I was selling printing and graphics at the time, on my way home from a press approval. The late-night hunger bug was screaming my name, and the place looked better than the average pizza restaurants and burger joints on the busy downtown street.

Plus the room looked almost empty, so I’d be able to get in and out quickly.

Talking with the owner while my dinner was being prepared (lemon chicken, a satisfying summer dish), I thought “This meal’s so good, people have got to know about this place!”

“Oscar, you’ve just prepared the best gourmet meal for me, I’ve got to do something for you here. I’m going to typeset and print up your menu’s to make them look classy. Because I can hardly read this thing… and you’ve got to show your bistro off better than this, your food is delicious!”

Oscar gave me a full list of his dinner menu’s items, and I got it all typeset for him. I was really into gourmet cooking at the time, and already inspired.

I was just getting started with copywriting, so I wanted to make sure it wasn’t simply a ‘food list’ on paper. We added a little story about the restaurant, and descriptions of the featured menu items too.

Then we got the menus printed on an expensive paper stock (I think it was coral or peach-coloured marble finish or something like that). They looked really nice when they were laminated.

Long story short…

Almost immediately, Oscar’s customers commented on the new menus, and started ordering different items from them. Just because it wasn’t such a struggle to read compared to the old menu’s… and people would go beyond the first few lines when they ordered!!!

So over the next couple of weeks, we started looking into the other advertising Oscar needed to do in the neighborhood. At first, he said he had a sign on the building, and figured people already knew he was there…

“No, no, no they don’t .. . you’ve got to remind them, over and over again!”

We made up a little folded brochure to hand out to passers-by on the sidewalk. It talked about the gourmet meals and a bit of Oscar’s personal history.

And it also offered a special deal. Oscar’s biggest customer magnet was a buffet lunch he put on every weekday, that’s what got customers in the door. And it was REALLY cheap, something like $4 or $4.95 for all-you-can-eat… just a ridiculously low price!

So we created a brochure offering a special lunch deal… something like if you bring a friend with you for lunch, then you get the second meal at a 50% discount.

As a test, we hand-delivered and distributed the tri-fold brochures to retail stores and a couple of the office towers in the area. And drummed up some business right away as well as building awareness of the place.

You see, there were businesses all around the block where Oscar’s Bistro was located… but he’d never really tried any direct advertising to them before! He just expected that people would see his one single sign over the door and come in…

Within less than 3 weeks, I stopped by his restaurant on another late night press approval.

Oscar came to my table with tears in his eyes…

He told me that our efforts had more than doubled his business. Just a few weeks earlier, he and his wife had discussed closing the Bistro, because it was so slow that they couldn’t afford to keep losing money like that.

I’ll tell you, there’s nothing like the heartfelt thanks from a business owner like Oscar to make this work seem worthwhile…

And to really understand how important it is to have more than just a good product or do a good job. You have to tell people about it, too!

He added that any time I was downtown, I’d be welcome to drop in for lunch or dinner, his treat! “You come here any time, for breakfast or lunch or dinner, and it’s on the house.

“Come in every week if you want… how often are you downtown?”

We did more things together, like adding to his signage. Instead of just one sign over the door…

Oscar had street-front property with a patio on the sidewalk, right near a stoplight. So we put 5 or 6 smaller signs all along the railing surrounding the patio, to highlight the lunch buffet and other features to drivers as they sat waiting for the light to change.

It seems so obvious now, but it generated instant attention with eye-opening prices and specials that people started coming back for.

It just PILED business into the place!

People who never knew he was there were now lining up out the door at lunchtime. You should have seen the smile on his face when I walked in one summer day for lunch… and there was no place to sit down!

I’ve lost touch with Oscar now, he’s long since closed the restaurant… after all, that story actually happened over 20 years ago! But it’s still one of my favourites, because of the friendship that developed. And the things we learned.

Like making sure to position yourself well for the audience you want to reach.

Actually, we raised the price on his buffet lunch. I think we put it up a buck… no big deal, but at first he didn’t think anyone would come in the door.

Of course, they did. Hey, it was so cheap anyway, and it still was a huge value… but now he was making an extra 20% on every lunch order. People were still happy to pay for his great food.

Lessons learned?

• Make it obvious.
• Make it easy for people to see that your business is there, what you do, what you offer.
• Make it clear why they should deal with you. And keep coming back.
• Make it almost unavoidable for them to get the message, keep telling people you’re here.

You can’t assume they know. Or that one little sign is going to stand out with a dozen others all around it. If you can, put your signs at eye level for the people most likely to notice them (after all, drivers weren’t going to see a sign 10 feet above their head while sitting in their cars!)

It sounds like a simple thing, and it is… but you’ve got to go beyond what’s easy or convenient for you, and make it convenient for your customers first and foremost.

They’ll reward you brilliantly…

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