Making A Name

Noncommercial operators find ways to build community awareness, image and business

By Margaret Sheridan, Senior Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 9/1/2003

Restaurateurs seeking cost-effective ways to connect with local customers and raise their community profile can easily pick up pointers from noncommercial operators. Budgets for most hospitals, colleges and school systems do not allow the hiring of professional publicity coordinators to promote their operations. Yet noncommercial managers often are able to establish a strong local media presence and elevate their operation’s image through unconventional strategies.

Making business-driving impact requires willingness to anticipate opportunity rather than waiting for it to appear. Noncommercial operators are trained to look beyond day-to-day cooking, serving, selling and feeding to connect with guests and communities. Successful approaches range from active gestures such as inviting a town’s mayor to lunch or pitching a story to local media to simply improving word of mouth.

Cover stories
When the controller’s office at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, decided to highlight five dynamic departments in the school’s 2002 Annual Report, dining services caught wind of the plan.

“We grabbed the opportunity,’’ says Bill Maloney, director of student dining services, “and deluged the controller’s office [with reasons our department should be featured].’’

He presented photos, a list of his department’s accomplishments, financial data, kitchen trivia, foodservice facts and interviews. The self-promotion paid off. Two dining-related photos were featured on the cover of the annual report, with four pages and more photos inside. The controller even wrote about dining services’ creativity, customer service and contribution to campus and community vitality. The report elevated the foodservice department’s status and image among faculty, alumni, school donors, trustees and administrators.

“We live and die by publicity,’’ explains Moloney. After the annual report appeared, dining services experienced 3% sales growth in the fiscal year that followed. It also reported higher purchasing frequency in retail outlets by faculty and staff.

The elevated profile has led to stronger response to dining events. A $5 all-you-can-eat buffet promotion attracted 500 diners, while a similar promotion months before had drawn only 130.

Another benefit has been deeper involvement by foodservice in campus decisions. “We’ve gained greater respect from other departments,’’ adds Maloney. “When new projects are discussed, dining services is brought in.’’

The department recently was asked to submit ideas for a marketplace foodservice operation within a proposed campus performing arts center. If realized, the complex, valued at $80 million, would mean 5,000 additional daily meals for dining services.

Face Value
This month’s opening of Husky Village at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, is an opportunity C. Dennis Pierce can’t resist. The new housing complex accommodates 300 residents in six townhouses. Most are members of fraternities or sororities and are already on meal plans. But the groups will need outside catering for picnics, receptions, theme dinners and alumni events.

Pierce, the university’s associate director of dining services, intends to market the foodservice department’s capabilities through evening visits and face-to-face focus groups.

“Students like the personal touch. They want to talk and tell you what they need and how they feel,” he says. “The students often can’t believe you’re actually there to listen.’’

Catering Husky Village will be a challenge. “We have to think as entrepreneurs, treating each house as a unique customer.’’

City Hall Clout
Peggy Lawrence makes a point of building relationships. The director of school food services for Rockdale County Public Schools in Conyers, Ga., attends evening school board meetings and knows each educator and local journalist by name. When she volunteers to teach cooking or marketing classes in community schools, Lawrence often alerts a media contact. Such initiative has resulted in numerous mentions and stories in newspapers and on television.

To get local residents interested in school cafeteria food, she introduced a recipe contest and promoted it on cable television and in print. More than 50 recipes were received, with 10 finalists participating in the annual Taste of Rockdale, which attracted additional media coverage. Vendors and retailers were eager to donate food, prizes and gifts, adds Lawrence. “They liked the media attention.’’

When several years ago a school board member joked about becoming a temporary lunch server, Lawrence jumped at the opportunity. Guest Server Day now promotes National School Lunch Week, with high-profile citizens and celebrities, including the mayor, sheriff and police chief, filling trays and raising community awareness and support for lunch programs. This October, she expects 40 participants.

“Once you develop relationships, people respond,’’ adds Lawrence. “When I need something from the city, I get it.’’