Maximizing Menu Real Estate

The psychology of menu layout and design is well-documented. The upper right hand corner of the right hand page of a menu is the prized location, the first spot to which the eye travels when opening and reading a menu. The eye then travels counter clockwise around the open menu pages from there, ending up in spot with the lowest visibility — the center of the menu. I like to call it the dead zone.

Savvy restaurant owners and managers and even menu engineers try to maximize profits by using this psychology when placing menu categories and items on the menu. The item that brings them the most profit gets the prime location, and then everything is listed in a descending order of, um, financial importance as you work your way counter clockwise around the menu to the designated dead zone.

The less savvy often don’t know about the menu eye flow patterns and often like to either create their menu themselves and place each section where they think it should go, where they think it looks best. Big mistake. Some of them like to tell their designers how to lay out their menu. Even bigger mistake. Unless they are using cousin Eunice who likes to dabble with stretching menu item names using some kind of word art, the reason you use a menu designer is because they have a bit more expertise in the area of menu layout and design than you do.

Most trained menu engineers will focus on following the menu eye flow patterns when deciding where to place menu sections and items. While that’s a great start, this still risks leaving a large chunk of menu real estate that isn’t maximized. That’s wasteful, and I don’t like waste.

I do like a good challenge, however, and that’s why I try to find a way to change that space from the dead zone to the “ka-ching” zone. Is it even possible to make that center space sparkle with profits that mimic the upper right hand page zone? Yes, it is, and here’s how.

In order to properly evaluate the menu, you need to first produce a cost and profit analysis on each menu item. Identify your most profitable menu items that are quick and easy to get out of your kitchen. These items, in whatever categories they are in, need to be in the menu hot spots.

Next, identify your most popular items, whether or not they are profitable. These are usually old standards, many might be comfort foods like meatloaf or chicken pot pie or even hamburgers. Your less experimental diners (as well as picky kids) tend to order these religiously because there are no surprises, they know exactly what they are getting and how it will taste.  These items will have solid sales no matter where they are placed on the menu.

These are the items that should be placed in the dead zone, which is now the ka-ching zone. You’re not wasting the valuable menu real estate on them because, again, it doesn’t matter where they are located on the menu. Diners will seek them out and order them. These items can be boxed, highlighted, tagged with special icons, or simply listed as home-style favorites. If they are not as profitable  as you would like them to be, adjust your pricing and make them more profitable. You can do that — it’s you’re restaurant!

The beauty of this plan is that diners who, following menu eye flow pattern analysis, would typically look at the center of the page last, will go there no matter what. And many of those diners will order from that section because these items are long time favorites. Your prime real estate can then be used for your real high profit items. Optimize the other, lesser “visible” sections by highlighting better performing menu items using boxes, shading or signature item icons. Now your diner’s eyes will be drawn to difference spots around your menu, maximizing all the real estate on the menu pages, not just one or two areas.

Finally, take advantage of the next best marketing tool you have at your fingertips: your wait staff. With proper server training, they can help guide diners to selected spots around the menu, pointing out the highlighted items and reminding diners where their old favorites are located  while pointing to the center of the menu.

Now all of your space is truly maximized. You’ve taken advantage of valuable menu engineering techniques, while turning your traditional dead zone into a money-making profit center.

Food Photos and Menus

Consider using food photos in your menu only if you have a large budget that allows you to hire a professional food photographer to take professional-quality photographs. Anything less risks a negative impact on your sales and profitability.

Many non-chain restaurant owners or managers are taken in by major chain menus that sport impressive glossy, laminated menus with full bleed food photos on each page. You know what I’m talking about. Thick juicy steaks complemented by a steaming baked potato drizzled with melting butter and a delicate sprinkling of spices. Gorgeous hamburgers framed by fluffy buns, bright green lettuce leaves, red tomato slices, and seasoned fries, all work to tantalize your tastebuds and convince you to order a burger today. Thick milkshakes or frothy bar drinks boasting tropical color and luscious embellishments tempt you ask for more than just water to whet your whistle. I’m ready to place my order right now!

So what’s wrong with photos on menus?

Nothing, if you are prepared to pay a professional food photographer for his services. You also must be prepared to insist on strict quality and presentation from your chefs and servers for every plate that comes our of your kitchen, night after night, with no exceptions. If you can’t guarantee these things, food photos have no business being on your menu. Here’s why.

Menu photos raise your diners’ expectations. If you can’t produce a hamburger that looks identical to the one of your menu, then your diners’ expectations won’t be met and you risk disappointing them. While people may talk about the fabulous burgers that a chain restaurant offers, no one talks about the sad little burger with the flat bun, pale tomato, and floppy fries that still tasted pretty good, even if it didn’t look like the photo on the menu.

Identical presentation every time is impossible to guarantee. Even with the best of employees under the best of circumstances, it is impossible to produce food that looks identical to the photos on your menu every time they are served. No one’s quality control is that good. Disappointment happens, and if it happens to the wrong person, the word of mouth from that experience can have a negative impact on your business.

Photos should be taken using the plateware and glassware that you use in your restaurant. When the food you serve, including what it’s served on and how it’s presented, doesn’t match the photos, expectations are lowered and you risk diner disappointment.

Low quality photographs and their use on your menu have an adverse affect on your restaurant’s image. Less than professional quality photographs make you look, well, cheap. This can affect how much you can successfully charge for food, whether customers are impressed enough with your menu to return again for another meal, or completely turn off customers and instantly eliminate the possibility of their future patronage.

