Run your own Group Buying Promotion. I am.

Who needs Groupon?

Keep all the revenue and stir up some serious business along the way. In this post I am going to explain how with an example I just put together for Evenfall Restaurant, it’s a home grown group buying marketing campaign. It’s Mojito Time.

The Hook: The more people that buy the cheaper it gets.

Evenfall is well known for having the best Mojitos in the area, with elbow grease, fresh muddled mint and lime, and some silver rum they serve them in pint glasses and they serve them often in the summer months. So for this promotion we decided to lower the price every week that at least 100 mojitos were sold. We started by reducing the price from $8 to $5 for the first ten day run. The every week until mid August the price will be reduced by 50 cents until it reaches $1 a Mojito.

I created a page on the restaurants blog dedicated to the promotion, you can see that here: (Make My Mojito Cheaper) and shared it via Twitter, Facebook, and a soon to be released email blast.

As the promotion progresses the deal gets more and more enticing, it is timed to coincide with the slowest season of the year for the restaurant and designed to drive businesses during the dog days of summer with ridiculously cheap mojitos. Read on to see the consideration I took, and why it makes sense for the restaurant…

What considerations I took:

1. Can we afford it if it is overwhelmingly popular?
2. Is it legal? (I checked the dictatorial massachusetts happy hour law and made sure)
3. Will it be seen as a really good deal by customers?
4. What happens if it is a flop?

Why it made sense for me

• Most people that come to Evenfall to have a Mojito during the promotion will have at least an appetizer, mitigating the loss as they get cheaper.
• It is a slow, low profit time of year and driving additional traffic through the restaurant is difficult. This has the potential to drive significant traffic increases that should add to the bottom line.
• In Massachusetts you have to sell a drink at the same price for at least a calendar week, so this promotion is completely legal. A must for the owners of the restaurant.
• With the potential for customers to be able to get 4 Mojitos for less than the price of a gallon of gas I would say that it is going to be seen as a very good deal by customers.
• If it is a flop, there is no cost other than my time. The costs are very minimal until the end of the promotion at which time, to be detrimental we would have to have people only drink Mojitos, and come in massive numbers. A risk that is worth the reward of more traffic all summer.
• It is a test of social media marketing combined with crowd sourced PR and group buying in a real world setting. Something that will prove interesting as it develops.
• I like to try and push the envelope, and try things that I haven’t seen done before.

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The Promo is Live Now

Results are all that matters, and in the real business world that means dollars. I have conceptualized this and believe it to be a compelling offer and idea, one I hope people will talk about on and offline. But all that matters is the results. That time begins now.

What do you think about the idea? Would you suggest I tweak it in any way? I would love to hear your feedback about this.