Additional cash income with no investment

We came across this interesting income generator for nightclubs, sports bars and clubs, bars and live music venues.

Click on the photo for more information!

Marketing in tough conditions

Nightclub marketing in the downturn!

By John Hicks of Headline Promotions, Press & PR

In these dire economic times with despondency over the credit crunch, lower spends per head and job losses it would be easy for nightclubs, bars, live music venues and restaurants to lose their way with marketing and promotions. It is too easy think to think that competitive edge can be gained by simply running a giveaway promotion, sticking some ads in the newspapers and shoving up some posters.

No, this is the time to be creative. Yes, it is so competitive out there right now and margins are tight so give your business the edge by sitting your team down and brainstorming ideas.

Firstly, think about gaining some press coverage. Why not organise a party for the local Childrens' ward at the hospital (a little late now but worth thinking about, I have had huge coverage in the past with this), run a joint promotion with the local cinema, offer the newspaper and radio station a voucher or competition prize, issue a press release about a new menu, run a contrived let evening such as Hairdresser of the Year, run a mid-week charity night with a local band (they bring followers!) etc etc.

Secondly, get some flyers printed (there are some great deals out there for printing at the moment) and get some attractive, smart and branded staff out in the town handing them out. Get them to hit your target audience with the flyers and chat to people about what you are offering.

Thirdly, build upon your existing networking contacts. Give them a call or pop in to see them - check if they have any last minute Christmas leaving parties they want hosting. See if they want to do any joint promotions or competitions together. For service industries and retailers working through December, invite them into a special Christmas Party in January. This is what you should have been doing all year so don't stop now!

Finally, look at your budgets. Can you squeeze out some money for a celebrity personal appearance. It's late but can be done (if you are stuck for contacts this late you are welcome to drop me an e-mail at john@headlinepromotions.co.uk as I may be able to help).

Please do not forget to think about the customer experience when you are successful in getting the customer in the door. At the very least you want to hang onto them for as long as possible and not encourage them to wander off to another venue. At best, you want them to be unpaid ambassadors going out telling people what a great place you have! Double check that your staff are looking their very best and in good spirit. Check your Christmas decorations are clean and look fresh even though they have been up a while. Double check your maintenance list is sorted. Check your stock to make sure you are not going to run out of product or toilet rolls. Check your DJ's are fired up, looking great and playing the right party music. Check your menus are spotlessly clean. Check your kitchen is spotlessly clean despite the pressure from busy trading sessions. Again, this is what you do normally - but can be put aside when we get stuck into the busy festive season.

I will not wish you good luck. We make our own luck! But, I do wish you a great Christmas and New Year.

Top ten tips to maximise your marketing impact in a recession

Even the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, is now using the “R” word. Yes, Recession is here!

I fully believe that, because of it, just about every business and organisation out there is having to cut back on expenditure in some areas of activity, become more efficient, and more effective with their spend.

It’s nothing new, we are always being asked to do that, but this time it’s serious. It hasn’t been this serious since the 2001 Dot Com bust.

I was with a client earlier this week and we were brainstorming a marketing strategy for this recession and I was asked for my top ten ideas for marketing through these stormy seas. Whilst this article was penned for general business use, some of the ideas are ones we can relate to in our industry so I thought I would share this with you.

1. Existing customers are key: In times of economic uncertainty, when budgets are getting cut back, people buy from who they know. This means you’ve got to engage with the customer base more frequently and deeply than ever before. Look at your communications strategy for customers remembering that it is far more expensive to attract new customers than it is to retain existing ones.

2. Supplier relationships. You will have already looked with your suppliers at ways of cutting costs and/or improving service. You will have already reviewed your purchasing policies and procedures to ensure maximum value. Now look for opportunities to work with them on joint promotions, joint marketing and advertising including newspaper and radio advertorials, links to and from their website or other ways in which you can help each other. These other ways might include attending trade fairs together or setting up regional/local seminars, workshops or exhibitions. Now is the time to be creative whilst limiting exposure to costs!

3. Joint ventures. Try and look for new working relationships. I was talking to a manufacturer who was seeking marketing advice. I talked myself out of the job because the solution was actually to go out and license the product to an existing High Street retailer who has the outlets and sales volume. I was lucky enough to develop a working relationship with a management consultancy and they introduce clients to me, and vice versa. No cost to either of us!

