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February 12, 2008
Corporate Table Flowers
February 12, 2008
One of the surprises of dining in independent restaurants is never knowing what to expect the tabletop setting will look like. Almost everyone puts the standard on a table: silverware, napkins, salt and pepper shakers, and sweetener. After that, all bets are off. Ketchup? Grinders for salt or pepper? Flowers? It’s all over the place depending on the concept and the personal preferences of the owner.
When dining in restaurants overseas, whether it is in Europe, Latin America or Asia, it is not uncommon to find that there are fresh flowers on the table. Why? It is what you would probably do if you were inviting people into your home and wanted to make their meal more special. Many independent restaurants in this country do the same.
And then there are the large restaurant chains in family dining and casual dining. How do many of these chains set the table? With corporate table flowers. Marketing and promotional materials with pictures of this quarter’s LTO, desserts, drink specials, gift card opportunities, new menu items, special menu items, etc. What started out in the 70’s and 80’s as a single product message has turned into a smorgasbord of marketing materials that threaten to overtake the table.
Many years ago a concept that I was involved with did some focus groups on a full range of topics that were of interest to us. What was of interest to one participant was to tell us how annoying our practice of table tents had become. Convinced that the guest was not always paying attention to the materials when seated at a booth, we had instructed the servers, when they reset the table, to pull them out on the table close to the aisle. Our focus group participant pantomimed sitting at the table, taking their arm and sweeping all of the material back against the wall and out of their way. The other focus group members laughed knowingly and a discussion of table tents ensued.
There are few restaurant chains that have the courage, or the good taste, to let the table top go bare and treat it as if it were a meal at home. Many independent restaurants do this because of the cost of producing the materials for a single unit. However, many also use the materials produced in mass by their suppliers for all of their restaurants.
I find it telling that you can almost gauge the quality of the dining experience based on the absence of table tents within the restaurant. Houston’s, P.F. Chang’s, The Cheesecake Factory and their Grand Lux chain, to name just a few. They don’t cheapen the image of what they have spent so much money to create by adding a plethora of marketing materials on the table.
Marketing heresy? Or a good idea run amuck?
Posted by Lane Cardwell on February 12, 2008 | Comments (0)
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