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Meal Marketing: 5 Ways to Maximize the Impact of an Event Menu


Posted on April 28, 2008

By Michael Green

An event’s menu primes your guests to the edible experience that awaits them and sends them home with a takeaway of what they experienced. The menu also provides an opportunity for you to market your company and your brand, and the menu you create can be a powerful sales tool for both your client and your future.

Follow the following 5 tips to maximize its impact:

1. NAME:  Naming and theming your meal can communicate and reinforce your goals. Think about your target audience or message, and convey it through wine and food.  Think of the menu as the takeaway theater program.  Create a title for the menu along with a date and purpose for the evening. Some ideas:
• Localized Dining: If you want to highlight de-centralized operations, arrange a meal based on the locavore farm-to-table local/seasonal food movement.  Pair eco-friendly dining with eco-friendly brands.
• Surprise Markets: If your client or company is focusing on emerging markets, products and services consider highlighting emerging or unexpected wine or food regions.   Even better, utilize dishes or drinks from the regions of interest – South American wine, say, or an Asian-influenced dish.

2. TELL A STORY: Be specific as possible when writing out the menu - ingredients and wines. Season your menu with “talking points”, and your guests won’t soon forget their experience.
• Rather than “grilled salmon”, why not offer “Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon” instead? A selection of artisan cheese can be presented as “a selection of Artisan Cheeses from Sonoma Valley.”  It sounds great, and may even taste better with a name and place attached.  Where possible, list the origin and maker of products; it will make the experience more authentic for your guests.
• Mention that the glass of Chardonnay is from “the oldest producer in Burgundy”, or vines that are at least 60 years old; your guests will be impressed.

3. THE LOOK: The way a menu looks primes your guests for the event ahead. A clearly laid out branded menu sets a great tone for the evening.
• Format your wines: There are two ways broadly to do this, both highlighting different aspects of the wine.
A) Region or grape, producer, vintage, (broader appellation): EXAMPLE
Pinot Grigio, Sutter Home, 2006, California
B) Producer, region, grape, vintage: EXAMPLE
Robert Mondavi Napa Valley Cabernet, 2006
Listing region or grape first, like in option A, is best for when the producer will have less impact than the grape or location, such as when they are mostly unknown or extremely commercial. I use the second option when serving a famous or cult winemaker that will have great name recognition with my audience.
• White space: This is one of the most important aspects of any visual presentation, including menus. No matter how much great content you have to offer, if your menu looks like an essay, it has no positive impact.

4.  THE FEEL: Once your menu looks as it should, it should feel just as satisfying in-hand. Rather than making them on your office printer, have your menus done professionally, on great paper that stands out.
• Off-White: Slightly colored paper is known to attract more attention than matte white paper. Choose something that matches the feel of the tabletop, and sets a great tone for the evening.
• Thickness: Printing your menu on cardstock or a sub-straight enhances its feel, making it a true visual presentation.

5. THE TAKEAWAY: We hope that after using all the tools at our disposal to market and brand our client and ourselves through wine and food, our guests leave with positive memories. Menus can serve this purpose.
• Takeaway: Brand the menu with your company logo, slogan, or theme of the event, and suggest guests take it home at the end of the night.
• Sorry we missed you: A well-crafted, elegant menu card can be a wonderful marketing tool for invitees who were unable to attend. Pop it in the mail the following day with a note attached saying “We’re sorry we missed you, but hope you can join us for our next event.” This will guarantee they’ll be there next time.

Born and raised in New York City, Michael Green has been a fixture in the beverage industry since the age of six when he first began accompanying his father to work at the venerable wine store Acker Merrall & Condit on the Upper West Side. Michael maintained his post at Acker Merrall & Condit throughout high school and college. After graduating, Michael embarked on an aggressive self-education of the world’s appellations while importing wine for the company. His renewed passion for the grape resulted in a series of wine tastings performed at the store and paved the way for his relationship with Gourmet magazine. At the age of 26, Michael began making pairing suggestions for the Gourmet Dining Room and, over the course of a decade, has become the magazine’s exclusive wine and spirits consultant.
Michael’s wine-and-dine wizardry takes many forms, including designing customized corporate wine dinners, directing tasting programs for conferences, festivals and auctions, and building private wine collections. Harnessing the power of wine to build relationships, Michael has the unique ability to articulate a company’s mission through the exploration of wine, making him a favorite talent for Fortune 500 companies nationwide who look to create memorable, brand-building events.

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