It’s a good thing when consumers seek out your establishments to celebrate special occasions. It’s even better when consumers seek out your establishment for everyday occasions. Who wouldn’t want the repeat traffic of more occasions? But how do you change their perception and ultimately buying behavior?

Before doing anything else, a restaurant needs to look at their product. The menu items need to be broad enough to appeal to a higher frequency guest while still staying true to the brand. The cost of the products needs to allow consumers with a budget to be able to come back more often.

As with anything, communication is key.  To effectively get consumers to perceive your restaurant as a regular everyday option, the majority of the advertising should do the following:

1. Showcase everyday situations
2. Highlight menu items for everyday use.
3. Communicate in a way that uses everyday language. Talk the way your audience would talk.
4. Have continuous communication that doesn’t revolve only around holidays, events, etc.

With the right products and communication strategy, consumers will begin to move toward everyday occasions, thereby increasing frequency.

A few weeks ago, we profiled Splitbread, a sandwich shop in San Francisco that had implemented a cashless payment system – customers pay only by credit card, debit card or QR code.

In August, two QSR industry leaders – Starbucks and McDonald’s – each launched new initiatives that enable customers to more quickly and conveniently pay with their mobile device.

Starbucks’ entered a partnership with Square, which lets just about any merchant accept credit or debit cards by attaching a free square-shaped credit card reader to an iPhone, iPad or Android device.

Starbucks has been ahead of the curve with mobile payment – already allowing customers to pay via bar code within their mobile app – but the Square relationship will enable more mainstream adoption of using a mobile device to pay at retail.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s announced plans to test a new payments system in which customers use their mobile app to order and pay for meals. PayPal, eBay’s mobile payments platform, would power the transactions.

Ultimately, these alternative payment methods will make it more convenient for customers to interact with these brands.

At the same time, the data these interactions provide could open potential new opportunities for more robust loyalty and alternative daypart strategies.

Photo credit: Joe Ross

At the annual National Restaurant Association show a couple of weeks ago, it was evident that high tech has become an increasingly bigger part of the dining industry expo, as reported by QSR Magazine.

For restaurants, new tech has helped the industry increase productivity and evolve customer service. One of the most crucial benefits is information collection.

“In one sense, it allows you to personalize customers,” says David Matthews, the NRA’s chief information officer. “As systems become more advanced, restaurants are able to reach out to them with offers and suggestions.”

Kansas City-based Front Flip offers a mobile app that has more of a marketing slant, helping restaurants drive repeat business while also rewarding frequent customers. After scanning a QR code with their phone, customers are sent a virtual scratch card with a chance to win a prize. It’s a win-win scenario. While the restaurant is collecting valuable data and the ability to interact with its guests, customers have the chance to be rewarded for their business.

With the rising popularity of smartphones, more and more restaurants are focusing their efforts on developing applications around this device. One of the most common implementations is mobile ordering and payment.

While Chipotle and Domino’s are two of the more notable pioneers in the category to venture into the mobile commerce arena, many have followed suit. T.G.I. Friday’s recently released an app named Friday’s which allows diners to open a tab, track their bill throughout the dining experience, and tap a button when they are ready to pay.

Tablet-based tabletop-ordering systems are also gaining traction. A group of MIT grads created the Presto tablet which not only allows guests to order and pay at any time but includes games to engage customers while their food is being prepared.

If you haven’t jumped on the high tech bandwagon quite yet, when considering the options be sure to ask yourself, “What value (convenience, access to information, entertainment, etc.) is it adding?” It’s not enough to just gain coolness points by incorporating cutting-edge technology.

With Wall Street’s emphasis on earnings and comp store sales, a key indicator of strategic health can easily get lost in the shuffle. Comp store traffic is a critical measure of how well your brand is competing in the marketplace. Earnings and earnings per share are certainly important; as are comp store sales numbers. But earnings numbers don’t always tell how well your chain is performing in the marketplace and comp store sales are often the result of price increases and/or changes in product mix.

But comp store traffic is a barometer of what is happening to our share of market. And, comp store traffic is the best indicator, in my opinion, or how well a brand is being accepted.

For many brands, the cost of acquiring new customers ranges from expensive to impossible.  Certainly social media has created less expensive avenues for accomplishing this. However, the profitability of a customer continues to increase as their frequency of visit increases.

Since American Airlines introduced their industry’s first frequent flyer program in 1981, loyalty programs—and frequent buyer programs in particular—have spread into virtually every industry and profession. Whether it’s the chain selling you pizza or the retailer trying to get more of your prescription medication business, everyone has gotten into the act. The reason is simple:

GREATER FREQUENCY OF PURCHASE = INCREASED TRAFFIC

The most successful QSR marketers are laser focused on increasing frequency of purchase as the most cost effective way to increase traffic.  Once you’ve exhausted all the day part possibilities—there are no more opportunities once you’re open 24/7—you’ve got to start looking at other solutions.

From the simplest punch card solution that gets me one FREE after I buy 10, to the discount card that is sold by my bookstore, everyone is trying to get into the act.

Right now, I  believe that one of the more creative solutions to increase frequency of purchase is the sweepstakes being offered by California Pizza Kitchen.

At the end of your visit, you are given a sealed envelope that, when opened, reveals a prize that could be anything from a free drink to thousands of dollars. Here’s the catch. The envelope cannot be opened on that visit—you have to come back. And, the envelope cannot be opened by anyone other than a store manager, otherwise it’s voided. So you have to come back for another visit with your sealed envelope and present it to a manager to find out what you’ve won. Curiosity may or may not kill the cat, but it is certainly bringing customers back to CPK.

Houlihan’s also offers similar promotions from time to time, and I’ve seen variations of this promotion type that involve a scratch-off card that must be revealed by a store manager.

Now is the time for QSR CMOs to get laser-focused on increasing frequency of purchase as a way to increase comp store traffic. In my opinion, it’s a lot better solution than constant price cutting.

Photo credit:  Brian Gurrola