4. Measure Everything: Know what works, and what doesn’t, and stop what doesn’t. We do this in normal times but the pressure is now on to do it as effectively as we possibly can. I was working with my client Sunset Lingerie http://www.sunsetlingerie.co.uk/ and during the last few months we found that 36,000 hits were from people in the US. Result? We established a US mirror image site with US graphics, US sizes and priced in dollars. A low cost attempt to capitalise on the reality of who is using their website meant that they have an additional income stream.

5. Invest in Communications: Communications becomes a high ROI tactic in tough times. Use it! Make sure your PR firm is using all the social media tools at your disposal to get your message out. If you don’t have a PR firm then start a FaceBook page, start a blog, brand a You Tube channel, create a corporate page on Next2Friends http://www.next2friends.com/ and develop some viral content. Its low cost and it works. Use your PR firm to also push out some articles across the web to help raise your profile and make it easier for people to find you. And, do not forget to get out there! Be seen at trade fairs, have a stand at the local xmas fayre, donate a prize to the childrens ward xmas party, whatever is appropriate. It needn’t costs much money at all. Look at the Chicago Rock Cafe promotional car in the photograph above, this cost nothing! Yet, the profile of the venue was raised significantly over the twelve months of the sponsorship deal from the local Chrylser dealership!

6. Data is king. Review both your data and the way it is collected and maintained. Ensure that the collection system is comprehensive and that it is kept up to date. Unless you are a government agency or department, where it is normal to lose confidential data on a train or left in a highly visible briefcase on the back seat of our car ready to be easily stolen by the first thief walking past, you must ensure that we comply with the strict requirements of the Data Protection legislation. Do not abuse that data. If you need more data, for direct mail shots or telesales campaign, buy some in. It is not that expensive and is an invaluable tool.

7. Your website. Increasingly, customers are using websites to find suppliers and find the best deals. Look at your website with fresh eyes, does it work, does it say what you want it to say, do you need special offers at this time, are your Unique Selling Points prominent? Also review with your webmaster is the Search Engine Optimisation is working its best. Check if you have plenty of links to and from your site. Look at opportunities to generate new income from affiliate scheme or advertising. I sold some adverts on some of my websites for $30 a year, not big bucks but that is money I didn’t have before and it took me five minutes to drop them into my sites. In addition, I now have another new business contact that I might be able to develop a new working relationship with.

8. Internal communication. When senior managers are under pressure, it is too easy to stop listening to colleague or communicating back to them. Make sure that your internal communications, even if just using simple email systems, are working. In particular, make sure you are listening to customer facing staff so that you are hearing the feedback they are getting from your customers.

9. Have a Strategy. Strategy is about sacrifice and if everything is a priority then nothing is a priority. Make it a living, breathing, document that you share widely with colleagues even if some commercially sensitive areas are withheld. Let the staff feel part of this process. Revisit it regularly and update it in the light of practical experience.

10. Business networking. I hate business networking events, even the better ones from Business Link, as I have never met anyone either sensible or someone I really would like to business with. They wasted my time. The best forum for meeting like minded business people that I have found is online at We Can Do Biz http://www.wecando.biz/ and membership is free. I guess what I like about it most is that the business people on there are friendly, helpful and business community minded!

And remember to create your own networks. The photo above was taken at a Recruitment Fair for Chicago Rock Cafe in Yeovil. I simply went round the town inviting retailers and other employers to have a free stand at a recruitment open day. The local newspaper sponsored it and gave us plenty of free advertising as a result. The exhibitors put out flyers in their stores or factories so Chicago Rock received plenty of positive PR. I made new business contacts. Chicago Rock also won some Christmas party bookings from the exhibitors. Cost? Nothing!!!

I’m sure there are lots of ideas about marketing in a recession. Please share a few with me as I surely could use all the help I can get, and let’s share it with others!

But, more importantly, have the faith to remember that these things are cyclical. Those of us with grey hairs have seen this before and prudent financial and business planning now will put us in good stead to be there at the end ready for the upturn.

