Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

OK. I give up. What city is it? There are not that many cities with a population of 20 million people! In fact, I think there are only five that are more than 15 million:

1. Tokyo, Japan - 28,025,000
2. Mexico City, Mexico - 18,131,000
3. Mumbai, India - 18,042,000
4. Sáo Paulo, Brazil - 17, 711,000
5. New York City, USA - 16,626,000

The answer to the promotion question would probably be different for each of those options, so we should start to narrow the field a bit.

Next, it's important to understand the specific target market you are seeking. Just because you're in a huge city doesn't mean that you really have a pool of 20 million prospects. If you're in Sao Paulo, for example, it's likely that at least 10 million people live more than an hour away from you and/or don't have a great way to get to your location. Your real target is probably closer to 100,000 people, if that.

The process of developing promotion plans is highly dependent on a clear and narrow definition of the target audience. If you can help us with that we can probably help you come up with promotion ideas.

Separate subject: I don't understand your pricing strategy.

If you are offering "a better option than fatty fast food" and "consistent good quality," why would you price it low? It sounds like you don't think it's worth very much. And if you don't think it's worth much, what are your customers going to think?

Besides, if your margins were higher you wouldn't have to sell so many meals to generate your attractive payback ... and you could afford more/better promotion to help generate the volume you need.

The strategy doesn't compute for me.

If people are truly in a hurry, why not provide the food in a street cart setting (for people walking by)? Temaki is ideal walking-around food, so positioning it where people are is easier than trying to have them come to your restaurant.

If you have a restaurant already, you have a couple of options: entice people already walking by or entice people to come to you. The walk-by traffic is easier, since people don't have to change their habit - you're providing a new meal choice.

Finally, temaki may require a cultural education. Not everyone likes raw fish. So, have temaki of various forms (even if it's not traditional) to satisfy the people who want a "Japanese burrito" with healthier fillings.

Dear Cesaugm,

I take it you have a starving crowd in mind? Hungry souls who
MUST dine on raw fish?

And 200 meals/customers. Per day? How long are you open for?
12 hours? At that rate and being open for that length of time you're looking at one customer roughly every three minutes.

Yes, I give up as well. Where are you? I think your populations figures are possibly a tad ... off.

To market your restaurant, you've got to focus on a niche. Which means catering to a tight group: young, hip, health conscious? If everyone is your customer, no one is.

To meet the needs of your group, you might ned to review your desire for your attractive payback. If you focus on profit from day one, you'll go broke trying to keep up.

Meet (or create) a need and cater to that need better than anyone else in your niche. Word will spread from there, and with it will come your payback.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Not sure why the population of the city matters to others. You aren't targeting the whole city, just those who are located (live or work) near the store. I would consider this to be more of a local marketing problem, with local activities as what you should be looking at.

What would matter a bit is how the local population looks at Japanese foods. And how marketing activities vary in different countries. In Tokyo, they definitely know temaki. But Mexico or a city in India they may not. Plus they type of food inside (raw versus cooked, etc.) may vary.

It all comes down to finding out how do local stores and restaurants advertise in the market? In the states, door hangers with menu and coupon would be very common. In Tokyo, they ave someone give out packets of facial tissues with advertisement/coupons in them.

If the store is not set up yet, it does sound like location could be very key to this. Having the store near a mass transit point and/or a place with a lot of businesses may be beneficial, as you get more walk by and lunchtime sales. Or maybe near a tourist location, to get tourist sales.

Organise a launch event and invite local business people along.

At the event hire naked sushi models https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3215549/Sushi-eate...

Register each guest so you have their details and offer them special deals for bsuiness lunches and events through a "corporate club".