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Creating innovative services to appeal to new tenants is necessary, but you also do not want to alienate tenants who are happy with your tried-and-tested offerings. How can you achieve this delicate balance?
Garlo’s Pies’ managing director Sean Garlick says you should focus on what pays the bills as well as what puts your business in the public eye.
“It’s a balancing act and you need to weigh up what is paying the bills, but also what’s keeping your brand relevant and keeping your name out there,” Mr Garlick said on the My Business Podcast.
“We do lots of little PR stunts as well. We just put out a muscle pie which has 26 grams of protein, low in fat and all that, [which] we’re selling in a few gyms.”
To promote Garlo’s Pies during the 2016 NRL grand final, ‘shark pies’ topped with blue, black and white-coloured mashed potato were distributed to Coles stores in the Sutherland Shire, the local area of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks.
“You need that because it gets you publicity,” Mr Garlick said, adding, “Little things like that ... people find funny.”
Even with established offerings, it is important to know when they should be retired.
For example, when Garlo’s Pies first launched, one of its most popular items was the steak and kidney pie.
“Unfortunately, a lot of those customers are no longer with us, the 60- and 70-pluses,” Mr Garlick said.
“You ask anybody under 40, they wouldn’t touch kidney, so we’ve had to discontinue that.”
This is just one example of the importance of knowing your customer base, as well as having an understanding of the appetites of prospective new customers. While it is fine to experiment, do not lose sight of the bigger picture of what will bring you the most revenue.
“You name it and we’ve tried it, and some sell great and some just don’t sell at all,” Mr Garlick said.
“To this day, we make about 40 different flavours. The plain mince pie sells as many as all the others put together.”
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