Advertising: That Works - That Does Not Work - Case 1: Our Restaurant is Empty on Tuesday Nights.

There are as many reasons why advertising works as there are why it does not work.  Each article will contain one case; welcome to Case One.

Case One:

• You own a restaurant; it is busy on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
• Objective: Create a larger Tuesday and Wednesday crowd.

I gotta find out why everyone
 waits in line for their Pizza.

Suggested Approach: Your first thought may be to promote specials, immediate seating, or no-reservations-necessary in your advertising for the slack times.  This type of ad says to me "Hey come buy something no one wants - no line to wait in".  A better alternative would be to create more demand during your busy time creating lines at the door - making your restaurant a destination.  People that finally get seated learn how good your restaurant is and thus visit it more frequently (ie: Tuesday and Wednesdays).  People that are either impatient or won't stand in line in the first place are curious to the mystique of what is so special about that place; they stop at the first opportunity of no line.

The moral here is that Good Advertising does not sell bad product or product no one else wants.

~B

Read Case Two: Advertising: That Works - That Does Not Work - Case 2: Having a "Blue Light" Special When No One is in the Store