Why do customers go to your venue? What is your USP?
When a potential customer is considering whether to visit a business, there are all sorts of motivations that come in to play. For some, the best value for money is at the forefront of their decision making, whilst others can be enticed in by a great location or experience. The hospitality scene in Australia, particularly in the major cities, offers customers a veritable smorgasbord of high-quality dining options, so finding out what makes your venue stand out from the crowd – your USP – is a key part of your marketing strategy.
What is a “USP”?
Why do people come to your business? How do you contact them? What is the message?
Your USP – Unique Selling Proposition or Unique Selling Point – is your business’s point of difference. It’s what makes you stand out from the crowd, and it’s the thing that will have customers choosing to visit your venue over another. With so many amazing restaurants and bars to choose from locally, your USP is what will be a central marketing component that will help your business grow and set you apart from the competition.
Types of USPs
When you’re trying to understand what your business’s USP is, ask yourself “If I were a customer, why would I want to visit our venue?”. The more niche your market, the easier it is to identify your USP.
A Desirable Location
Some venues have the virtue of their location as their USP. Capitalising on the serendipitous value of a beautiful view or landmark is a no brainer. Consider Aria restaurant in Sydney. With an amazing menu, and plenty of prestige, it’s already a star on the scene, but its front seat view of the iconic Sydney Opera House makes it attractive to local and visiting diners looking for a Sydney experience that won’t soon be forgotten. Heading south, Victoria’s Lake House in Daylesford offers diners romantic lakeside dining with stunning pastoral views year round, and is in hot demand for fine dining anniversary and engagement dinners.
A desirable location doesn’t have to mean a show-stopping view. Entry to The Croft Institute, a cocktail bar in a converted warehouse in Melbourne’s CBD, is hidden down a labyrinthine network of laneways. Its clandestine location gives it the allure of secrecy that has seen it become, ironically, one of the city’s favourite drinking spots, known to reach capacity early every evening.
Venues with desirable locations are the sorts of places customers usually plan in advance to visit.
How to make it work for you:
For venues that have a desirable location as their USP, half the work is done for you by virtue of your location’s popularity locally and abroad – but that doesn’t mean you should rest on your laurels from a marketing perspective.
If you have a desirable location, make it known! While some prospective diners may find you when looking for venues in an area they already know they want to visit, plenty will find you via your website and social media accounts.
Include the images in your PDF functions pack if that’s something your venue offers. Post beautiful images to your social media accounts, and use relevant hashtags that will share this info with potential customers beyond your pre-existing followers – consider embracing your iconic location with travel specific hashtags, such as #VisitSydney, that will grow your reach and engagement. If you want to learn more about making hashtags work for your business, we’ve put together a how-to guide that you can check out here.
A Busy Location
A venue on a main street with plenty of foot traffic makes for an easy and convenient location to grab a drink or a bite to eat. Venues located along Cavill Avenue in Surfers Paradise have a steady stream of patrons due to the tremendous amount of tourist foot traffic that is constantly passing through this iconic pedestrian mall. Similarly, Melbourne’s Young and Jackson’s Hotel, located directly opposite Flinders Street Station, is popular with both locals and tourists alike due to its convenient location.
While both of these examples capitalise on the foot traffic offered by their prominent locations of international renown, the same principle applies to venues that don’t have the benefit of proximity to a local icon. A TGI Fridays located inside an airport terminal or large shopping centre, or a coffee shop located right outside a local train station, both enjoy a busy location with plenty of foot traffic who are likely to stop in, even if they didn’t plan to. It’s a case of being in the right place at the right time.
How to make it work for you:
Busy locations have the benefit of being front and centre in a customer’s line of sight. Take advantage of this with clear and attractive signage, inviting customers in. If you have a lunch special or happy hour, make sure that anyone who passes by will notice. If you’re located in a busy area, but your venue’s entry isn’t immediately obvious, using signage with directional advice is a must.
Reputation
We’ve all been tempted by a restaurant or venue because we’ve heard it’s good. Whether it’s an article, the recommendation of an influencer, or word of mouth, a venue’s reputation can offset an inconvenient or hard to find location.
Cottage Point Inn, located in New South Wales’s Ku Ring Gai National Park, is a fair drive from town, but it still manages to draw in diners. Customers know they’re going to have a great dining experience – so it’s worth the drive. Melbourne’s Chin Chin is so popular that it’s not unusual to see a line of customers stretching down the block, sometimes waiting up to an hour to get in because they know it’s worth the wait. Both of these venues are successful because they have a solid reputation.
Restaurants with celebrity chefs, or notable members of the hospitality community, come with clout and respect. Did a member of your team cut their fine dining teeth at one of the world’s well-known and well-respected venues abroad? Make it known.
How to make it work for you:
Reputations are built over time, with hard work, great products, and happy customers. But a little networking can do wonders in getting your name out there, and raising the profile of your business. Food and dining focussed publications – both print and online – such as Broadsheet, Urban List, and Eat Drink Play, are respected and trusted by diners. A visit to your venue, and subsequent write up, by one of these publications can help cement your reputation as a venue to look out for.
Collaborating with respected food influencers is another great way to build your reputation among the food-minded community. Finding the right influencer for your business requires strategy and planning, but it can be a cost-effective way to further your brand’s reach and see real results. If you’re not sure where to start, check out our guide to working with influencers [here].
Experience
Some restaurants offer a truly unique experience that goes beyond just dining. Their USP is built into their venue’s branding.
Consider Melbourne’s Witches In Britches, and the Gold Coast’s Dracula’s. Both venue’s offer their visitors a horror cabaret theatrical experience alongside their consistently themed spooky dinner and drinks menu. While such a niche offering won’t appeal to a wide audience, they’ve identified and zeroed in on their target market and have amassed a loyal following that has seen their business become mainstays for decades.
Similarly, popular Melbourne bar The Berlin Bar offers their customers a unique atmosphere through a carefully curated backstory and aesthetic that brings in a steady stream of visitors despite neither having a particularly prominent location. The Berlin Bar, – located on the second floor of a nondescript building, makes interesting use of its small, two-room set up by theming itself around East and West Germany circa 1950. Visitors can choose to take their cocktails in Weimar inspired opulence, or can rock on with their comrades in a bunker themed room complete with propaganda decor.
These examples are particularly flamboyant, but a venue that utilises experience as its USP doesn’t have to be theatrical to draw in customers. Something as simple as a unique regional cuisine can be the unique experience that customers come – and return – to your venue for.
How to make it work for you:
Think about how live performances, such as local or visiting musicians, can add an element of entertainment to a venue while also creating an ambience that enhances the diner’s experience. Dinner courses paired with wine and live jazz accompaniment offers your customers an experience that sets you apart from other venues. A wine flight, curated around a specific region or varietal, is another great way to give your customers an experience that goes beyond just having an enjoyable drink.
If your venue is built around a specific geographical cuisine, such as Israeli street food or utilising Indigenous Australian ingredients, consider how you can market this to your target audience that makes it clear it’s a point of difference that they won’t find elsewhere. Whether you’re engaging with your followers on social media, or crafting content for your EDM, capitalising on your USP by sharing information that fleshes out the backstory of your menu (i.e. “Flavours of Tel Aviv” or “Meet Our Top End Kakadu Plum Producers”) will see your venue stand apart for its contemporaries.
