What was Wrong
The problem with WOW! Factor is multi-facted. The landscape is riddled with dessert manufacturers, price can trump quality, distributors and brokers can have short attention spans. The challenge is to find a way to win the hearts and minds of the end users - many of whom you have no direct contact with - to keep them buying your product.
Action Taken: FREE Menu Program
Restaurateurs are notorius for loving the swag. Free things, especially free things that make them money, are always welcome. I capitalized on this knowledge by taking a concept that was readily available (the FREE Dessert Menu) and turning it on it's head.
FREE menus are one thing when they come from a computer generated template that allows zero creativity. FREE Menus are an entirely different thing when they are custom designed by real live designers who will capture the look, feel and atmosphere of your restaurant.
To make it even easier for the customer an online ordering system was set up at http://wowfactordesserts.com/customers/menu.html.
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| Standard Menu |
Tri-Fold Menu |
White Table Cloth Menu |
Custom Spec Menu |
The Results
WOW! Factor's FREE Dessert Menu Program has taken off to the level that two designers are now used in Western Canada and one in Eastern Canada to meet demand. A large portion of the company's marketing collaterals budget is dedicated to producing dessert menus. Each new customer added is another customer committed to purchasing at least four WOW! Factor Dessert products for a minimum of six months, and most continue to use the menu program year after year.
In 2007, 244 were produced by WOW!
In 2008, 303 menus were produced by WOW!
In 2009 WOW! is tracking to produce 350 menus.
If each customer buys four products every two weeks at an average of $65 per case, that is a potential win for WOW! of over $2 million in sales for an investment of under $30,000.
Customer Retention and Growth Pt. 2
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