Case in point: I once went to a small “joint” for breakfast tacos. Bad photographs of other menu items, also printed on their, um, not very impressive menus, were blown up a gazillion times to become poster size and used to adorn the brightly painted walls of the dining area. While I’m certain that in a smaller format they may have looked slightly appealing,  in Godzilla format the jumble of sauces, ingredients and textures resembled vomit. It was difficult to get through breakfast that morning, and my husband and I never returned for an encore. All I could think about was, “Why did they ever think those photos were appealing?” They were obviously not professional quality and their large format on the walls only broadcast that fact. In addition to looking unappealing, they made we wonder where else the restaurant operator cut corners. Shudder.

Don’t think that you or your cousin Fred can take  photos good enough for your menu with you personal digital camera. This is one of the worst mistakes you can make! It seems like a no-brainer, but still many restaurant owners or managers try this, thinking that since they take great pics of the family on holiday, that means they can take great food photos.

Reality check: It’s usually never true. Amateur photos will always look like amateur photos to everyone except the photo taker. Don’t fall into this trap and risk your restaurant’s reputation by using anything  except professional photos.

Professional food photographs are expensive. Plan to spend a minimum of $5K to $10K for a professional photographer to come to your location, set up a small studio in one corner of your restaurant, use appropriate lighting and accessories, and take a large number of appropriate photographs of a wide variety of your menu items. If you can’t spend this kind of money on a food photographer, don’t use food photographs in you menu. You are better off spending money to have your menus redesigned or professionally engineered. Even if you use a professional menu designer, have the menus printed on card stock, and order new menu covers, you will spend significantly less than it would cost you just to hire a food photographer.

As a designer, I find that using food photos on menu pages is overrated. I have designed hundreds of menus and less than one percent of them actually used photographs.  Menus that did not show food photos almost always were equally or more successful than their counterparts.

If you want to capture the attention of your diners and drive sales of certain items, you will be more successful if you implement other rules of menu engineering into your menu design. Focus on having a great cover, good layout and menu item placement, and on highlighting  a select few with boxes or icons that designate the items to be one of your “signature specialties.” Once you have a competently engineered and designed menu in place, you won’t even remember that you once considered using photographs.

Please note, I am not belitting professional food photographers or suggesting that their work is unimportant. In fact, their work is usually outstanding and their photos can often help you create a fabulous menu. Unfortunately, professional food photographers are not used often enough. With the economy in great flux and the increase in food costs, restaurant operators are looking to save money in any way they can. Even if they have budgeted for a new menu, they often haven’t factored in the cost of a professional food photographer. The problem arises when they insist on still using photos in their menus,  either taking photos themselves or using someone who is not experienced or qualified to be considered a professional in this field.

For more information about menu design, visit www.premieremenus.com.

Menus and Fonts

Serif or san serif. Large size or small size. Make it readable. Duh. You’d think by now that overusing fonts went the way of the dinosaurs. And you’d be wrong.

I regularly see menus that use too many different fonts. Almost without fail, these menu have not been designed by a qualified graphic designer. More often than not, the menus are designed by menu owners or managers themselves, trying to cut corners by using simple text formatting software to put together their own menus.

Unless you are a former graphic designer who now owns or manages a restaurant, this is almost always a huge mistake, with font problems being the least of your worries. I always recommend that you consult with a professional, experienced graphic designer to create or update a restaurant menu.

For those of you who have no graphic design training, here are some quick tips about choosing menu fonts.

Be wary about using overly ornate fonts. They are more difficult to read no matter what the size.If you must use something decorative, make sure the font is large enough to allow for easy reading. If it has a lot of frilly loops and curls, use it sparingly, if at all.

Never use ornate fonts for text that wraps around on more than one line. It’s almost guarantees taht the words will be difficult to read and means your diners won’t focus on that text and move on to something else. If that font is used in conjunction with one of your higher profit items, a menu item you want to sell more of, you risk losing money.

Using too many fonts can be a distraction menu readers. Using different fonts adds interests, but keep it down to two or three different fonts, not including the use of bold or italics on the fonts styles you choose to use.

Be prepared to adjust the leading to add more white space between lines of text. Leading is the white space between each line of type. If the leading is too close, the text will be difficult to read. If it’s too large, then you waste valuable menu space that can result in you limiting your menu or unnecessarily increasing the page count.

Know the difference between serif and sans serif fonts and when to use them. A serif font, one with smaller lines used to finish off the main strokes of each letter or character, helps make words easier to read. That said, however, you’re not writing the great American novel. Because most of your text will be grouped as menu item descriptions with white space between each item, generally speaking, each description will be easier to read. This gives you a little more flexibility when choosing fonts. In many cases, using a sans serif font, one without the little lines at the ends of each character, can be a good option.

Be sensitive to font type size. If it’s too small, it will make your menu difficult to read. If it’s too large, however, it can increase you menu cost by forcing your menu text to bump over to more pages. A good rule of thumb is to use a 10 point font size or larger for the bulk of your menu text. Menu item names can be in a different font which may also be in a larger type size.

Finally, don’t forget my cardinal rule of thumb when designing a menu:  Just because you have a lot of fonts on your computer doesn’t mean you have to use them all, especially in a single project. Be judicious and keep your menu text readable.

If you follow these font guidelines, you’ll be off to a great start with your menu design!

For more information about menu design, visit www.premieremenus.com.