Our friends over at the Walnut Wasp have written a brilliant case study with 8 key things they have learnt from marketing Papamacs Gourmet Kitchen, a restaurant in Johnstone, Renfrewshire (near Glasgow).
Here, we’ve listed some of the lessons we’ve learned, with real-world examples.
1. Spend most of the budget on the stuff that lasts
One of the biggest challenges for Papamacs was that their existing marketing presentation was all handled in-house, and had developed organically without an overarching strategy. So – everything from the brand to the decor to the in-house literature was all home-made, and as such, it didn’t have the consistency of quality that their food presentation had.
Our first port of call was to invest in designed collateral that brought the visual presentation up to the standard of the food, and that conveyed the key strengths of Papamacs. That meant developing a new brand, and all of the knock-on effects of that including new colour schemes, signage, interior decor – and crucially a brand new website that focused on creating repeat business for the business, and communicating all of the key strengths and services. It meant some up-front hassle and investment, and a lot of early disruption.
However – those investments are good for minimum five years. And it means that none of the ad spend in future months would be wasted sending people to a product that doesn’t look as good as it can do. Our feeling is that if the brand and the presentation isn’t as it should be, then we can spend what we like getting eyeballs on the product, but we won’t convert at the level that we’d like.
Photo: John Johnston.
