WHY GROUPDYNE.COM?

Executive Summary
Group Dining - The Business Case
The Market - Who Uses Group Dining?
The Challenge - How To Reach the Target Market?
The Solution - An Integrated Approach Centered on Groupdyne
The Investment - Surprisingly Small
The Result - Increased Returns from Group Dining
Join Groupdyne.com Today 

Executive Summary

Groupdyne.com provides a targeted, effective, and affordable method of maximizing the return that your food service business can realize from the growing group dining market, and can significantly enhance your financial results.

Group Dining - The Business Case

Sophisticated restaurant and special event venue operators have known for years that group dining offers a tremendous opportunity to increase revenues and profits, if properly utilized.  Group dining, especially corporate group dining, is one of the most desirable types of business. In the last six years, the National Restaurant Association indicates that nearly $22 billion was spent annually on corporate credit cards for parties of eight or guests more at restaurants, while the Convention Industry Council estimates that restaurant spending by meeting and convention attendees in North America totals more than $12.3 billion per year. But all too often this does not result in a targeted group dining marketing effort. This is frequently the key missing element in a restaurants marketing and advertising campaign. A disconnect between the stated goal and the execution of a plan is a huge challenge for restaurant owners. It is complex. Many things affect the decision to forego group dining marketing including lack of time, scarce resources or simply lack of knowledge.

 The Market - Who Uses Group Dining?

In order to develop a strategy that seeks to grow the group dining opportunities for any food service business, it is necessary to first define who the users of such services are. Group dining consumers fall into 2 major categories: corporate and non-corporate [or recreational]. Corporate users include employees of businesses from sales and marketing executives, administrative assistants, human resources staff to professional meeting and convention planning professionals. Non-corporate users include the general public i.e. people looking for a location to host a personal or family functions including: a wedding rehearsal dinner, a birthday party, family celebration or holiday event requiring space for a large group. Targeting these user groups must be done in two very different ways.

 The Challenge - How To Reach the Target Market?

It's clear that to be effective in the marketing of group dining, a food service business needs to both understand who the market is, and how to reach them.  Ultimately this is a major challenge.  To be successful the group dining campaign must clearly understand the two major market segments, corporate and non-corporate, and then intersect with each consumer's existing buying habits as they look for group dining information. Our research indicates that more often than not this "buying" of group dining happens ONLINE. Consumers are accustomed to entering their personal needs online and receiving customized results whether for airline tickets, hotel rooms or rental cars. Gone are the days where consumers would read through pages of data, compile information, sort it, study it and make a decision. Group dining information must be complete, customized and it must be online.

 Given this fact, many traditional advertising methods are simply not effective for group dining. Print advertising aims to keep a restaurant top of mind, but does not provide the consumer with the details and visuals required to book a group event. These visuals include group menus, food photos, room descriptions and layouts as well as capacity details. These same challenges are true for radio ads and direct mail as well. Both feature a restricted format in which to sell group dining. Although television advertising may provide the opportunity for greater visual impact, the price is often too expensive.  Therefore, we believe online advertising to be the ultimate marketing format for group dining due to price, flexibility, audience targeting and intersecting with consumer's existing buying behaviors. The National Restaurant Association reports that 48% of adults have visited a restaurant's web site when looking for information, so having your group dining information online where consumers are looking for it is critical to your success.

 The Solution - An Integrated Approach Centered on Groupdyne

Groupdyne.com is a turn-key, online solution that allows for a targeted, sustained group dining marketing effort with the specific goal of increasing corporate and non-corporate group dining critical for the long term success of your restaurant(s). Groupdyne.com's internet-based group dining search directory has been created specifically to address the business opportunity presented by group dining.  Groupdyne.com was built and is managed by restaurant and hospitality professionals on the premise that planning meetings, special events, group lunches and dinners should be easy, intuitive and fun.

 Unlike other online sites, Groupdyne.com focuses exclusively on group and private dining and is committed to an anti-blog policy in which any consumer "reviews" about an restaurant must be approved by that restaurant before they appear in the site. Groupdyne.com remains focused 100% on connecting users to a powerful, integrated database of restaurant information, specifics on private, semi private and group dining and other offerings, chef biographies, capacity details and menu information to make planning group dinners simple and carefree. Users also benefit from standardized profiles that allow for quick side-by-side restaurant comparisons and one-click e-mail submission for simple email communications making the site effective for both our corporate and non-corporate users. It is quick, easy and free-to-use. Also a free concierge service is available for those that need a restaurant recommendation.

