If you dream of owning and running your own restaurant, the term ‘target customer’ should be at the top of your planning and conceptualizing. Who is a target customer? One who would enjoy visiting your restaurant for everything it has to offer. It surely is as simple as that, but what goes into building your brand around that? What entails appealing to your target customer? From location to budget, there are a number of factors that determine whether or not you’re appealing to your target customer.

Where is your restaurant’s location?

Location plays a key role as you might have heard over and over again. You might think it’s a given but you will still see rookie mistakes. Your location has a direct impact on business. Which is why learning about the people in a locality is of primal importance. Are you planning to open or already have a restaurant in a locality where there are colleges around? Are there corporate parks/buildings? Is it a dense residential area? Because with every aspect, the kind of restaurant you have will be different. For example, in a quiet residential area of a metro city, a pub with blaring music doesn’t make sense. A quaint cafe does. If in a similar area, there’s a Chinese restaurant that doesn’t offer home delivery services, it’s going to lose out on a substantial chunk of business. Likewise, in a CBD of a city, a buffet-style restaurant will have advantage over say, a stand-alone fine dine restaurant. Assess the area and look at the kind of people that your restaurant will draw in.

What is your concept?

Gone are the days when you could open a restaurant and serve whatever you felt like. With the kind of restaurants opening today, you’ve got to have an edge and a basic concept that appeals to your target demographic. If your target customer is from the corporate sector working in a tech park or a similar space, you’re looking at someone between the age group of 25-40 who might have lunch out around their office. The frequency might vary depending on the average cost of a meal at a restaurant. The more reasonable it is for them, the more frequent their visits will be. If your establishment is in the vicinity of a college and are targeting college students, keep the ambiance light and fun so the younger customers relate to it. Have games and good music with fun food to go with the concept because that’s what works with your target demographic.

What is your price point?

With the location and concept narrowed down, have you aligned your pricing with them so your target customer turns into a repeat one? Considering where your restaurant is and what kind of food you’re serving keeping the concept in mind, you must price your dishes accordingly. For example, a cafe near a college with burgers at ₹500 a pop is off the mark. But if there’s a residential area or a business campus around, it might work.

What is your USP?

If your target customers are the working folks from the CBD area in the city, corporate lunches can be a USP. Similarly, if yours is a delivery only place in a residential area, doing a combo meal at a reasonable price can be a USP. Once you have your USP figured out, you can focus on marketing your restaurant for the same. Marketing can then be narrowed down to your target demographic – online, offline, whichever applies.

The idea of appealing to everyone is not ideal in today’s world of extreme competition and eating out culture. Restaurants everywhere today are doing more than just serving food. From TV show appearances to bringing in celebrity chefs, marketing their restaurant to bring in more customers and the right ones at that, has been a focus. Aim at your target customer and if your restaurant appeals to everyone else, it’s a bonus!