So how can you manage your menu details effectively?
The restaurant menu is the face of your brand and it is the most important part of restaurant marketing.
The fastest and surest way to improve sales, margins, guest experience and brand relevance is through an effective menu strategy.
In another article we published on our blog , we talked about how to build and design the menu in your business and described five key steps.
See article:
As you already know, a menu is a dynamic thing that changes according various factors such as seasons, dates and holidays, fashion, creativity and more.
In this article, we will tell you how you can manage your menu while operating by analyzing basic information and taking important decisions in real time.
As part of menu engineering we like to use a growth matrix.
Growth matrix also known as BCG Matrix is a chart that helps companies and corporations to analyze their business units or products.
The matrix is used as an analytical tool in the management of the various products, and in brand marketing and helps the company make decisions and allocate resources.
To work with this type of chart, first and foremost, you need to analyze the sales of your menu items.
Analyze the sales of your menu items
Start by analyzing your restaurant’s sales reports for a specific time frame.
The main data we are looking for regarding the menu items are:
- What sells the most?
- What sells the least?
- Where is the highest profit?
- Where is the lowest profit?
Today, in the digital world, these data can be received from any POS system on the market.
Create a menu template
After you have the relevant data, divide your menu items into four categories (menu matrix) and this can be done using the BCG matrix.
A menu matrix helps you understand which dishes are the most important to your restaurant’s revenue.
We divide the dishes into the following categories:
- Star: Popular menu items with high profit.
- Dairy cows: low profit, popular menu items.
- Question mark: Menu items with high profit and low popularity.
- Puppy: Menu items with low profit and low popularity.
This is how it should look like when you’re done:
Menu matrix purpose
The purpose of the menu matrix is to update and design your menus and draw as much attention as possible to your stars, cash cows and question marks because these are your most popular or alternatively high profit dishes.
If so, consider gradually removing the less popular items with the lower profits (“the puppies”) from your menu and to keep your guests’ focus on economic items for the business.
In new businesses it is important to remember, since almost every business is characterized by a period of fast growth followed by maturity, all items begin as a “question mark”. The items that show growth, later become “stars”.
When the business matures and its growth moderates certain items defined as “stars” become “cash cows”.
At the same time, if “question mark” items do not become popular during the grows time of the business, they may become “puppy” items that can cause losses to the business. Likewise for the “cash cow” items.
Once you’re done with the chart, you’ll have a clear understanding of which menu items should be prioritized, which ones should be reworked, and even which items should be removed from your menu to maximize sales and profits.
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