---
title: Restaurant-Specific Marketing — Hospitality & Restaurant Marketing Module 6 — RGM Training
url: https://realgrowthmatters.com/training/hospitality-restaurant-marketing/restaurant-specific-marketing/
updated: 2026-06-10
source_html: https://realgrowthmatters.com/training/hospitality-restaurant-marketing/restaurant-specific-marketing/
---

RGM° · Training

# Restaurant-Specific Marketing

Restaurant marketing has its own playbook organized around three levers (traffic, frequency, average ticket) and a daily operational cadence. This module covers the category-by-category playbook, third-party delivery economics, loyalty, and the measurement that runs it.

### What you will learn

1. Restaurant categories and their distinct marketing playbooks
2. Traffic, frequency, ticket: the three levers
3. Menu engineering and limited-time offers
4. Digital orders and third-party delivery economics
5. Catering as a growth channel
6. Restaurant loyalty in detail
7. Reviews, ratings, and reservation platforms
8. Local marketing and community presence
9. Restaurant influencer marketing
10. Operating-day marketing decisions
11. Restaurant marketing measurement

## 1. Categories

- **QSR:** Speed, value, convenience.
- **Fast casual:** Quality + speed; mid-price.
- **Casual dining:** Family, value, breadth.
- **Fine dining:** Experience, occasion, reputation.
- **Coffee & beverage:** Daily habit, mobile order.
- **Pizza:** Delivery economics, family weekly.
- **Bar / brewery:** Atmosphere, community.

## 2. The three levers

Revenue = Traffic × Frequency × Average ticket
Same-store sales growth = Traffic growth + Frequency growth + Ticket growth (mostly multiplicatively)

Most marketing decisions target one or more of these three. The diagnostic question is always: which lever is this campaign supposed to move?

## 3. Menu engineering and LTOs

Menu design drives ticket. Engineering principles:

- Margin-weighted placement.
- Anchor pricing.
- "Stars" and "puzzles" (high margin / high or low popularity).
- LTOs (Limited Time Offers) drive traffic and trial; the McRib model is the genre archetype.

## 4. Digital orders and third-party delivery

Third-party delivery economics:

- DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub take 15 - 30% commission.
- Marketplace exposure drives new customer acquisition.
- First-party app and online ordering deliver higher margin.
- The hybrid: marketplace for acquisition, first-party for retention.

## 5. Catering

Catering is a high-margin growth channel for many restaurant brands. Components: catering-specific menu, dedicated phone line / website, B2B sales motion to local businesses, partnership with corporate-catering platforms (ezCater, Hungry, ChowNow).

## 6. Restaurant loyalty (deep dive)

The QSR app+loyalty playbook:

- App-based loyalty with mobile order integration.
- Points or visits-based earning.
- Personalized offers based on history.
- Gamification (bonus weeks, challenges, mystery offers).
- Tier or status when applicable.

## 7. Reviews and reservations

Yelp, Google, OpenTable, Resy. For fine dining, reservation availability is itself a marketing message; for casual dining, reviews drive trial.

## 8. Local marketing

- School and community fundraisers.
- Local partnerships.
- Sponsorships (sports, charity, events).
- Local press relationships.
- Community appearances by chefs/owners.

## 9. Influencer marketing

Food influencers, local foodies, neighborhood Instagram accounts. Operating discipline: cleanly disclosed (FTC), with a clear ask (visit, post, tag), tracked for traffic lift.

## 10. Operating-day marketing

Daily / weekly marketing decisions:

- Today's special / soup.
- Day-part promotion (slow lunch, slow weeknight).
- Reservation gap-fill messaging.
- Weather-triggered offers.
- Inventory-driven specials (run-out items).

## 11. Restaurant marketing measurement

- Same-store traffic and same-store sales.
- AUV (Average Unit Volume).
- Check average.
- Digital-channel mix.
- Loyalty program metrics.
- Review scores and volume.
- Brand awareness and consideration.

**How to use this module:** The three-lever formula (Section 2), the digital-delivery economics (Section 4), and the measurement list (Section 11) are the planning artifacts.

### Sources & further reading

- [QSR Magazine](https://www.qsrmagazine.com/)
- [Nation's Restaurant News](https://www.nrn.com/)
- [Restaurant Business](https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/)
- [Modern Restaurant Management](https://www.modernrestaurantmanagement.com/)
- [Toast Restaurant Resources](https://www.toasttab.com/restaurant-resources)
- [Posist Restaurant Times](https://www.posist.com/restaurant-times/)
- Books: Danny Meyer, *Setting the Table*; Will Guidara, *Unreasonable Hospitality*; Shep Gordon, *They Call Me Supermensch*; Ray Kroc, *Grinding It Out*
- [Technomic](https://www.technomic.com/) — restaurant industry data
- [National Restaurant Association research](https://www.research.restaurant.org/)
- [Michelin Guide](https://www.michelin.com/en/guide-michelin/)
- [Eater](https://www.eater.com/) — consumer-side restaurant media
- [OpenTable blog](https://www.opentable.com/restaurant-blog/)

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Part of the [Hospitality & Restaurant Marketing](/training/hospitality-restaurant-marketing/) series · RGM Training