and more profitably. Frequent Flyer miles are an important tool for them in this regard.

Email: Get double miles IF YOU CHECK-IN ONLINE.
Web Site: GIVE US YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION AND SIGN UP and we’ll give you 500 miles.
Direct Mail: We’ll give you 1.5 times your miles IF YOU BOOK IN BUSINESS ELITE.

In every case, we’ll give you this if you do this for us.

For your restaurant, increased trial of menu and services leads to frequency of visit:
- FREE dessert with any seafood entree (because maybe seafood is more profitable for you, or maybe you just need to move it)

- FREE lunch with any catering order (the secretary/meeting planner/pharm rep gets something personal for ordering for others)

- Unlimited fries between 4pm and 6pm

- $1 breakfast sandwiches BEFORE 8am

It’s important to note that NO ONE at this multi-billion dollar company with some of the brightest minds in marketing is complaining that they’ll diminish their brand by “incentivizing” customers with Flyer Miles. No one. Why? Because they’re trading value for value and modifying behavior. The brand isn’t being diminished and neither is yours by incentivizing catering or different dayparts.

Delta Air Lines, one of the world’s largest, has an interesting philosophy. Instead of trying to gain new customers, in this economy where leisure travel is a luxury and business travel is a hard fought battle-ground, they work on frequency and ticket average.

I’m really impressed with Delta and their marketing strategy: modify consumer behavior to a) increase share of wallet and b) move to more profitable products and services.

If they don’t have all of a business traveler’s bookings, they incentivize them some more (double frequent flyer miles anyone?). If customers are using travel agents or an 800 number, Delta incentivizes them to book and check-in through more preferred channels: online and through more profitable kiosks.

As it turns out, profitability isn’t the most important thing for Delta right now (it’s important for everyone, but bear with me). Instead, they’re instilling new habits. Visit our site for the lowest fares. Check-in online. Look to us for car and hotel offers. Make Delta your one-stop shop.

At the end of this down turn, expect Delta to have a strong and more profitable customer base than it did going in.

Compare that to restaurants. There are a lot of folks right now, and some of them are smart people (not all of them, but at least some of them), saying that building the customer base is the most important thing! It’s the only way to survive!

More customers is a way to survive. The problem is, people aren’t trying new things right now. Sure, the younger demographic with roommates for whom dining is an adventure are still trying new things and haven’t stopped dining out a whole lot.

Families aren’t though. They’ve cut WAY back. When you cut back, you don’t try new places – too much risk. Frequency of visit is cut in half and, therefore, customer counts drop like a stone. This isn’t lack of customer base, folks. It’s lack of frequency.

Make hay while the sun is shining. Gain customers when the economy is rosy. It costs less money to increase customer counts through frequency of visit than through new trial generation. This is more true in a climate like this than at other times.

Build customer frequency, build customer loyalty. Your margins will go down, but your customer counts will go up. In the end, you’ll have a stronger base for it. In the meantime, your bank account will be healthier for it.

You can’t take percentages to the bank.

The Georgia Aquarium announced today that, though they pull from a trade radius that spans several states, their true objective for the coming years is…

Frequency of Visit. You’d think that a significant percentage of people have never been to the aquarium, and that a campaign to “get more customers” would be the thing to do. But bucking conventional wisdom, and actually understanding they dynamics of their business, the new CEO made the right move. Get repeat visitors.

The thinking is pretty simple: if you live nearby, and you enjoy your visit, you’re likely to tell friends. You’re likely to bring friends and family when they come to visit. You’re more likely to come for just a few hours (with a season pass, instead of dedicating a day to it all).

That may lower the check average, but it’s a relationship the aquarium is seeking. If they play their cards right, they’re on track to get one.

Whew! Been gone for a while, but have a whole lot of things to post. What I’m noticing about recent topics is that there’s an interesting commonality to a lot of notable marketing these days: Frequency.

The GA Aquarium. Delta Airlines. Chick-fil-A. All have frequency in their sights – but not so much new customers.

Another interesting parallel: shaking hands and kissing babies. Again to the big boys: Delta, Home Depot; along with some smaller folks. Getting to know the people in their neighborhood and driving traffic (usually frequency, but some new trial).

All this and more over the next few days, but right now it’s off to the village for happy hour. Haven’t been in a while.