You can read John’s blog on marketing for small businesses at http://www.headlinepromotions.blogspot.com/ or visit his website at www.headlinepromotions.co.uk

Bartender scams

By John Hicks of Nightclub Marketing
- a specialist division of Headline Promotions, Press and Public Relations

I was once called in to a nightclub where profits had dropped dramatically over the previous twelve months trading period.

Oddly enough, the manager had just resigned and taken off in his new yacht to sail the seven seas, Not a bad result for someone on his wages! But he had left and profits were still underperforming so, naturally, there was a large degree of suspicion falling on the staff in general.

The immediate task was to hold some unannounced stock checks, till crashes mid shift and post-delivery spot checks to ensure deliveries of stock were correct.

Bartenders are generally a nice bunch of people, but temptation sometimes gets the best of them.

Here are some examples of what they might do to “get ahead in life.” There are variations on many of these themes, so don’t by any means consider this a comprehensive list:

1. Overpouring to get a larger tip.

2. Underpouring to build a bank of liquor, which the bartender will later sell and pocket the difference.

3. Bringing in his own liquor from the supermarket, taking advantage of their cheap prices, and pocketing the sales from that bottle

4. Comping drinks to get a bigger tip.

5. Giving free drinks to friends.

6. Ringing bottled beer as draught and pocketing the difference.

7. Ringing a sale on the comp or “no sale” key, then pocketing the difference.

8. Ringing drinks at happy hour prices, allowing the bartender to pocket the difference.

9. Abusing your promotions by ringing up more expensive drinks that contain the same amount/type of liquor as the promotion, and pocketing the difference.

10. Leaving the cash drawer open after ringing the sale, which gives the bartender a chance to make a few sales without you knowing it.

11. Claiming someone walked out without paying, when the bartender is actually pocketing the difference.

12. Selling a sample drink and pocketing the difference.

13. Faking a broken bottle, then selling the contents of the bottle and pocketing the difference.

14. Making and logging a drink wrong, then selling it to someone else after it’s returned and pocketing the difference.

15. Circumventing a pouring spout control system by bringing in his own spouts, leaving spouts off certain bottles, putting electronic spouts in the microwave to fry them (really!), or dozens of other ways that have been devised to beat spout systems.

16. Pocketing unrecorded sales of sodas or juices, which are seldom inventoried, or ringing them as a liquor sale to pad previous unrecorded liquor sales.

17. Z’ing the register an hour or so before quitting time, at which point all subsequent sales can be pocketed.

18. Pretending to make a mistake while ringing up a sale, then using a makeup ring to cover the “mistaken” ring. For instance, ringing a 5.50 drink at 1.50p, then pocketing the four pounds and, if questioned, saying the under-ring was a makeup for a previous sale that they had mistakenly mis-recorded.

19. Over-estimating the wastage in line cleaning and pocketing the difference - or selling the last few pints out of the system.

Many of these scams can be revealed, and thus deterred, by good management practices. Of those, the most important is thorough inventory control, including taking regular physical inventories and tracking receiving and empties. Simply relying on your EPOS system or pouring control system will not take the place of regular, thorough physical inventories.

So the choice is simple: keep a handle on things – or contribute to your bartenders’ early retirement.

What was wrong in the club I mentioned in the introduction? Well, I had people observe staff working, crashed their tills mid shift and reviewed the CCTV footage over many long and arduous hours. Nothing found!

Then on a busy Friday evening I was in the restaurant area with my Director bemoaning the fact that we had not found the problem. I called for an X reading from the till and it looked quite promising. The drinks sales were good. Door takings were fairly typical for a Friday night. Cloakroom sales were not brilliant but ok.

But hand on! Door takings typical??? The club was packed to near its 900 capacity. Door takings, when you divided the money by the admission charge, was only 400 or so people! We crashed the tills and found double the money on the X reading.

Then it dawned on us. There were two tills on the door but only one was connected to the EPOS system, one lot of takings were never recorded. The staff had known the manager was on the take so, when he left, they just carried on and split the takings.

The Police were called and head office started legal proceedings against staff for recovery of the money. And I got brownie points!

