A Method To Your Madness

Follow our 25 steps to create a successful and profitable signature item.

A special brand personality is going to be extremely important in the 21st century. The biggest challenge for you as a foodservice operator is to clearly own a place in the mind of the customer. Delivering good food is just one part of the picture. The ultimate success of your operation will depend on your ability to:

• Develop a Unique Selling Proposition
• Identify Your Core Competencies
• Communicate with Your Customer
• Improve Service through Training and Retraining
• Market and Merchandise your High Profit Menu Items

If one discipline could help you capture all of these, it would be the creation of a beautifully researched, perfectly executed, and strategically marketed Signature Item.

The process of developing a successful Signature Item is a serious commitment. This process isn't placing a cute graphic next to a menu item-- although that's part of it. It isn't your chef dreaming up a fabulous new creation-- although that's part if it. And it isn't re-naming and re-pricing an existing menu item-- that's definitely not part of it.

Developing a Signature Item is about reinforcing your operation's Unique Selling Proposition. What is the signature food and personality of your restaurant? What's down deep in the subconscious of all your customers who make purchasing decisions? How can you find out what they believe your signature food personality is, and how can you develop a signature product within that area?

All of this requires a serious commitment of time, planning and work. But there should be a method to all of your madness. Any company considering a new product introduction would follow a series of time honored steps. We've taken these steps, employed a "best practices" approach and adapted them to foodservice. The comprehensive protocol in our 25 Steps to Create a Signature Item can be your blueprint to profitability. You're customers will love it, and your bottom line will benefit.

Bill Main, FMP, FCSI, is a nationally-recognized author, foodservice consultant, and professional speaker. His goal is to help you define who you are, where you want to go, and the best way to get there. Bill Main & Associates (www.billmain.com) offers a wide range of consulting services, resources and tools in the areas of strategic growth, marketing, menu, leadership, training, and management development.