I live in a city of 85000 people. There are three McDonalds outlets. There are two KFC outlets. There are four Subway shops. Wendy's and Carl's Jr are currently in construction. Burger King is also here. What have I left out? There must be some kind of franchise or chain shop that we don't have. Oh yes, I remember now, there is no Starbucks.
Why is that? There seems to be a Starbucks in every other major provincial city in New Zealand. I believe that there was one in Palmerston North but it closed down a couple of years ago.
How can you run a successful cafe in Palmerston North? I must admit I am not an expert about cafes so my opinion just comes from my experience in being in a number of cafes and what I think people should do to run that cafe in the metropolis that is Palmerston North.
1. You have to charge provincial prices. I would hazard a guess that prices in the Starbucks around New Zealand are the same. This would fly in Auckland but in places like Palmerston North it just doesn't work. People may go there on a Sunday afternoon but would bypass it on Monday through Friday mornings on the way to work. New Zealanders generally don't like to give away their money easily especially people in the provinces and top dollar for a cup of coffee is not a done thing.
2. You have to decide what kind of market you are going to target and structure your menu and location for that market. For example if you are going to target a more older crowd you don't want to put exotic foods and things that people don't know what it is. You have to have more recognisable food, traditional if you like at a lower price.
3. You have to decide what kind of food is going on that menu. Are you going to have the traditional sausage rolls, mince pies, doughnuts and sally lunns on the menu or are you going to have wraps, quiches and slices. This would depend on where the cafe is located. Personally in this town I think you have to have a combination of them both. The market is too small to only cater to one section of the population. Some grumpy old man is not going to want to eat quiches.
4. I think for a cafe to be successful it needs to be open a great number of hours. I know that Cafe Cuba is open from early in the morning until late at night and that seems to be successful and so a cafe needs to be open from say 7am to 11pm, even 6am to 12am. That way you will get people who want that breakfast and people who want a coffee or dessert after seeing a movie late at night.
5. Location, location, location. A cafe in Palmerston North has to be in George Street. No argument. That's where it should be. It can't be open on the Square at midnight as you will get drunken louts coming in and that is not why people go to a cafe. They go there for quite conversation not abuse from drunken young people.
6. The marketing of your cafe in Palmerston North needs to be good. If you do a good show then the word of mouth will be excellent in this town. If you are crap that will get around twice as fast, so be careful. You need to use radio to get your message across. There are a plethora of radio stations in Palmerston North, use them. Make sure that you are the person on the ad or even better get a local celebrity to voice your ad. You will be surprised how many people listen to the radio so that medium is a must.
7. In 2012 this is a must, have a website with your menu on it. The number of establishments I look up on the internet that don't have their own specialised website is mind boggling and you may be losing customers to other places if you don't have one.
8. Nice friendly, well groomed and intelligent staff are a must. I think this is important and it should go without saying but sometimes the service in this country can leave a little to be desired. Some people believe by asking, "How's your day going?" they are showing good customer service. That is bullshit. You create good customer service by doing things correctly and politely. If you want to talk to the customer talk about something relevant to them, not something generic that they hear fifteen times a day and they don't know how to answer. I have two stories I remember a long time a go at Pak N' Save a check out assistant spoke with me about something I had in my trolley. it was relevant to me and I had a good experience. A few weeks a ago I was in a cafe in George STreet and ordered something and she got it wrong and then argued with me when I said that she got it wrong. Unfortunately for the owners I won't go in there again.
9. The decor of the cafe needs to be neutral. This is not a flashy town. If you decorate your cafe too flashy and gaudy it runs the risk of being known as somewhere where alternative people go to rather than who you want to attract, the mainstream.
10. I've said a few times in this post and I'm going to say it again, PRICE or as the say on The Apprentice PRICE POINT is important. Remember who your market is and price it accordingly. This is so important. I believe Starbucks priced itself out of the Palmerston North market.
At the end of the day if you are going to have a successful cafe in Palmerston North, you have to be conscious of price, location and just general awesomeness because if it is then the word of mouth, in other words the grapevine will run overtime and you will be working overtime to keep up with the demand of your cafe.
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