With Thanksgiving and Halloween already under our belt and winter coming up quickly, it’s time to consider how to adapt your menu to improve sales this holiday season. December can be one of the biggest sales months for restaurants, bars, and cafes. Learning how to cater your selection to customers looking for drinks in the spirit of the season will not only boost sales, but make your business stand out amongst competitors.
Seasonal menu offerings help tell your customers you understand want they want this time of year, and you can put them at ease in a unique and festive environment. What are some of the trends you’re hearing about? Have any customers provided feedback or suggestions about what they’d like to see on the menu? All these points come into play when it’s time to decide what to add to your establishment.
If you need any inspiration, just look at what Starbucks was able to accomplish with its most popular seasonal beverage, the Pumpkin Spice Latte. By restricting its sales to autumn and keeping a limited stock, the Seattle coffee company has been able to create an unbelievably high demand for the product, selling in the hundreds of millions since its creation in 2003.
Your watering hole may not have thousands of locations like Starbucks, but it doesn’t hurt to promote a decent selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. By the time someone approaches the bar, he or she should already have seen signs and chatter about some of the choices available. Using social media to offer sales and special discounts is also a solid idea.
Whether you’re serving premium spirits or buying alcohol in bulk, specialty holiday drinks create the perfect opportunity for bartenders to experiment with new concoctions and make customers feel better about this time of year. Classic winter cocktails like the following work rather well.
Here's one I whipped up that you can feel free to try; our "Cocktail Of The Month",
Deck The Halls
You can get the recipe for this one by clicking HERE!
Naturally, most combinations of spirits and juices work well with the right branding, but there are a few ideas to go: peppermint flavors, eggnog instead of Bailey’s or milk, mulled wine, and drinks on the sweeter side. Instead of salt, add crushed candy cane to the rim. There are millions of combinations that put customers in the holiday mood.
Cheers!
