How do you align your menu engineering worksheets with your marketing and branding strategies?

1 Identify your goals

Before you start working on your menu engineering worksheets, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your menu. What are your business objectives, your customer expectations, and your market opportunities? How do you want to position your restaurant in the market and differentiate yourself from the competition? How do you want to communicate your brand identity and personality through your menu? These are some of the questions that you need to answer to define your goals and align them with your menu engineering worksheets.

2 Segment your customers

The next step is to understand who your customers are and what they want from your menu. You can use various criteria to segment your customers, such as demographics, psychographics, behavior, preferences, and needs. You can also use data from your sales, feedback, loyalty programs, and online reviews to gain insights into your customer segments. By segmenting your customers, you can tailor your menu engineering worksheets to target the most profitable and loyal segments, and create menu items that appeal to their tastes, values, and motivations.

3 Evaluate your menu items

Once you have segmented your customers, you can use your menu engineering worksheets to evaluate your menu items based on two key factors: popularity and profitability. Popularity refers to how often a menu item is ordered, while profitability refers to how much profit a menu item generates. You can use a menu engineering matrix to classify your menu items into four categories: stars, plowhorses, puzzles, and dogs. Stars are high in popularity and profitability, plowhorses are high in popularity but low in profitability, puzzles are low in popularity but high in profitability, and dogs are low in both. By evaluating your menu items, you can identify which ones to promote, improve, reprice, or remove from your menu.

4 Design your menu layout

The next step is to design your menu layout to optimize the presentation, placement, and perception of your menu items. You can use various techniques to influence your customers' choices, such as eye movement patterns, primacy and recency effects, decoy items, price anchoring, bundling, and descriptive language. You can also use colors, fonts, images, and symbols to convey your brand identity and personality, and create an emotional connection with your customers. You should design your menu layout to match your marketing and branding strategies, and highlight your unique value proposition, competitive advantage, and customer benefits.

5 Test and refine your menu

The fifth step is to test and refine your menu before you launch it. You can use various methods to test your menu, such as focus groups, surveys, taste tests, and trial runs. You can also use data from your sales, feedback, loyalty programs, and online reviews to measure the performance of your menu items. You should test and refine your menu to ensure that it meets your goals, satisfies your customers, and aligns with your marketing and branding strategies. You should also be ready to make adjustments based on the feedback and results that you receive.

6 Promote your menu

The final step is to promote your menu to attract and retain your customers. You can use various channels to promote your menu, such as social media, email marketing, online platforms, print media, and word-of-mouth. You should also use various tactics to promote your menu, such as discounts, coupons, loyalty programs, specials, and events. You should promote your menu to increase your visibility, awareness, and reputation in the market, and communicate your brand identity and personality, and your unique value proposition, competitive advantage, and customer benefits.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?