FSR August 2022

Your Take

“The good news for teams with smaller budgets is that discounts aren’t what generate loyal customers; creating tailored experiences and memorable moments do.”

SHARDUL KIRI

ADOBE STOCK / COURTESY OF SHARDUL KIRI

budgets is that discounts aren’t what gen erate loyal customers; creating tailored experiences and memorable moments do. Building unique programming requires more creativity and team effort, but in return, you’ll be able to attract new cus tomers while also providing new activa tions to bring to market. In lieu of pro moting discounts, tailor your rewards to your customer wants, and think about giving them first access to special events or other offers that give them a sense of exclusivity. Every organization has its own unique selling points, and your ability to share that story with the masses can— at times—be limited to budget. While some companies might not have access to limitless dollars, all have access to data insights. Use that to drive initia tives and create customized experiences, and you can easily super-size the impact of your marketing dollars. Shardul Kiri is an award-winning cre ative director, brand strategist, and mar keter with 20-plus years of experience. He currently leads a Cultivate Hospitality, helping companies develop new concepts and leading their marketing efforts as a fractional CMO. Kiri began his career at boutique firms and larger agencies before cofounding his own business. After 10 years, he joined the MINA Group as CMO, where he oversaw the development of 12 brands, the successful launch of 15 new restaurants, an increase in private dining sales, and the launch of a compre hensive loyalty program.

experience that will specifically reso nate with them. From there, you can develop an overall brand message that speaks to that demographic. Once you under stand your audience’s interests, you can take it a step further and segment that audience into even more specific verti cals—wine lovers, health and wellness enthusiasts, families, etc.—and create marketing campaigns and programming that speak specifically to those segments. Taking a more personalized approach with your customers will help you gain their loyalty and get them engaged with your brand. Gather feedback Your database is a group of people who have already opted in to receive market ing messages from your brand. This list

is an incredible resource from which to gather data and feedback to improve the guest experience; it also drives sales and reservations. There are countless cost effective ways to build your database while also gaining loyal customers. Recently, for a restaurant client in Seattle, we included a question at the bottom of our dessert menu asking guests to write down what their favor ite seasonal dessert was so we could consider adding it to the menu. We also asked for their email to notify them if we selected their dessert to feature. Using this simple tactic, we were able to add 10,000 unique emails—in one year—to our database, while creating a direct rela tionship with our guests. Build memorable moments The good news for teams with smaller

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AUGUST 2022