Valuing the time spent on social networking sites

Popular social networking sites, including the giants of these, MySpace and Facebook, have undoubtedly changed the human fabric of the Internet.

Largely the domain of a predominantly youthful user base, they are also well supported by older users. There is also a firm base of professionals using it for business purposes also - from advertising to networking.

You will know the names: LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Next2Friends, FastPitch, Ecademy, Photobucket as well as the plethora of blogging and photo sharing sites.

Time is precious to everyone, none more so than to a small business owner like me. Over the past few years I have joined many, often following an invitation by a friend, colleague or business acquaintance.

The trouble is that I now find that I do not have the time to use them to full advantage and my inbox is inundated every day, especially as those creative geniuses at Facebook devise ever increasingly obscure ways to persuade members to spend time not only theirs but, by spreading the web, encouraging me to spend my time too.

This week alone, I received two more invitations to join new social networking sites! So, I have decided to cull my memberships of these sites. It was an interesting exercise so I would like to share this experience with you.

My interests divide into four key areas: business (networking and blogging), personal and music (live music being my passion).

Music was easy. Of all the memberships I have, MySpace is the most dynamic and user-friendly. I have maintained old relationships and made lots of new ones through MySpace and, especially as I rarely get e-mails from them, I am keeping my page (www.myspace.com/headlinepromotions).

Business more difficult to weed out. Of all the networking sites I belong to for networking, only one has actually generated any business contacts - either suppliers or customers. That is WeCanDoBiz (http://www.wecando.biz/). I do like this site and it has proved successful business-wise. It was very simple to register and is free.

Blogging was not an issue. Blogger dotcom (hhtp://www.blogger.com) is no useful and so easy to understand that I would not for one moment consider changing. Some of my blogs are well read (such as my Headline Promotions, Press & Public Relations blog site: www.headlinepromotions.blogspot.com) so that speaks for itself. Others are actually the website content for my domains (e.g. my world record attempt resource http://www.worldrecordattempt.co.uk/) so are effectively free hosting sites and, because of their ease of use, avoid the employment of webmasters to maintain them!

For personal contacts, because of the sheer number of contacts I have on there, I have to remain with Facebook, annoying though that is. It is peoples’ obsession with inviting me to play bingo, or poker or hangman that cheeses me off. Just recently, spammers have got in there and I now receive misspelled invitations to see myself on friends videos; clicking on the link reveals that it is spam with viruses so I hope that Facebook take urgent action to stop this. I am aware that I can reduce the volume of daily e-mails by changing some of my notification options and I am going to do this very shortly to ease the burden on my inbox!

I did actually look at Facebook for advertising but the sheer volume of targets and the time it took to try and work out what and how to maximise the impact of any campaign outweighed any advantage over my existing and effective PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns on Google. For nightclubs, bars and restaurants it is true that the ability to able to communicate with a number of customers holds particular appeal - but I think you are the only sector to have taken advantage of this, and I am not sure there are many other sectors which Facebook can help in this way.

Somewhere in between business and pleasure is a relatively new social networking platform called Next2Friends. I have not yet fully grasped the full potential of this site either for business or pleasure but I am sure it is huge.

I have created a corporate page for Headline Promotions, Press & PR and am working my way through the site to try and grasp how I can use it best. But the ability to video events (whether business or personal) and share them in real time or as video for later access by people I choose to allow, is enormous.

Take, for example, Sunset Lingerie (http://www.sunsetlingerie.co.uk/) for whom I am organising a fashion show. I could video that on my mobile phone and it will appear in real time on Next2Friends and be retained for people to see later. I could, in fact, have it showing live on their website or mine. Similarly, if one of my world record attempts is taking place, then I can show that live or recorded. This is something I definitely wish to explore further.

So, will it save time? I think it will. This means I can focus my attention on the sites I have chosen to continue to support to my advantage and theirs!

Personal reflections but with a marketing message

I received a letter this morning from Premier Travel Inn at Yeovil. It thanked me for leaving a feedback form and expressing their thanks for making positive comments about the Travel Inn and the Airfield Tavern pub next door.

The feedback I gave was very positive. The standards in both the hotel and the Airfield Tavern were superb and the staff in the pub and hotel were very hospitable. The food, from their extensive Table Table menu, was excellent both in terms of quality and price.

