Restaurants Take Note...

Delta Air Lines, one of the world's largest, has an interesting philosophy. Instead of trying to gain new customers, in this economy where leisure travel is a luxury and business travel is a hard fought battle-ground, they work on frequency and ticket average.

I'm really impressed with Delta and their marketing strategy: modify consumer behavior to a) increase share of wallet and b) move to more profitable products and services.

If they don't have all of a business traveler's bookings, they incentivize them some more (double frequent flyer miles anyone?). If customers are using travel agents or an 800 number, Delta incentivizes them to book and check-in through more preferred channels: online and through more profitable kiosks.

As it turns out, profitability isn't the most important thing for Delta right now (it's important for everyone, but bear with me). Instead, they're instilling new habits. Visit our site for the lowest fares. Check-in online. Look to us for car and hotel offers. Make Delta your one-stop shop.

At the end of this down turn, expect Delta to have a strong and more profitable customer base than it did going in.

Compare that to restaurants. There are a lot of folks right now, and some of them are smart people (not all of them, but at least some of them), saying that building the customer base is the most important thing! It's the only way to survive!

More customers is a way to survive. The problem is, people aren't trying new things right now. Sure, the younger demographic with roommates for whom dining is an adventure are still trying new things and haven't stopped dining out a whole lot.

Families aren't though. They've cut WAY back. When you cut back, you don't try new places - too much risk. Frequency of visit is cut in half and, therefore, customer counts drop like a stone. This isn't lack of customer base, folks. It's lack of frequency.

Make hay while the sun is shining. Gain customers when the economy is rosy. It costs less money to increase customer counts through frequency of visit than through new trial generation. This is more true in a climate like this than at other times.

Build customer frequency, build customer loyalty. Your margins will go down, but your customer counts will go up. In the end, you'll have a stronger base for it. In the meantime, your bank account will be healthier for it.

You can't take percentages to the bank.