Menu Engineering Learn More

Menu Through The Eyes Of A Marketer

A menu is one of the most important marketing tools a restaurant has in addition to their brand, yet up to 90 % of menus have room and ability to increase revenue and profits that are being missed.  A menu to a marketer is a promotional and sales tool that helps the restaurant stand out in a competitive market. It is possible to have excellent food and a terrible menu. The quality of the food has nothing to do with the quality of the menu. The menu is a promotional tool, like your website or your social media. Menus’ are often left to the chef and bar manager to create because they are the ones with the greatest knowledge of these products.

If you wouldn’t let your web designer create your signature dish why would you let someone who is not a marketing professional create your signature promotional piece.

The Process

Option to Work Remotely
In today’s day and age meeting in person is not always necessary, it is always preferred when it is feasible but if travel costs would make the work cost prohibitive this is an excellent option. This is great for the smaller restaurant where there may only be only a couple of people in addition to the owners. This works well for the cafes and restaurants that are cafes, or restaurants that have a singular food focus like a pizzeria. Meetings can be done via a video call and through emails.

Physical copies of the menu in their menu jacket, or menu cover, will need to mailed to NHM unless they are being printed on regular paper, which can be printed from any office printer, such as the case in disposable menus.  

Our Nondisclosure
Business information is important and valuable and we do not take lightly the trust that you place in us and a non-disclose agreement is a standard part of all of our marketing work and is always included in our terms of agreement.

Getting to Know you Client Discovery Process
We need to know about you to make sure that the recommendations reflect your business and its current environment. To do this we go through a discovery meeting to gain a stronger understanding of your business and your brand. To do this we look to understand:

  1. Branding strategy if you have one
  2. Brand Style Guide
  3. Target Market
  4. History of the Restaurant
  5. When the last menu update was done and why
  6. Goals
  7. Competition
  8. Recent Changes

Restaurant Images
If we are working remotely with you we will require a number of photos and videos of your restaurant, and will provide you with a shot list and examples of how the images should look. This is especially important if you are using chalkboard or digital display boards in a café or  QSR setting.

Costs and Sales Volume
We require your menu item costs and sales volume per item from a month from the most recent month that does not have any special occasions, such as Mothers’ Day, or New Years for example. Nicholls Hospitality Marketing is about marketing we realize that you most likely will be running various promotions so please also indicate any specials and advertising that you used in the month for a particular item and the impact of the sales so a proper baseline can be established.

Working With Your Teams
A restaurant that is a one man show is called a hotdog cart.
Restaurants require teams to be successful. Nicholls Hospitality Marketing works with everyone that touches the menu, from the back of house to the front of house and your design team. To make sure that everyone is working from the same page.

Tracking Progress
Because we offer a money back guarantee, and we like getting paid we want to make sure that you have ongoing support through the implementation of your new menu and are available for consultation during the initial three month period so that your investment begins producing positive returns as quickly as possible.

Happy Staff Happy Owners and Managers

Staff turnover in the restaurant industry is on average greater than 70%. A great way to reduce your staffing costs is to reduce turnover. By having a menu that is engineered to produce a higher average check tips will have a tendency to be higher as well. Having your menu re-engineered by Nicholls Hospitality Marketing means your revenue is up, staff turn over is down and guests receive better service.

Beverage Specialists From Coffee to Champagne

As beverages often represent the most profitable part of a restaurant, Nicholls Hospitality Marketing wants to ensure excellence and that the menu recommendations are well integrated with the beverage selection and are complimentary to the food offering. When the two elements are well paired guest satisfaction is naturally increased and a stronger base of regular guests can occur. Our beverage specialists are SCAE, Cicerones’ WSET, CAPS, certified.

Fees

Fees begin at $1500 and will vary based on the need to be on location, the complexity and size of the menu.

Terms

A deposit of 50% of the fee is required a week prior with the balance required at the first meeting. If travel is required travel expenses will be in addition to the fees.

The Money Back Guarantee

Nicholls Hospitality Marketing will provide a full money back guarantee, provided that all recommendations have been implemented. If you have not earned the amount invested for your menu engineering back after the six months.