All this made the weekend very enjoyable. Yeovil holds such fond memories for me even though I haven’t been back there for years.

Working with some fantastic people - from the wonderful Dudley and Aileen Miller at The Foresters’ Arms in East Coker in my younger days through to that larger than life character, Adrian Hopper (now Marketing supremo at Yeovil Town Football Club and whose hospitality, when I popped in, was up to his usual standards) who rather foolishly encouraged me to be the editor of the business and the leisure & entertainment sections of his Clarion Newspaper.

It was in this beautiful country market town in rural Somerset that I first got the buzz from marketing and public relations, that buzz still giving my life a sparkle even today. Yeovil has given me some amazing memories. Let me reminisce for a few moments.

I was so lucky to work with the legendary Bruce Welch of The Shadows. Bruce had just come back from Cliff Richards’ birthday cruise with some wonderful tales of that trip and “the good old days” when he and Hank Marvin established the band. We put together a charity Shadows reunion show at the Westland’s Sports and Social Club, a magnificent live music venue, well worth visiting if you are down that way. The sponsors were Vale Motors of Wincanton, the local Subaru and Hyundai dealer. It was a magnificent show and Bruce was brilliant to work with.
Another of my memories was holding a motor show for, coincidentally, Vale Motors in the aforesaid Westland’s Sports and Social Club. It was a terrific event and Bryan, the Dealer Principal, pulled off real coup when he persuaded Hyundai to let us launch the new Hyundai Sonata at the event. It was well supported and the bottom line was that cars were sold as a result! I would mark it as an eight out of ten. It would have been a ten out of ten if two little mistakes had been avoided.

Firstly, the Mayor of Basingstoke - a wonderful man called Councillor John Cruddas, well loved by the townsfolk - unveiled the new Hyudai Sonata. Bryan’s guests included the government Trade & Industry Minister and a senior executive from Hyundai. It was unfortunate, therefore, that the Mayor announced that he was unveiling the new HONDA Sonata. An “oops moment“!

The second “oops moment” came when the fanfare sounded. Imagine the scene. The lights in the main hall were dimmed and the spotlight fell on the car on the stage which was shrouded in a cover. The whole room went hushed and then the big fanfare sounded - it was the Space Odyssey theme tune - one of those nerve tingling moments.

Sadly, the track was from a cheap CD I had picked up in Woolworths for a few pennies. It sounded fine on the car CD player. Imagine my horror when it went out at ten thousand watts through the house PA system as the most awful crackly and unmelodic offering ever heard. The strobe lights flashed all round the building as the wires lifted off the cover to unveil this magnificent car. But the sound was awful and, still reeling from the Mayor’s mis-branding, I was just wanted to go in a corner and fade away. Luckily, the client saw the funny side of it and no harm was done!

Of course, my introduction to the nightclub and leisure scene, which stood me in good stead for the rest of my career, was leaving The Clarion to join Chicago Rock Café Yeovil as its Marketing Manager. General Manager Lynn Bowler and Area Manager Abbie Bassir gave me the freedom to try all sorts of initiatives and develop new skills. They made marketing and PR fun - but they were results orientated and I have never forgotten the lesson that there has to be a “bottom line” outcome of all the activity we undertake.

But, boy, did we have some fun. We had some great parties at Chicago Rock. An Elvis Night with sixteen Elvis impersonators all on stage at the same time making me cry with laughter, terrible local bands in a “battle of the bands” contest emptying the building making me cry in despair, Yeovil Carnival childrens’ parties, YDRfm local radio parties - they are all fond memories.

Two events there stick out in my mind though. Firstly, was the world record attempt by DJ Danny D. playing the longest live DJ set in a nightclub using only vinyl records. The photo above shows Danny and I, covered in champagne, after he reached 120 hours non-stop playing. DJ Tony Temple of YDRfm and I stayed up all week with Danny (I couldn’t do that now!).

We gained some good media coverage and Alex of AFH Web Design broadcast the whole 120 hours live on the internet (apart from the inevitable little hiccups when service went down for short breaks) and attracted 11,000 listeners from across the globe. In those early days of the Internet that was a staggering number!

