Hi All,
If your are a culinarist just like I am, you must have been just as excited for the 9th annual Dine out Vancouver as I was. Unfortunately this years DOV ended the past weekend but there’s always next year. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Dine Out, here’s the 411: Dine Out Vancouver is a two week period when Vancouverites are offered the chance to try out different Vancouver restaurants that offer a set menus of either $18, $28 or $38.
I think this is a brilliant concept, and is a really creative way to communicate the values of the restaurants to consumers. In my experience Vancouver is full of restaurants that offer very mediocre or even lower quality food but price the food like a Michelin star restaurant. When you pay $35 for an entrée you would hope that it also tastes pretty darn good, but many times customers end up disappointed. Once you have had a couple of bad experiences like this you are more and more reluctant to try out new places, and end up dining in Cactus Club or Earls.
Dine Out Vancouver allows customers to go and try out new places, even very high-end places that you could never normally afford, with minimal risk. $38 for a 3 or 4 course meal that is prepared by some of the best chefs in town is a bargain like no other. And if you don’t enjoy it, well then, at least you didn’t spend $200 on that same meal.
Once customers get positive experiences, they are more likely to go again, even outside the promotional program. Dine Out Vancouver is a great example of marketing that engages a large portion of an industry. Even though not all restaurants participate, the whole industry will benefit from customers increasing their dining out.
If you happened to miss DOV and didn’t get to try out new places, I’ll share two of my favourite places; Bistro Pastis on 4th Ave. and Raincity Grill on Denman St. Enjoy!
Until next time,
Roosa xx