An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest... Nightclubbiz.com

You've likely read endless pages on how to promote a nightclub and most of which claiming some sort of promotion, promoter, DJ, flyer, or some other way to drive traffic into your nightclub. In fact, nightclubs invest substantial amounts of time and a ton of money into… You guessed it… Looking for the latest, greatest means to capture the publics attention, but… For how long? A night? 2-nights? A week perhaps? And what's next?… Scrambling for another promotion?

In case no ones noticed, there are some real flaws in this rational and quite frankly, it makes little sense. Here's why:

Methodology:

What exactly is the methodology behind this model? To attract people to a venue because of… Some new shiny toy of a promotion you found on a website, or yet another liquor sponsor special with free hats, shirts, and carry bags? Yet another one-off gimmick, which captures peoples attention for one night? Cheap booze perhaps? A DJ? The question here would be… What exactly is your goal? Do you have a mission objective? Where do you plan to be 6-months from now?

Still scraping the web for yet another heat of the moment novelty? Is this how you intend to accommodate the broader level objectives of brand… Identity… Core following, guest retention rates, guest return rates, and ultimately brand loyalty? Just wondering because if this is what you're claming, it goes contrary to the most basic fundamentals of business and marketing, and may be why nightclubs in general, spend the bulk of their time just trying to get people in the door, rather than their intended purpose, which is… To entertain.

What is the rational behind this methodology is exactly?

A novelty quest? To invest 80% of your resource's dreaming up new ways to fill the venue for a single night, while you spend yourself silly doing so? How does this shape your perception in the eyes of the public? What message are you sending? That we're the kings and queens of gimmickmania? Because everyone else is doing it?

What is a nightclub promotion?

Seems like question with a simple answer, right? At the risk of sounding patronizing, let's make sure we all understand what this is. First you need to ask yourself the following questions:

• What do we do?

• How do we do this better than anyone else?

• How do we beat the competition?

• What is our core concept?

At present, many nightclubs in highly competitive markets simply recycle everyone else's ideas. The same promos… The same DJ's… The same promoters, and even the same music in many cases. Hey… If my competitor is doing, then so am I! Ok well… If you're proceeding with this methodology, then how do you expect to stand out from your competition, or… Should we say copycats? If there is one thing there is no shortage of in many nightclub districts, it is "nightclub cloning". You can visit 5-venues. With the exception of minor nuances, mainly in the area of décor, they all look and sound about the same. How painfully boring…

Do you want to be competitive, or simply settle for your small slice of the pie?

There is a difference… If you observe many nightclub districts, it looks as if each nightclub simply settles for whatever it can get. They share their DJ's, promoters, ideas,, music, and even their audience. The audience is broken up into small pieces. Everyone gets their small slice. Some nights that may be a bigger slice, and on other nights smaller. In other districts it works like this: Thursday's are Tommy's night… Friday's are Dick's night… And Saturdays is Harry's night. So Tom, Dick, and Harry each get their one big night a week. Just gotta take whatever you can get, right?

If you're a real competitor, you don't settle for your small slice… You go in for the kill and you "take" the slice you want -not the slice that happens to fall on your plate. This is what skilled, seasoned players do. They don't sit there scratching their balls thinking… Um gee.. I guess this is just the way it is. No wait! I know the answer!!! I need a gimmick in here!! LOL.

So what exactly is your product?

You see… Before you can even 'consider' promotions, you actually need to have a product to promote! Seems many operators are a little challenged in understanding this basic concept. What they're actually doing is… "Promoting the promotion", or.. Making it "about the promotion", not the underlying brand. Are you understanding? A promotion is NOT a brand. It barely qualifies as entertainment 'without' "promoting an underlying brand." Consequently, this is why many nightclubs exist in a permanent state of identity crises. What are they? What is their purpose? What is their product? What trick are they going to pull out of their bag next? This odd behavior almost redefines 'inconsistency'.

The real purpose of a nightclub promotion?

Well for starters to…

• Bring your brand to the forefront

• Enlighten the market on what it is you have to offer

• Establish your unique identity

• Demonstrate to your target audience that you are NOT the same as the other 5-clubs on the block.

