Re-invigorating bars and eateries in the online age

New Media Age editor Michael Nutley - who I deal with professionally and also on a friendly basis (we have a mutual friend in Engagement Alliance advisory board member Adriana Cronin-Lukas) - has a surprisingly negative post on the NMA website. The headline proclaims:

Online shopping damages specialist retailers

The piece talks about how the increase in online socialising is hurting the revenues of restaurants and bars. I couldn’t resist dropping Mike an email about this, and here’s what I had to say in response to the piece and his headline. 

Really? I’d probably phrase that more in terms of “Lack of innovative thinking damages specialist retailers in the age of online shopping”. I’d no more blame online shopping for damaging specialist retailers than I’d blame mp3s for destroying the entertainment industry. Indeed, thanks to the extremely low cost ability to sell online, and the strong advantage that niches have online, I would expect specialist retailers to be able to get even more out of the web than those which try to target the fabled ‘mass market’. Indeed, it has never been easier or cheaper for specialist businesses - be they retailers or
otherwise - to make the most out of the online space and social media.

It’s pretty sad when so many businesses in the UK prefer to pout about the fact that things are difficult than adapt and re-energise themselves. I think such companies should look to places like China, where it has sunk in for those in the entertainment industry that (for example) music is for promotional purposes and the profits now need to be made from other products and services. Perhaps pride won’t allow some in business to put into action lessons learned from outside Europe, but I can’t say I feel much sympathy for their declining fortunes if that’s the case.

In short, people only spend their money with you if there is something in it for them - that’s the beauty of voluntary exchange (aka capitalism). In the past, it used to be enough for restaurants and bars to say, “What you get is to socialise and meet people here.” Now that they’re not the only ticket in town, they need to find additional value that can compel people to spend their money in their establishment. No amount of annoyance with the fact that things have changed will substitute for new thinking and action.

What could this mean in practical terms for the restaurant and bar owners of Manchester’s gay village, Canal Street? Just off the top of my head, take an idea or two from Seth Godin’s suggestions for McDonald’s:

1. Start your own brand of lightly sweetened caffeine free iced tea. 10% the sugar of Coke. 4 times the profit. A brand you can own. A way to significantly impact the health of the world. Phase out Coke. Completely.

You see bars and restaurants in the US doing stuff in this vein all the time. Some options: own branded spirits, alcopops, sauces, cookbooks, CDs, shirts, candles, etc. Lots of bars and restaurants find additional revenue streams like this which help keep them afloat and often boost success dramatically. And yes, they should sell the stuff online, too.

2. Offer a free DVD of the award-winning SuperSize Me! documentary with every iced tea sold.
[no, I’m not kidding].

A bit extravagant, even for McDonald’s, but certainly there are applications of this idea for bars and restaurants. How about a free set of dirty talk magnetic poetry with your first round of £50 worth of drinks? A free ‘erotic’ shot glass [link possibly not safe for work] for the bride who comes into the bar with her friends on her hen night (and with civil partnerships now legal in the UK, there’s even more market share available for this idea for Canal Street bars) would be a fairly inexpensive promotion. For less raunchy establishments, such as wine bars and restaurants, why not let people take their wine glass charms home with them? Or give away a free, branded CD or recipe booklet - both cheap to produce in large or small quantities - to every first time customer.  And yes, they should sell the stuff online, too.

3. Challenge every store to offer something new and real and local and remarkable on the menu. Diversify times 100.

Two quick no-brainers: Bars could offer drinks named after neighbourhood legends (for Canal Street, think the characters from Queer as Folk, the guy who wrote the show - Russell T Davies - and other local gay icons), and restaurants could put things like bakewell tarts on the menu. (Indeed, why not a drink that tastes like a bakewell tart?) And yes, they should put the recipes online, for free, and possibly in a booklet which they should sell in print form online.

4. Bend over backwards to host meetups in your stores. Keep up with the free wifi. Sponsor soccer teams and girl guides and the astronomy club. Put chess tables on the placemats. Use the real estate advantage to create a place where people meet.

Okay, so the local girl guides probably aren’t going to start having their weekly meetings in gay pubs, but think about it: Why not enable the communities that are gathering online to gather in your bar or restaurant? (I posted about enabling community only two days ago, in fact.) Yeah, let Meetup groups use your function rooms for a big discount or free; they’re much more likely to give you online publicity than others. Do a deal with Dating Direct or Match.com to give their members one free drink every time they bring a date in, or a free bottle of house wine if you’re a restaurant. Set up a podcast booth and let people take away CDs (for a charge) of their drunken conversations. They’re going to drunk dial anyway - record it and have a weekly contest for the funniest/most embarrassing call. Give the barmen digital cameras and start a Flickr or Buzznet page for your business, and make sure everyone who comes in knows about it. And yes, they should document all of these events and specials online, post the podcasts on the web (don’t forget the RSS), and enable communities to share this stuff amongst their networks, too.

And, lest Godin’s mention of it have escaped your notice: free wifi, free wifi, free wifi.

Can you think of any other ideas to re-invigorate these kinds of businesses? 

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