Promotional Ideas

This is a Restaurant Wine excerpt from Issue 48, July/August 1995. For complete articles and issues, click here to go to Restaurant Wine Online Order Form. To see a complete list of Recent Issues, go to Recent Issues page.

CHICAGO, IL--In 1993, John Bruns, general manager of the Stouffer Renaissance Hotel, was seeking a marketing tool to help build more of a local following for the hotel's upscale restaurant, Cuisines. He decided to use wine--and specifically low wine pricing--to help accomplish his goal.

The Mediterranean-themed grill had an extensive wine list, with nearly 300 wines, primarily from California, France and Italy. (The restaurant shares its wine list with a sister restaurant, the more casual Great Street Restaurant & Bar, which features contemporary American fare.) But few locals were walking in the door, notes Bruns.

"Hotel restaurants have a challenging time competing with freestanding restaurants because of their image of being formal and expensive. They have some barriers that people don't want to walk through if they are thinking about casual dining. They don't want to walk past the doorman. They don't want to walk into an elegant lobby where people are all dressed up. They don't want to walk upstairs to the second level to walk into a restaurant. They want to walk across the street to something casual and fun."

Bruns, who was sommelier at Top of the Rockies in Denver, Colorado, in 1971, felt that extremely reasonable wine prices--"cost plus $10" for all wines on the wine list--could be enough both to attract first time customers and to create regular customers out of local guests who had been drawn to the hotel and/or its restaurant for other reasons (such as the dinner-theater package launched in September, 1993).

"We developed the 'cost plus $10' pricing strategy for two reasons. First, we wanted to build a loyal customer base among people who enjoy wine. There is a strong correlation between people who enjoy wine and the frequency of their dining experiences. The more they enjoy wine, the more they are going to dine out.

"Second, we felt that this strategy could not be duplicated by the friendly, casual neighborhood restaurant. What those restaurants have--casual dining, a fun, informal atmosphere--we can't offer. But we can do something restaurants can't: We can offer wines at $10 over cost because we make most of our money on the rooms side. Restaurants can't because they need to make money on wine. We don't. And that is the point."

So Bruns rolled out the "cost plus $10" wine pricing policy, which was actively marketed by hotel. In the restaurants, service staff informed guests of the policy, which was also explained on the first page of the wine list.