• Attract a unique following -possibly a following that would not otherwise so much as consider the nightclub scene, but for the fact that… You're offering something they can't get anywhere else. Something that can't be mistaken or confused with 'club boredom' 'Peter Pedantic's', or Charlie's Cheese Box down the street.

• That… When you get a taste of what WE have to offer… You won't be able to get enough of it

Sounds too good to be true!!! You mean nightclubs can actually do this?

Lighting up on the sarcasm… Yes of course they can :)

The reason why most of them do not is that the "concept engineering stage" of development is skipped, while many believe they'll head right for home base. What they really end up with is a nightclub concept constructed with Scotch Tape, thumbtacks, Elmer's Glue, and water paint. Oh hey… Throw me a bass bin, will yeah? LOL

This is similar to building a muscle car you plan to race in the quarter mile. But instead of balancing, blue printing, or putting any thought into engine design… You simply throw a bunch of parts on it. Even better, the way you plan to run 9.5 second in the quarter is with… Ah yes.. Promotional high octane racing fuel. Yeah! That'll make it go fast! HEY! I found this fuel on a website and it promised I'd win races… Even without a properly built engine!

Time for the races… When you punch that accelerator to the floor… You launch of the line… Travel about 200 feet… And your state of the art racing machine comes to a sputtering halt. It blew a gasket… The timing chain fell off… The transmission is stuck in first gear, and there are fluids spewing out everywhere.

So what shall you do now? Replace the head gasket? Throw on a new timing chain… Add more promotional high-octane fuel and try it again? You'd go broke this way and would not be winning too many races. Nope… Not until you actually put some thought into engine design. On a side note… The promotional high-octane fuel 'does' work 'if' you're putting into a well-designed engine.

Concept… THEN Promotion

If you actually invest the resources into developing an actual 'concept', you now have something to actually promote! Amazing isn't it? In this case, the promotions are engineered around your concept. And more amazingly… Your promotions are built with an 'objective' in mind, as opposed to… Fire enough random shots and maybe we'll get lucky. Your promotions have a defined purpose and it's 'all about your underlying concept'. Even better, your promotions now maintain a consistent focus, as you actually have a direction to go in and… A premise to build them on.

How to develop the promotions for your brand?

There are many promotional 'current' practices that would not work. For example, nightclub promoters (in many cases), do not make their events about your brand… Your people… Or your establishment. The entire promotion is about the promoter and the people he or she brings in. In most cases, their following is loyal to them and although they may flood into your venue tonight… Make no mistake… They are "with the promoter". In essence, it's like a party in a box. I open the box for a few hours… Break out my toys… And Let's party! Then I'm putting my toys back in the box and leaving. Bye now…

So what will you do tomorrow night? Allow another promoter to take your entire door revenue, and or cut them in on a handsome portion of the liquor sales? The question still remains… At what point does the nightclub actually benefit from this? So far, all we're observing here are 3rd party entities using someone's 2-million dollar entertainment venue as stage for their event… Their following… Their DJ's… Their benefit. How does this make an iota of business sense?

You have a couple of options:

1. Hire a promoter that is 100% dedicated to the development of ideas, approaches, and promotional concepts that are designed "specifically" for YOUR brand. You're not interested in boatloads of people that belong to someone else! You want your OWN people… Your OWN following! Why the hell did you invest several million into an entertainment venue for? To make someone else rich?

2. Assemble a dedicated in-house promotions team. Hey, why not? For the money you'd hand over to conventional promoters, you could build your own custom promotions team for a fraction of that, but best of all, the teams resources are fully dedicated to your brand. You maintain a close relationship with them and they integrate into your broader level operations structure.

This sounds like REAL work!

It is indeed and we suspect there are a number of operators who would prefer not to work that hard, but outsource as much of the product as they possibly can. That is certainly fine, but you can't whine when you're six months into it, have zero following, and are barely profitable. You need to make choices and make sure you understand full consequences of those choices and BEFORE you go into the business.

Dave H
http://nightclubbiz.com/