Location-based Marketing Tactics for Restaurants

Hong Kong is one of the top 3 cities in the world with the highest rent.  Many restaurants are established in sometimes the most obscure locations to avoid the high rent to survive.  Operating restaurants in different locations requires different marketing tactics to attract the greatest number of customers.  This post focuses on the different promotion tactics for each type of location.

Shopping Malls

It is very common to find many restaurants located on the top floor of many shopping malls around the city.  Having customers go all the way up to the top floor and passing through all the shops increases the likelihood of shopping.  Some new shopping malls have plenty of floors (for example, the Megabox shopping mall has 19 floors of restaurants and shops) and restaurants are established on dedicated floors.  

If a restaurant has decent products and services, it is not difficult to find customers coming into the restaurants by themselves. Usually the shopping malls organize promotion events (perhaps seasonal events such as the Chinese New Year's eve or Christmas) and can draw huge crowds during the holidays.

The marketing tactics for having a restaurant in a shopping mall are:

• joint promotions with the shopping malls.  One example of such promotions is to offer meal discounts for those who spend over a certain amount at the malls.

Streets

A large number of restaurants are established in regular streets. Some restaurants just don't do anything in terms of promotion because on a busy street, someone is bound to walk in.  For this reason alone, the rent for a restaurant in a busy street is often extremely high.  Some restaurants therefore move into hidden streets in which not many people have a reason to go there to eat.  These restaurants therefore must promote a lot to give people a reason to visit.

The marketing tactics for having a restaurant in a street are:

• for those restaurants in busy streets, every once in a while having a huge promotion sign near the restaurant entrance can draw huge crowds.
• for those restaurants in hidden streets:
• tell potentials customers about the uniqueness of the products and services using targeted advertisements such as in food related publications, food websites or celebrity endorsements etc.
• those without a budget can make use of the internet.  Promote in internet food forums, food websites or use social media platforms such as facebook or twitter etc.  Word of mouth or word of mouse works best.
• promote in travel publications.  Tourists don't mind spending time to find good restaurants in foreign countries.

Buildings

Many new restaurants now move into commercial office or residential buildings because the rent is substantially cheaper.  However, the price to pay for cheap rents is that it is much harder to get people to take the elevators to visit these restaurants.  Without any promotion, nobody will know that there are restaurant establishments inside any of these buildings.

A lot of cafes are established inside commercial buildings in a busy shopping district.  Young customers are generally more receptive to patronizing these places.  They don't mind taking the elevators.

Some restaurants such as private kitchens (restaurants which serve only 12-24 customers each night) often do not want too many customers.  Some may only open for business on the weekends.  They rely solely on word of mouth promotions.

The marketing tactics for having a restaurant in a building are:

• promote in youth related magazines.
• use word of mouth heavily.  It may take a while to secure a group of loyal customers.  Having good products and services is essential.
• use social media platforms to spread the word.

Factory Buildings

According to the laws of Hong Kong, restaurants inside factory buildings cannot have any sign that says "this is a restaurant".  Restaurants located in these buildings look just like any manufacturers or factories.  Most of the factories in Hong Kong have moved north into China, so in the last 20 years or so more and more of these factory buildings have become offices.  These restaurants don't even serve customers on weekends and align their working hours to the 9 to 6, Mondays through Fridays schedule.

The marketing tactics for having a restaurant in a factory building are:

• promote by fax, email etc to offices inside or nearby factory buildings.

Agglomeration

In some of the tourist attraction areas, many restaurants are established one next to another.  This is called an agglomeration and is a powerful marketing tool.  One example of an agglomeration for restaurants is Lan Kwai Fong where many restaurants and bars are established in the same area in the Central district in Hong Kong.  If customers cannot find seats in a restaurant, they can just walk to the next until they can find seats.  Usually restaurants in an agglomeration promote together during special events such the New Year's eve celebration.

The marketing tactics for having a restaurant in an agglomeration are:

• joint promotion with other restaurants during special events such as Halloween.

Conclusion

Restaurants in each type of location have different challenges.  Location is only a small piece to the big picture.  Although it has become more and more difficult to operate a restaurant due to rising costs, those who are able to survive are the ones who can come up with creative survival ideas.