# Novel ideas for increasing takeaway sales?



## bdt (Sep 13, 2011)

I've been giving a bit of thought to this over the last few days as the site I'm looking at opening has a high concentration of students and is quite close to the city centre. Whilst it's not a 'prime' site, I'd guess from obsevations that customers passing the front door on foot range from about 100 an hour to 500 an hour at busier times. There's a couple of cafes slightly further down the road but none really seem to push takeaways and it's quite a young demographic, being so close to the university, so there's no reason why drinking coffee whilst on foot shouldn't be popular.

So, I'm looking for some inventive ideas for particularly promoting the takeaway sales!

To start things off, I was thinking of doing a promotion in the first week or so of opening (when presumably when we'd be quietest) and giving away free coffees to passing customers between say the hours of 8 and 9. This shouldn't prove too expensive as, assuming a cost of sale of around 25p, giving away 50 cups a day Monday to Friday would cost just over £60 which wouldn't even pay for a credit card sized ad in the local paper that barely anyone will notice. Hopefully getting the same people every morning, will give them a taste for it (if you pardon the pun) and hopefully enough of them will come back in to pay for them in future.

Any feedback on this idea or any others would be much appreciated

Cheers

B


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

IMHO giveaways are great loss-leaders... great way of getting people to become customers (provided the free coffee they get is good - first impressions last!). Your assumed cost of sales is a little low, perhaps, but that doesn't matter since you've accepted that it's a marketing cost that will be recovered at a later date.

Some additional thoughts:

- Any way to get a setup actually on the street, or through a window, so people don't have to actually walk inside? e.g. hire a second machine with pump etc for a few weeeks and run it just like a mobile coffee stand on the pavement outside, under a parasol. Entering a new place can seem like a chore for some people, but if they have already bought from you on the street they may be more inclined. You could run this all day for a week or two, not just 8-9am, and it would raise public awareness. (Possibly charge 50p a cappuccino just to help cover additional costs.)

- Are you doing brewed coffees (non-espresso) too? If so, a good vacuum flask is one way to offer several people a fresh freebie without any preparation time.

- Students like promotions (or so I believe... it's been a while since I was one!) so find ways to make takeaways cheaper. 20% off if they bring their own cup... buy two takeaways (at the same time) get one free... loyalty scheme of buy one Mon-Thur & get Fri free... takeaway discount when showing student union card...

Where are the students currently getting their coffee?


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## bdt (Sep 13, 2011)

For the limited period giveaway, I was thinking of getting one of those "tray on a sling" type things that they used to sell ice creams in the theatres with. Would mean a member of staff inside just pouring the coffees and the person out on the street just needs to pop inside occasionally to get more on the tray. Of course you wouldn't be wanting to get more than say half a dozen or so done at a time as you don't want the coffee to go cold. As you say, first impressions count - big time! The tray on a sling also leaves two hands free so you can get sugars, stirrers and possibly even a little milk jug so you can give the passers by exactly what they want.

The reason for particularly looking at the 8 to 9 time period was because these are the people who likely walk past every weekday at pretty much exactly the same time. Getting to be part of these customers' daily routine is so important. I really like the Monday to Thursday thing. Sometimes the best ideas are obvious ones that you wonder why you didn't think of first. Cheers!

The 50p (or even half price) takeaway offer for a period is an idea too - just to try and secure that vital business. There's a few cafes a couple of hundred yards down the road and I see the odd customer coming out of one of them with a takeaway cup but it's certainly not something they promote as such - other than saying on the menu that takeaway prices are the sit in ones less 35p.

The more I think of it, doing a student promotion that specifically targets the takeaway sales solves me another potential problem. Being close to the university, I'd also been slightly concerned about attracting the student crowd who come in, buy one coffee and lounge around nursing it for 2 hours. I know it sounds a bit snobby and could be seen as tarring all students with the same brush but I've seen it so many times doing research. Groups of students sitting in the comfy sofas for hours and never touching their cup let alone take a sip from it. We're going to be limited to a couple of dozen covers so can't afford losing the prime window seats for hours at a time to customers paying little or nothing for the priveledge.

Yeah, am intending always having a freshly brewed available too so this is maybe a way of getting good quality stuff out quickly and maybe even keep the costs down too. All good ideas cheers


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## bdt (Sep 13, 2011)

ps - if anyone knows the correct title for the "tray on a sling" please let me know as it might help me sourcing one online


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## Filthy_rich85 (Jan 20, 2011)

Tray on a sling = usherette tray


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## bdt (Sep 13, 2011)

Filthy_rich85 said:


> Tray on a sling = usherette tray


Cheers Rich

Search results on Google:

"tray on on a sling" - 2 results

"usherette tray" - 3,900 results


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