Kounta POS Making it Big in Hospitality: Strategies for Growi | Page 7

If you’ve made it this far, it’s probably safe to
assume that you’ve succeeded in creating
some sort of unique identity that sets you
apart from your competition.
That’s good! But don’t get complacent and rest on your laurels,
especially if you grow laurel plants in your herb garden. No one
wants the flavor of a bay leaf you’ve slept on. What your customers do want, though, isn’t necessarily more of the same. The
things that excite people at first can become commonplace after
a while; this is why divorce rates are so high. But that doesn’t
mean you should preemptively become something you’re not, or
diverge from your original plan/concept. It does mean that you
ought to switch up your menu now and again, adding new
dishes, subtracting others, and putting something extra into
promoting your most popular dishes. And when you do that, do
it with an eye towards refining your brand or image—that central
concept of the restaurant that makes it yours. What does that
mean in practical purposes?

Let’s use the fast food chain Taco Bell as an example, because
in a bout of laziness I took my kids to eat there the night before I
wrote this and the indigestion today makes it hard to think about
anything else. But they started with a concept—cultural
appropriation with cheap, tasty food that resembles Mexican
cuisine—and have really run with it over the years. Even though
there are dozens of items on the menu, they all rely on some
combination of the same 15 20 ingredients assembled in
various ways. That kind of concept can get old quick, and so
they’re constantly experimenting with ways to keep the menu
fresh (while somehow not worrying so much about keeping the
food in the same condition). Large companies like Taco Bell (or
whatever multinational behemoth now owns it) have long had
access to advanced reporting and analytics that help them to
understand what their customers like. Decisions about what
stays, what goes, what’s added aren’t the result of a
temperamental chef in a creative rut, much as we all believe. The
menu is the result of data driven, focus group tested market
analysis. The world didn’t love the Enchirito as much as I did,
and so it’s off the menu, replaced by other items that jibe even
more with the central concept of the place.