A Simple Recipe for Success

When Westwood Brewing Co. opened its doors early in 1996, its operators figured they had a sure thing.

After all, what could be easier than opening a brew pub next door to a campus filled with students eager to quaff pitchers of designer suds and down affordable “pub grub”?

A stone’s throw from the intersection of Wilshire and Westwood boulevards, the location near UCLA also seemed tailor-made for reaching older, upscale consumers. And after years of economic uncertainty, Westwood Village’s merchants believe the storied neighborhood is poised for a rebound.

Yet, less than two years after tapping its first keg of designer beer, Westwood Brewing has changed course. The restaurant’s owners--a group of 30 investors who pumped $1 million into the venture--found that the college crowd’s party scene was scaring away older customers.

So the beer pitchers that made it easy for older students to pour an illegal drink for an underage friend are gone, replaced by large mugs and a strict policy of checking ID.

In late July, the restaurant made a bid for older, upscale customers by augmenting its pub-style fare with sophisticated lunch and dinner menus, ranging from Creole shark ($9.99) and swordfish ($13.59) to Cabernet filet mignon ($13.99) and rotisserie pork loin chop ($10.99).

Two weeks after introducing the new lunch and dinner menus, investors directed management to shift attention to other parts of the business--including a weekend brunch and a weeknight happy hour program--that weren’t generating profits.

But Pacific Palisades-based restaurant industry consultant Raymond L. Coen recently suggested that the brew pub could make better use of its decidedly limited advertising and marketing budget by continuing to play to its strengths--the lunch and dinner segments.

“It’s a mistake to look at your weak areas first, particularly when your cash is limited,” Coen told Westwood Brewing Vice President Kent Mader. “I say start your push where you’re strongest.”

Beer is still king, judging by the gleaming brewery equipment that fills the tastefully decorated, 12,000-square-foot pub.

On a recent Wednesday night, the restaurant was moderately crowded, and not just with college kids looking to blow off steam.

In one corner, eight men and women from a nearby office were eating and drinking. A few families and couples were also dining, and the bar stools were filled mainly with well-dressed professionals and nearby residents.

“That’s the crowd we’re looking to attract,” Mader said. “We want to be the place for office workers and people who live here. Most of our customers, in fact, aren’t college students from UCLA.”

Like most small businesses, Westwood Brewing has a laundry list of jobs that need to be done--but a limited supply of funds. The investors’ money helped cover $250,000 in brewing equipment, $100,000 in restaurant improvements and $30,000 in point-of-sale equipment, among other things.

But Coen quickly noted that the restaurant is paying a hefty $20,000 in rent each month, so the challenge facing Mader and his partners is to fill empty seats with upscale diners who will eat and drink.

The lease payment makes it even harder to turn a profit on the college crowd, Coen said, because the campus population falls off significantly during vacations.

The restaurant’s owners have a limited budget for advertising and marketing, so they’re instead relying on “sweat equity.”

Some of the investors and the restaurant’s managers are trying to spread the word to office workers and nearby residents. The restaurant has sponsored some charitable events, and it is using joint-sales programs with local nonprofits to drum up business.

Richard Moore--the manager brought in to institute better accounting controls and shape up the menus--also is making sales calls on Hollywood production companies and nearby hotels.

The restaurant also has a grand plan: Mader said its owners want to “reach out to the greater L.A. population and become a household name . . . like Lawry’s or Gladstone’s.”

But Mader acknowledges that the independent restaurant is dogged by the same problem facing most stand-alone businesses: “We’re trying to do it without the expense of traditional advertising budgets.”

Is that the theme from “Mission: Impossible” sounding in the background?

Not necessarily, said Coen, a 17-year restaurant industry consultant who works with mom-and-pop operators as well as companies with $4 billion in revenue. Coen believes there are profitable niches for small companies like Westwood Brewing if they can identify and defend those markets.

“What you need to do is find out what you do best and then get people talking about it,” Coen told Mader. “If the beer is good, it should take care of itself. But the restaurant has to pull its weight.”

Coen suggested that restaurant employees involved in the marketing effort meet each week to brainstorm. When Mader suggested that the meeting take place during the weekly managerial meeting, Coen objected.

“This should be just about marketing,” he said. “It’s that important. You have to get customers talking about you.”

That means taking great care to frame exactly what you want customers to talk about. And, Coen advised, that means pruning back the new four-page menu.

“Right now I don’t know what your core is,” Coen said. “I really am getting mixed signals from this menu.

