Wake-up Call! You Might Have to Stop Following the Giant Servings Trend If It’s Not Profitable for Your Restaurant
We‘ve often seen giant food servings over the past four or five years on social media. Admittedly, they’re an interesting strategy for creating distinction. They can also turn an ordinary and little-known restaurant into a popular destination on social media and other media overnight. Are giant servings akin to superheroes and highly-profitable menu items for restaurant businesses? And should every restaurant offer giant servings to attract customers? We offer our analysis below.
Key Role Played by Giant Servings
When it comes to giant servings, the first thing entrepreneurs need to know is the main purpose of giant servings. In reality, giant servings are a marketing scheme for restaurants. They serve as a tool for creating distinction, starting trends and getting people to know restaurants. That’s because marketing is so important in this online era, and traditional marketing activities such as passing out flyers and putting up advertisement signs might not be enough to keep up with competitors. And marketing with attractive pictures or telling people the food at your restaurant is appetizing is already done on a regular basis, so it does not create any kind of distinction. On the other hand, giant servings create both oddities and trends, leading to many restaurants selling ordinary foods such as Hainanese chicken and rice, noodles, somtam and stir-fried Thai holy basil with pork on rice to implement giant servings as menu items that attract customers in a different way from other restaurants. With the same attractive pictures still present, people who see these menu items become interested and want to try them out.
Giant Servings Are Not Main Menu Items to Which We Should Devote Everything
It’s necessary to remind everyone that giant servings are not main menu items that will create lots of profits for restaurants, because, while giant servings have their perks, there are also many downsides demanding wariness.
Advantages of Giant Servings
– They create distinction by differing from other restaurants, attracting interest, creating trends and providing free advertisement.
– People invite their friends. Rather than having one person exposed to this type of media, the large volume of food that one or two people cannot finish means that tagging occurs in the online world, so more people know about your restaurant.
Disadvantages Potentially Wrecking the Entire Restaurant
– As the dishes grow in size, more time is required to prepare the food, so customers might have to wait a long time, causing them to complain (although you can remedy this by stating in the menu that they have to wait about 20 minutes for their serving, etc.) More alarmingly, however, is the question about whether the kitchen will be able to handle it if several giant servings are ordered all at once.
– There’s a high risk for incorrectly calculating cost per serving. Most giant serving menu items simply make their portions larger such as larger servings of noodles, somtam (papaya salad) and stir-fried Thai holy basil with pork on rice. And most SME restaurants offering these menu items already fail to meticulously calculate their costs. As a result, when more ingredients are needed per serving, there’s a high chance price miscalculations will occur, leading such menu items to be trendy but unprofitable and burdensome to employees.
Therefore, entrepreneurs should designate giant servings to primarily serve the purpose of attracting customers, creating media trends and increasing interest without allowing them be the restaurant’s main selling menu items. In addition, restaurant owners should meticulously calculate costs and set effective and profitable prices. No one will blame you if you set a little margin just in case you suffer a loss. Importantly, don’t forget to cheer for the sales of main menu items, snacks and beverages, which are the main profit generators, after people have been attracted by giant servings.
