Restaurant Card Promotion
"Dine with Friends" Promotional Program

The Boulder Independent Business Alliance (BIBA) is excited to introduce the BIBA Dine with Friends Card Program. This card will create a unique marketing opportunity for BIBA member restaurants, allowing them to increase awareness among Boulder residents.

Dine with Friends Promotional Campaign:

A promotional campaign we would like all of the member restaurants to participate in is the "Dine with Friends" program. If cardholders bring three or more friends to participating restaurants, the party would receive either a 5% discount off their meal or a complementary item from the menu when they redeem their Dine with Friends Card. This will add value to the card, which will in turn increase repeat visitation.

Dine with Friends Card Benefits:

The goal for the BIBA Dine with Friends Card is to create awareness, buzz, and word of mouth with potential customers. Important benefits of the card are:

" Creating a Tangible Experience: The Dine with Friends Card serves as a constant reminder to the customer of the dining experience he or she had at a locally owned independent restaurant.
" Carryover Effect: Because of the Dine with Friends Card's long life span, multiple people will see every card. This in turn increases the reach of the card.
" Interactive Marketing: When cardholders look at the Dine with Friends Card, several independent restaurant options are presented to them. These choices encourage the consumer to experience different restaurants on different nights, increasing independent restaurant visitation.
" Tag Along Factor: Because of the "Dine with Friends" promotion, cardholders will be encouraged to go out to eat with more people, increasing diner visitation at all the participating restaurants.
" Cost: Being apart of the Dine with Friends Card is much cheaper than advertising in local newspapers.

Considering the fact that 70-80% of new restaurant guests are directly caused by word of mouth recommendations, the Dine with Friends Card will serve as a very potent medium to gain new customers. The BIBA "Dine with Friends" card will have a very significant impact on the volume of word of mouth recommendations circulated around the Boulder community because it serves as a constant reminder to the customer of the restaurant experience.

Dine with Friends Card Distribution:

To distribute the BIBA Dine with Friends Card, we will use several approaches:

" With the Bill: A Dine with Friends Card will be given along with the bill at the end of each meal. This will ensure a large distribution base and allow people to associate the card with the restaurant experience. To increase demand for the card, we will only give one card for every two guests. This will encourage customers to redeem their Dine with Friends Card at the participating restaurants.
" CU Orientation/Parent's Weekend: To create awareness among incoming CU students, we will set up booths at CU Freshman Orientation and Parent's Weekend passing out the Dine with Friends Cards to students and parents. These booths will also educate to students the benefits of shopping at locally owned independent businesses.

Cost:

The initial cost for the Dine with Friends Card program is going to be $52 for the cost of printing the cards. For our trial run, we will distribute 300 cards per restaurant for the first month (total of 3,000 cards). After the initial run, the cost per card will go down as a higher volume of cards are ordered. We predict to have 30,000 cards distributed after the program's first year.

In comparison to print advertising, the cost of the restaurant card program is very low. Here is a breakdown of advertising costs and circulation in local Boulder newspapers:

As you can clearly see, the Dine with Friends Card is an incredible value compared to local advertising. The card also has a longer life span and a greater effectiveness than newspaper ads because of the unique marketing attributes associated with the program.

Contact Us:

Please feel free to ask questions or make comments about the Dine with Friends Card program. Please contact Eric Shuai at BIBA by telephone at 720-565-3854 or by e-mail at [email protected]. or [email protected]. I look forward to talking to you.