“You say you want to be as well-known as Lawry’s. Well, the next question is: How many items does Lawry’s have on its menu? Just two--and seafood is an accommodation for those who don’t want prime rib.”

Coen’s solution? Put half a dozen or so of the menu’s strongest items in a clearly defined box. That will also help the restaurant home in on its “natural” age group, which Coen pegged as the free-spending 21-to-50-year-olds.

He also suggested that the menu be trimmed of some beef dishes, which often appeal more to older diners. And he emphasized that at night, the brew pub should keep its atmosphere aimed at diners--and drinkers--over 21.

As for focusing on the slower-moving Saturday and Sunday brunch program and happy hour?

Coen says a continued focus on lunch and dinner will generate satisfied customers who will serve as the restaurant’s ambassadors--and they’ll work for free, telling friends, business associates and neighbors about it.

Of course, those emissaries will need something to talk about.

So Coen urged the restaurant’s management to trumpet changes to the menu. When fish dishes were recently added, he noted, the pub missed a marketing opportunity because the menu didn’t emphasize the fact by including the word “fresh” in big block letters.

Coen also said that when menu items are added, the restaurant should promote them with in-store marketing. His suggestion: When you add a $19.99 beef dish, make it available for a limited time at $12.99.

“That’s going to get them thinking ‘right now,’ ” Coen said. “With all the choices they have, marketing is all about being ‘front of mind’ rather than ‘back of mind.’ ”

Coen also thinks Westwood Brewing should utilize a huge upstairs meeting room for catered events.

He pushed the owners to start working on catering for the upcoming holiday season: “You should have your holiday season calendar filled by October. You have this phenomenal room, and it’s a secret to most of the area. You need to fill it.”

He also suggested that the upstairs windows be filled with bright neon signs or some other form of advertising--a necessity in Westwood, where outside signage is governed by strict ordinances.

Several days after meeting with Mader, Coen noted that many small restaurants could benefit from studying Westwood Brewing’s problems and potential.

“It’s very common to see people attacking their weakest point when they try to grow the business,” he said. “But their strength is their existing customer body.”

Statistics show that office workers eat lunch out as many as 20 times a month, Coen said, so there’s plenty of opportunity for repeat business. And, as customers are converted, he added, they will gladly spread the word.

“It’s a lot more cost-effective to spend your advertising dollars on that crowd. Especially at a single restaurant that never will have the money to do a heavy ad campaign.”

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Meet the Consultant

Raymond L. Coen is an independent industry consultant based in Pacific Palisades. His clients range from small, neighborhood restaurants to larger customers with as much as $4 billion in revenue. Before opening his own firm in 1982, Coen was executive vice president of BBDO/West, an advertising agency in Los Angeles. His client list includes Buffalo Ranch Steak Houses, Marie Callender’s, Ponderosa Steakhouses and Winchell’s Donuts. He also has worked with grocery chains, financial institutions and various retail customers.

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This Week’s Company Make-Over

Company Name: Westwood Brewing Co.

Headquarters: Westwood

Type of Business: Brew pub/restaurant that caters to the college and office crowd.

Status: Private

Owner: 30 investors.

Financing: Approximately $1 million in private investments.

Employees: 60

Start date: January, 1996.

Customers/clients: UCLA college students, office workers in nearby buildings and residents from the area. Also courting Hollywood movie studios to host premiere parties.

Main Problem

Expanding name recognition

Goal

The company hopes to rev up business in its non-peak hours and expand to a second location.

Recommendations

* Concentrate on building the restaurant’s core business at lunch and dinner.

* Improve monthly profit and loss statements to identify true profit centers.

* Concentrate marketing and advertising on the immediate neighborhood before trying to address potential customers who live a mile or more away from the restaurant.

* Make sure customers know when the menu changes by offering limited-time price reductions--say, advertising a new $19.95 beef dish for $12.95.

* Stay away from coupons that offer a second dish of equal value for free. That strategy, Coen said, will prove costly in the long run and give potential customers the wrong impression of what the brew pub has to offer.

* Round up the restaurant menu’s best items and put them in an easily identifiable box. The current menu is diverse, Coen said, but doesn’t give diners a clue about what the chef sees as the restaurant’s strongest fare.

* Shelve plans to focus limited marketing and advertising budgets on parts of the business that aren’t performing as well as expected. Concentrate manpower on the restaurant’s strongest points--which at this point are lunch and dinner.

* Put some colorful signs in the upstairs windows that, at present, are empty. That would give passers-by a better idea of what’s inside.

* Concentrate on finding more catering opportunities that would utilize a huge second-floor room that usually sits idle.