From breakfast to after dinner. The opening hours of the Public Exercises are expanding and the capacity of the premises to change…

From breakfast to after dinner. The opening hours of the Public Exercises are expanding and the ability of the local to change according to the needs of the day is a key aspect to remain on the market.

Many clubs, including beach clubs, today try to propose a transversal offer, able to put together more features, to be able to aspire to a wide audience and use spaces in a profitable way. But what are the most effective strategies to increase the time spent by the client and let him live your local all-round?

How to create a versatile venue

A place must first and foremost be a place where you can experience an aggregation with your friends, or even with strangers. It is important that the atmosphere can generate pleasant sensations. And by atmosphere we mean lights, staff attitude, furniture, music, all the elements that raise the room, from a place of consumption to a place of consumer experience.

The strategy to make the venue versatile and livable could be summarized in three key points: a dynamic environment, custom furniture, a differentiated food and wine offer. Let’s see them one by one:

  • Dynamism of the environment

Through the set of verbal and non-verbal messages received during the visit to the room, the customer directs his purchase actions. The restaurant becomes the place where the communication process put in place by the company generates interaction with the potential customer.

Our mission is to make the restaurant, on the one hand, a flexible space that adapts to the needs of the manager, and on the other, a stimulating place for the customer. Let’s talk about one of the cornerstones of Visual Marketing: direct purchasing behavior in order to increase the sell out of the premises, maximize the profitability of the spaces and create value for the customer, differentiating the offer and stimulating loyalty to the brand.

By planning a series of activities aimed at making the environment communicative and dynamic, we will be able to:

  • Suggestion: communication must create an attractive and stimulating environment to hit the client, causing him to look;
  • Inform: once the attention of the potential customer is captured, the logic of the exposure must give information, showing a clear and quick reading of the offer;
  • Propose: exposure is not just aimed at selling individual products, but must suggest combinations or combinations, provide ideas and solutions that can stimulate the visitor;
  • Convince yourself: once the right atmosphere has been created, the customer will be more inclined to purchase so it will be easier to influence its behavior.

Basically, in the versatile environment everything must be dynamically arranged so that the products can play a strategic role in the fullness of their possibilities. At the same time, however, the set of elements present in the room must be perceived by the client as a simple facilitation of his decision-making process.

  • Custom furniture

Let’s move on to some suggestions relating to furniture. The customer willingly enters a room in which he perceives a feeling of welcome and attention. In this sense, the choice of furniture is crucial. It is one of the elements that most affect the atmosphere of your room and the idea that customers make it when they enter. The furniture will have to reflect your style and adapt to your taste, but above all it will be appreciated by guests, both the one who will enter with the minutes counted, will take coffee at the counter and will go in haste, both those who will look for a place to relax in peace, read the newspaper or answer the phone. If the available space allows you, you could also create a small living area with sofas, low tables and small armchairs. This also contributes to your purpose of creating a versatile room and increasing the time spent by the client.

When we asked the experts of AFA Arredamenti how much the furniture affects the creation of a pleasant, livable and versatile space, we have shown it by telling us some practical examples:

Bistro Rossini, restaurant in Faenza open all day. An elegant and extremely versatile space to welcome customers for breakfast, snacks and aperitifs and then in two highlights: at lunch, when a more informal atmosphere is created with high tables and stools and at dinner, when the customers are sitting on comfortable colored sofas taupe. The bar counter, covered in stone, with brass details and equipped with transparent cases that enhance the quality of the product on display, is characterized by essential lines that frame a welcoming internal courtyard and many entertainment proposals.

Even the Food Factory, located just outside Florence, offers a service at all hours of the day: breakfasts, quick lunches and aperitifs served on the ground floor and in the large outdoor area. In this case, a clean bar counter was chosen, in wood with black finishes that highlight the geometry, light shades for tables and seating in the dining area. Dinner is served on the first floor, which is accessed by a red staircase that leads the customer into a large room with an open kitchen, furnished with tables and tablecloths in soft colors and bistro chairs embellished with a dove gray seat. 

A further realization for Nonno Umberto, a wellness bakery coffee: the furniture reflects and embraces the tradition, taking its inspiration from the ancient regional flavors. The light points help to create a stylish environment, use delicate shades for walls, and flooring. Bar counter in light wood with exposed front part for the display of fruit and vegetables arranged in wooden boxes reminiscent of the old market.

A convivial and intimate atmosphere, which goes well with the food offer, a tribute to the Italian culinary tradition based on the simplicity of the fruits of the earth. This versatile restaurant provides a differentiated service from waking up with breakfasts to be consumed at the table or take away, based on pastas and croissants stuffed at the moment with homemade jams. For lunch it ranges from light proposals (centrifuges, fruit salads and salads prepared at the time) to delights for the palate (bread, focaccia and hand-cut salami).

Whatever your idea, get advice from those who work in the field every day. The furniture is to be studied in detail because it is the aspect that makes a bar at first glance attractive. And immediately after, it allows you to communicate the soul of the brand.

  • Create the right offer

We come to the offer. Understanding who you are addressing, so who visits your room, at what time, the motivations that drive him to do it and what he expects to find are key points to structure an offer then select the products that satisfy the customer and that allow you to avoid waste and unnecessary proposals.

Also differentiating the offer according to the time of day is very important: for example expose your coffee card and fill the windows with sweet and savory products for breakfast, adding mini-brioche or other snacks since mid-morning to entice customers to have a snack waiting for lunch (we talk about an important lever on which you have to act, impulse buying). At lunchtime set up the tables, even here using marketing to communicate to the customer what happens in your room during other hours of the day; leverage confectionery or ice-cream products in the afternoon, the cocktail card for the aperitif, maybe even with proposals invented by you or your collaborators.

Conclusions? Yes to creativity as long as it is only a “detail” in a neat, tidy and clean space.

Customers no longer go to a place just to eat or drink, they have many other desires to satisfy. Why not satisfy them?

Article written by Giacomo Pini (Gp Studios) – by Sharing Tourism.

With over twenty years of experience in the field, he is a Tourism and Catering expert, born in 1972, he rebounds in his native land of Romagna and where he has his headquarters, Barcelona and San Francisco. Consultant for various companies in the sector, accommodation facilities, hotel chains and international holding companies, for which he takes care of the start-up, strategic marketing, staff training and, more generally, all the launch and commercial positioning activities.