Ideas

[HHH]

Hi Everyone - this is my first post. (I live in Australia)

I run a small pub (hotel) in a small town. A new large tavern opened up about 20mins from my pub.

It is a lot more modern (and would have cost about 10 times what mine is worth). As you can guess, trading has not been so good since it opened. There is no way on could start any price war or anything like that - I would get eaten alive.

I still get the loyal locals and a few out of towners, but I really need some new marketing ideas to build my trade back up.

I have little capital to renovate or anything, but like I said, my little pub is not in the same league as that new tavern.

any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

What on earth would attract people from a new huge fully fitted out tavern back to my little old local drinking hole?

thanks everyone

Dan

[rajc007]

Not sure how it is there since you said you couldn't compete in a price war. But bigger and newer bars usually mean more expensive to me.

I think you really need to analyze & define your target market and also the market the new bar targets. Try to find your niche market and also keep your "dive bar" appeal.

-Raj

[Plastyk]

nevermind...

[Plastyk]

nevermind...

[sadcox66]

Dan,

What about a different demographic. And doing the opposite.

I would stand outside the new pub and see who is turning away and ask them why and point them to your pub with a coupon so they would return again. (Your market research)

If the new pub is roudy and noisy and playing new age music
make yours play oldies.

I would concentrate on a different ambience or 'exclusive' nature of your club. You can advertise better food. Difficult to give more ideas without more information.

How do the out of towners end up in you club ? Can you concentrate on them and advertise for them further out.

I do have a question, assuming this bigger richer club did it's market research correctly. Do you think they

A. Expect the number of drinkers to increase in your locality so they can cater to more pub goers.
B. Basically want to take your customers, much like walmart builds their shops next to kmart and takes their customers without doing market research.

If you think it is (A.) they may not be able to survive in a market with limited market (pub goers) and close shop once they cannot pay their loans, you just have to stick it out.

If it's (B.) then you have a bigger problem and you may want to provide more information here so we can brain storm.

Good luck, wish you a favourable outcome ...

[HHH]

Hi There!

I believe B is the answer, unfortunately.

My pub is located about 25mins from the CBD in a small town. I basically got all the people who worked in town, but didn't live there. I was also the closest to our air force base which has recently been getting large injections from the government and is forever growing.

This new place has opened up in the middle of me and the town - probably the worst spot for me as it takes all the air force guys and most of the poeple working in town - just due to its location. I am mainly left with the poeple living a lot further out, which is not a lot compared to before.

[jerry]

i think u can have a promotion or something like that
where you can offer happy hour, drinks at discount and so on
at first it will attract the flow of customer
and secondly if they think your service and atmosphere is ok
they will keep on coming in
first to attract and second to retain them

[ulnu]

Saturday 8 May 2004, newbie just cruising Blogs and came across this forum. And then your request. "Ideas" I'll bite into the topic.

After reading the replies to the 23rd of April, I garnered that you are near a military base. My expertise: Retired USAF and once upon a time a heavy consumer/user of "Pubs" (Bars, Drinking Hole, Dive, etc).

You mentioned that the Airfield is being enriched by the government which means additional Servicemen/women will be stationed there. Well, whenever there is a group, you can always find that a sub-group exists which wants to differentiate itself from the majority. Think exclusivity. So segment the servicemen market by their military specialties, such as Aircraft mechanics, Medics, Pilots etc.

Sports Bars (Pubs) are popular around here but there may be an alternative for your Pub, given its demographics. I notice the worldwide press given to the use of digital cameras and the use of laptops in the Iraqi warzone. It might not be your Australian War but the servicemen are aware of it and you could feed their interest economically.

Set up your Pub as a point of reception of digital photos of the war, either static or better yet LIVE on the Telly. In a sports bar here, there may be three or four televisions hanging from the ceiling set to different channels. Let people know that they can zap a telephone picture or digital camera picture To Your Pub for viewing and comment. You may put a whole new meaning to "incoming".

Downside: Your access number may fall into the hands of spammers for other businesses or pornographers. But those pictures come through your computer so they can be filtered out prior to posting on the Telly.
Interesting Photos should be saved and Media (newspapers) given access to them in exchange for local publicity.

