Marketing is one of the most important aspects of your business to get right. You need to give a clear, concise message. It also pays to keep on examining your strategies and to re-evaluate your marketing strengths – and weaknesses – regularly.

Making Marketing A Priority

The market is steadily becoming more sophisticated and the numbers of good catering companies to choose from are on the increase. You need to stand out from the crowd. It isn’t enough to sit back and think that your good cooking will pull customers in without some extensive marketing on your part. This is where caterers can become unstuck. Get a strategy, allocate funding and do your homework.

You may find your time taken up with just running your new business once you are up and running. If you are the sole person the business relies on you to shop, cook, deliver, wash up, do the banking, the invoices, the cleaning, hiring staff and dealing with clients. It can be very hard but you will have to carry on selling your business to prospective clients to increase your client base – so do factor in time to do this.

If you are a one-man band with few competitors in a less populated area you may be able to spend less time spent on marketing. Your business will build via word of mouth and repeat business – but you have to do the leg work in order to get those clients in the first place.

This chapter covers:

• identifying your market;
• choosing a name;
• advice on signage;
• business cards;
• stationery;
• menu design;
• web pages;
• advertising;
• launching yourself in the market;
• getting a media profile;
• expansion of the business through cookery classes and cookbooks.

Identifying Your Target Market

This is vital. You need to identify your customers’ ages, incomes and occupations. Perhaps there are some local businesses too? Then think about your customers’ needs – corporate functions, weddings, social events, farmers’ markets, mail order etc.

What about the competition? Look at other local catering companies’ strengths and their market share. Are there few catering businesses in the area? If so, examine why.

And finally think about trends which will affect your customer base – lifestyle changes, population shifts, and new businesses requiring catering.

There are various ways to get this information including:

• the business section of a good local library;
• your local Business Link office;
• local commerce or traders’ groups;
• professional market research services;
• talking to prospective customers, marquee companies and suppliers.

Choosing A Name

How do you see your company? Mainly catering for weddings and other special occasions; for the businesses in your area; or as a jack-of-all-trades offering catering for all occasions? Perhaps you want a thriving sandwich trade, delivering to shops, offices and other outlets.

What messages are you sending out with names like Kwizeen, Grace and Flavour, Fodder Mongers, Radish, Tasty Tucker and Lushous? I would suggest not very professional ones. But it does depend on your market if you decide to go for a name that may incur a wry smile, or if you choose another which fits your aims and personality. Many caterers choose their names (Elizabeth Dunant Catering Partnership for example), link up partners’ names (Letheby & Christopher) or select an impersonal name (Regency Catering, Portsmouth Outside Catering, Cucumber Catering, Regal Caterers).

At the same time, you should avoid choosing bland a name that no one remembers. Or a complicated, tongue-twisting one which you struggle with when you answer the phone. Your company’s name is a vital word-of-mouth marketing tool, and you will not gain if customers can’t pronounce the name to pass on to their friends and colleagues.

If you choose a very French, Italian or Indian name it will pigeonhole you. Potential customers may be put off by the narrow menu that the name suggests. And although your menu may be in a French, Italian or Indian vein when you start your business you may develop it to provide food from all over the world: don’t be stuck with a name that restricts you. Of course, if you plan to stick to the offering the best in that genre, then no problem.