Advertising in Concessions

As is true with any business, advertising in the food concession business is extremely important in order to get the word out that a new business has come to town. However, while it is very important to utilize advertising when you are in any industry, it is even more important to use it in the concession business. Food concession businesses are working at an uphill climb as far as advertising goes. You don’t have a fixed building. No matter how permanent your location may seem you don’t have an absolutely permanent location. There are many different obstacles. However, if you use advertising, you can really make a difference in the number of customers you have. There are different types of advertising. There is word of mouth advertising, print advertising, and tv and radio commercial advertising.

One of the best types of advertising is word-of-mouth advertising. The reason this is one of the best is because you don’t do it. For one thing, it’s coming straight from the mouths of your already customers to the ears of your potential customers. Secondly it’s free. You don’t have to pay for this type of advertising and it is one of the most powerful types of advertising there is. By having great food, great customer service and great value, you can be sure to get this type of advertising. Be careful that you have all of these things because advertising works in both ways if a customer is dissatisfied. Most of the time, advertising is even worse if it’s negative because it spreads faster.

Another type of advertising is print ads. These are becoming more and more obsolete with the ever increasing popularity of the tv, radio, and internet. Some types of print advertising are flyers, business cards, and mail outs. These can all be varying prices ranging from fairly plain and simple to decked out with color copies. Either way you go try to make a lasting memorable impression. The down side to this is that flyers and mail outs can be considered to be very annoying junk mail. You do not want to alienate your customers by making them angry that you sent them a flyer. This is just something you should consider before you choose your form of advertisement.

Finally we have radio and television commercials. These are great ways to advertise but can be costly. The reason they are so great is because they let you see and hear the advertisement. Something is much more likely to get stuck in people’s minds when it is both seen and heard rather than just read. There is a downside to this, however it is not as negative as that of the print advertising. The down side of the tv or radio commercial is that people get annoyed because there are so many commercials. The thing that gets you around this as a business is that they have learned to accept that there are commercials that must be run for the tv show or radio show to stay on the air. Another downside however that is a little more detrimental is the increased popularity of DVR, a recorder for the tv that causes people to be able to fast forward through the commercials.

All of these types of advertising have problems of their own. So, before you choose the type of advertising you are going to use, make sure you have thought long and hard about what drawbacks you are willing to accept and which ones you aren’t. These choices are going to be based largely on the type of advertising budget you have. While there are drawbacks, advertising is necessary to flourish as a business.