 The site effectively serves both corporate and non-corporate users. For non-corporate users advertising outreach via search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN are an effective way to reach these users. Groupdyne.com uses extensive pay-per-click and keyword campaigns on each major search engine mentioned above ensuring that we receive exposure to consumers when they are looking to book a group dining event. Additionally Groupdyne.com partners with and sponsors countless charity events such as Taste of the Nation to increase the exposure of our brand thereby providing our members a cooperative marketing opportunity as we increase the visibility of the Groupdyne.com brand and our member restaurants.

 For corporate users, Groupdyne.com partners with over 100 local and national organizations, corporations, conference and convention centers to create custom dining guides for their employees. Links to these "dining guides" appear on the partner's internal websites. Therefore Groupdyne.com is available to corporate users via that company's employee benefits and/or special offers page. Our restaurants members are then allowed to offer additional discounts and the standard offer to corporate users is 10% off event requests generated through this program for parties of eight of more guests. This discount is voluntary and can be restricted to group menus only.

 Groupdyne.com saves me time searching for venues for my events! Instead of having to take the time to conduct research on the best available venue, I use Groupdyne.com and find what I was looking for in just minutes." Michelle Meyer, Sr. Marketing Communications Manager, Microsoft

However, by itself, online advertising may not be as effective as it can be.  Therefore, at Groupdyne.com, we also offer consulting services that we like to call our "tool kit". A carpenter or plumber responds to your restaurant to fix a hole in the wall or a leaky pipe. Similarly we respond to your group dining program with a set of tips and best practices that we have developed for attracting and booking group dining guests. They include but are not limited to the following:  a group dining photo and menu audit, space inventory and guest response inquiry. Our members quickly find out how that measure up in key areas of marketing to group dining consumers.

Most programs that offer to increase revenues and profits for food service firms come with price-tags in the thousands of dollars.  However, the groupdyne.com program to enhancing your group dining results costs only a fraction of that amount.  The real investment required in addition to becoming a member of Groupdyne.com is a real commitment to the Integrated Approach described above.  Groupdyne can provide its member restaurants with significantly enhanced opportunities to increase group bookings.  However, it is up to each restaurant to take full advantage of this opportunity.  Groupdyne.com is an essential part of any successful group dining program, but we find that a total commitment by our members is needed to get the most from that opportunity

The Result - Increased Returns from Group Dining

Food service companies that implement this Integrated Approach combined with the targeted marketing that only Groupdyne.com can offer for group dining opportunities, consistently like the results.  They find that over time their results from this highly desirable but frequently under-utilized area of business become increasingly significant, providing Groupdyne.com members with higher revenues, better utilization of their facilities, and improved financial contributions to the bottom line.

"Groupdyne is great. Our very first referral booked an event. That event covered our costs with Groupdyne for the whole year. The referrals are all serious inquiries that have already narrowed their search through Groupdyne's comprehensive information and photos. We love it." 

Paul Reder, Owner, Tap House Grill Seattle & Bellevue    

"Groupdyne.com has exceeded our expectations in just the first two months. We have seen an increase in our inquiries and confirmed our first booking from the site just last week. The event for 600 people is valued at over $30K and the client found us on Groupdyne.com"

Steven Olson, Owner, Parlor Billiards, Ultralounge and Parlor Live

 Join Groupdyne.com Today

Groupdyne.com serves an important need by bringing together individuals, companies and event planners with the best restaurants, chefs and private dining rooms across the country. This is a dynamic and growing part of the dining and hospitality industry, and Groupdyne.com offers people an innovative, free and easy-to-use tool that takes the guesswork out of group meetings and events. In addition, we are a valuable marketing partner to our member venues who wish to market their venues as well as website users looking for information needed to book group dining events. Cindy Baccetti, President and Co-Founder, Groupdyne.com

Groupdyne.com Membership = Increased Group Dining Exposure
Contact Us Today to schedule your free group dining consultation
joingroupdyne@groupdyne.com or 206-407-3808