Secondly, YDRfm launched a promotion night at the club. The theme was “cops and robbers” and customers were invited to come in fancy dress for free admission. I was there with my camera waiting for the radio station presenters to arrive dressed as cops so I went outside at the agreed time only to find policemen and pretend drunken revellers struggling on the pavement. The police were outnumbered so they were handcuffing people to the railings outside the club. I was busy snapping away taking photographs, dashing between all the actors, thinking how realistic they all were and impressed that Tony T had laid on such an elaborate show for the onlookers.

Imagine my horror when Tony and his colleague Rob Denslow appeared around the corner wearing silly plastic imitation police helmets and carrying water pistols. They were dumbstruck at what was going on and I suddenly realised that this was no publicity stunt. It was the real thing! And at that moment, a riot van arrived and out piled a team of officers followed by a K-9 unit.

Drunken revellers from some event in the town were involved in a real-life fracas with the police. Another “oops moment”! I really wish we had then the technology we have today - wouldn’t it have been awesome to have video’d all that on my mobile phone and posted it on Next2Friends like I could do today!

There is a third of my two memories. I persuaded J2O to sponsor the launch of a Christmas anti-drink drive campaign at the club. I also persuaded the actor from The Vicar of Dibley of (“No, no, no, yes” fame) to endorse it. The PR and marketing success came when the regional bus company kindly agreed to take the poster and put it in every bus! The impact was huge! TV coverage was wonderful because they managed to get the Mayor of Yeovil to be filmed being breathalysed outside the club by traffic cops! What a wonderful image that was!

Well, the real point of this article was to congratulate Premier Travel Inn on taking the trouble to write to me. It was a good marketing ploy as I was delighted to receive it. If they were my client, which sadly Whitbread plc are not, I would have recommended enclosing a voucher for a discount on my next visit. I would have certainly used it!

I guess that had my response to the feedback form been negative then I would have received a different (apologetic?) letter. Either way, the lesson for marketers and PR people is, firstly get that all important data, and, secondly, never to waste a good opportunity to communicate a positive message to existing customers.

ShotPak banned by Portman Group

The makers call it a "party in a pouch but ShotPak, a line of alcoholic beverages that come in shot-sized, laminated-foil plastic pouches that are reminiscent of the drinks children pack in school lunches, has been banned because it appeals to children and encourages excessive drinking, according to the Portman Group.

The Independent Complaints Panel of the drinks watchdog moved to ban ShotPak sachets, imported from the US, following a complaint from MP Sally Keeble.

The Labour MP recently unveiled her own alcohol sales bill proposing minimum pricing.

The pre-mixed vodka drinks are produced in four flavours — Apple Sour, Lemon Drop, Purple Hooter and Kamikaze.

There are also full-strength vodka, rum, tequila and whisky versions which are primarily marketed as STR8UP but which feature ShotPak branding.

The Panel decided that the drinks could be mistaken for soft drinks and that the packaging encouraged consumers to drink them in one go.

The Panel also decided that the names Purple Hooter and Lemon Drop would appeal to under-18s and that Kamikaze could incite excessive drinking.

“These drinks may be acceptable in the States but their marketing falls well short of the standards that UK producers have set themselves," said Portman chief executive David Poley.

"Some of their names will be particularly popular in the playground. Kamikaze is a blatant breach of our Code for its association with bravado and danger.

"These drinks do not spell out their alcoholic content and the images of fruit add to the confusion over what is in them. They cannot be easily re-sealed and their soft packaging makes it hard to stand them up.

"That’s why the Panel decided that this packaging is encouraging consumers to drink rapidly. Sally Keeble’s complaint will prevent these imported drinks from getting a foothold in the market.”

John Hicks, of the Nightclub Marketing resource website (http://www.nightclubmarketing.co.uk/) said: “I haven’t seen this product in UK venues but was, however, aware of its launch in the US and was quite impressed by the claims that its sealed packaging meant that it could be tampered with or spiked. It also boasts a lower alcoholic content than usual so, again, this was of interest.”

“But, whatever their merits, the product is now banned so operators should clear their shelves of this product.” added John.

Further information can be obtained from The Portman Group website: http://www.portman-group.org.uk/