GREENWICH, Conn., May 2, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- What can restaurant PR tell us about life, the economy and consumer confidence? A lot.
Wall Street and marketers of all stripes are always on the lookout for new ways of gauging consumer confidence. Greg Miller, president of MarketcomPR, proposes a new tool for bankers, traders, economists and purveyors of financial products -- take a look around the high-end restaurants you frequent yourself in places like Soho, Greenwich, Buckhead and South Beach.
In a wide-ranging interview (www.marketcompr.com) with Linda Kavanagh, founder of MaxEx Public Relations LLC, which specializes in PR for high-end restaurants in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Miller distills these insights into the economy:
1. Expense accounts are back. Entrepreneurs and companies have
loosened their purse strings and business entertaining is hot
again.
2. The big spending doesn't stop on the weekend. High-end
restaurants are thriving, which means consumers are feeling
good.
3. Sales of expensive wines are up. High-end consumers are willing
to spend $150 on a bottle of wine. People's eating habits
typically won't change. It's wine that's the feel-good luxury
item in good times, not the food.
4. Fighting for the check. Unlike the early 2000s, people are
feeling flush enough to pick up the check for the whole table.
That's not nothing in restaurants where a check for three
couples can easily come to $500 (before that expensive bottle of
wine).
5. Chefs are becoming owners. They're so confident in the economy
that they want their own piece of the action. Which may, of
course, mean that the cycle has gone too far!
Kavanagh, a trained chef and award-winning food and travel writer as well as a restaurant PR specialist, says, "How people respond to restaurants and the act of eating together tells you a lot about how they really feel. After 9/11, all the restaurants I spoke with said they had never been busier, because people wanted to be together, people wanted to share things. I remember a restaurateur saying to me that he never saw so many people wanting to buy so many other people drinks. At the same time, however, the corporate market went away. Big office Christmas parties? They weren't happening anymore. And those fancy dinners that you put on your corporate card and the three-martini lunches, we went through a couple years where they just weren't happening."
About MarketcomPR
MarketcomPR designs and implements communications initiatives that combine classic media outreach tools with market-oriented thought leadership vehicles to help clients communicate better with their key audiences. For more information, visit www.marketcompr.com.
For more information about MaxEx Public Relations, LLC, please contact Linda Kavanagh at Linda@maxexposure.net.