Note: The idea is posted here for YOU but many other people around the world are reading this forum and you will acquire competitors should they setup a system such as this IDEA. Good Luck.

Originally Posted by HHH

Hi Everyone - this is my first post. (I live in Australia)

I run a small pub (hotel) in a small town. A new large tavern opened up about 20mins from my pub.

It is a lot more modern (and would have cost about 10 times what mine is worth). As you can guess, trading has not been so good since it opened. There is no way on could start any price war or anything like that - I would get eaten alive.

I still get the loyal locals and a few out of towners, but I really need some new marketing ideas to build my trade back up.

I have little capital to renovate or anything, but like I said, my little pub is not in the same league as that new tavern.

any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

What on earth would attract people from a new huge fully fitted out tavern back to my little old local drinking hole?

thanks everyone

Dan

[ulnu]

http://jhong.org/frontline.html

Yafros on the Frontline
Jim and I are amazed at the variety of pictures we see on Yafro, but the most amazing by far are the pictures taken by soldiers on the Frontline in Iraq. We are happy that Yafro enables them to give us all a glimpse into their lives that we rarely get from the Media. Straight from the source, it doesn't get any cooler than that!


HHH, here is an access point for your 'Military Points of Interest". This is a moblog URL similar to textamerica.com

Originally Posted by ulnu

Saturday 8 May 2004, newbie just cruising Blogs and came across this forum. And then your request. "Ideas" I'll bite into the topic.

After reading the replies to the 23rd of April, I garnered that you are near a military base. My expertise: Retired USAF and once upon a time a heavy consumer/user of "Pubs" (Bars, Drinking Hole, Dive, etc).

You mentioned that the Airfield is being enriched by the government which means additional Servicemen/women will be stationed there. Well, whenever there is a group, you can always find that a sub-group exists which wants to differentiate itself from the majority. Think exclusivity. So segment the servicemen market by their military specialties, such as Aircraft mechanics, Medics, Pilots etc.

Sports Bars (Pubs) are popular around here but there may be an alternative for your Pub, given its demographics. I notice the worldwide press given to the use of digital cameras and the use of laptops in the Iraqi warzone. It might not be your Australian War but the servicemen are aware of it and you could feed their interest economically.

Set up your Pub as a point of reception of digital photos of the war, either static or better yet LIVE on the Telly. In a sports bar here, there may be three or four televisions hanging from the ceiling set to different channels. Let people know that they can zap a telephone picture or digital camera picture To Your Pub for viewing and comment. You may put a whole new meaning to "incoming".

Downside: Your access number may fall into the hands of spammers for other businesses or pornographers. But those pictures come through your computer so they can be filtered out prior to posting on the Telly.
Interesting Photos should be saved and Media (newspapers) given access to them in exchange for local publicity.

Note: The idea is posted here for YOU but many other people around the world are reading this forum and you will acquire competitors should they setup a system such as this IDEA. Good Luck.

[HomeOfficeVoice]

Hi there,

My mum ran a pub in a small country VIC town - you know: one street town with two pubs.

One pub was slighlty upmarket- the other was rather a dump (in a good way )

So what to do: Firstly, you have to differentiate yourself from the other mob. Don't compete on the classy stakes (ie: more money to spend).

You've been around there for a long time, use this as an angle. Support local sporting clubs. Try to create a buzz.

What on earth would attract people from a new huge fully fitted out tavern back to my little old local drinking hole?

Some people just like the old fashion pub - you have to find who they are and target them.

So the Air Force guys are who you're after! Go and visit this new tavern (or get some else to visit) and just watch. See what they are doing ie: sitting at the bar, playing pool, talking loud ....

Go to the Air Force base and invite some of the folks. Have an Air Force night out - play the film "Top Gun" , maybe, if it's a big base they're sure to have some amateur musicians. Let them play. The word will get around.

But don't just do it once. Do it every month.

It's really all about creating a buzz (the "buzz" term is when you can't afford proper advertising - much like myself.

Hope this sparks your marketing brain a little.

Good luck!