Catering businesses order Palm menus via web-to-print application

Pubs are, more than wholesalers and liquor traders, a capital market for Palm Breweries. Strengthening its brand position and stimulating impulse purchases in the catering business are essential aspects of the brewer’s marketing strategy. 3Plus developed a tailor-made web-to-print application for Palm which allows pub and restaurant owners to create and order their own menus.

In order to promote the sale of Palm and other beers like Rodenbach, Steenbrugge, Brugge Tripel and Bock in restaurants and pubs, Palm offers menus to its catering customers with a focus on their own beers. Restaurant and pub owners can personalise their menus, enter their own sales prices, place flexible orders and get it delivered quickly by means of a web-to-print application.

Product Focus

This method allows Palm to communicate efficiently. By means of menu templates the own products are put in the foreground. The system is very flexible, while Palm Breweries keeps control. All in all, both Palm employees and pub and restaurant owners work quicker and more correctly.

Menus used to be designed individually by staff of the Palm Breweries sales department. The old method required a lot of follow-up. The person in charge of developing the menus had to get the price list and pictures such as logo, photos and illustrations from the catering business in question. Moreover, account was taken of the house style and the fonts of every pub and/or restaurant.

Entering and editing information online

3Plus contacted Palm and delivered a web-to-print application which allowed catering businesses to develop their menus online. Pub or restaurant owners log in with a username and password to palm.printlab.be and the business’s details are displayed. If necessary, the address, opening hours and delivery information can be adjusted. Menus come as an A5 booklet, an A4 booklet or a triptych. The user enters an introductory text and prices and uploads the logo.

In order to smoothly create the menus a database of frequently consumed beverages is available. The owner selects the beverages he sells, adds products which are not in the database, and by entering a serial number he can still change the order of the products afterwards. The Palm beers are displayed in the same order and in the same way: with a picture, a bit of explanation and at the agreed price. Palm beers are always graphically put in the spotlights.

Before printing the owner gets to see a preview, makes certain layout and font choices and then orders the number of menus of his choice. If Palm Breweries approves the order, 3Plus ensures the delivery of the menus a few days later. They also contain some Palm beer ads which appear on the price list.

Much faster and more correct

Palm staff no longer needs to gather all the information for a menu. They are no longer in charge of the data input or the layout and now have a monitoring function. The pub and restaurant owners, on the other hand, can select a large part of the products in the database. When they have entered their menu for the first time, it will be saved. Next time, they will only have to make adjustments and the new version will be available very soon.

Palm Breweries is now sure that its products get the attention they deserve, that brands are spelled correctly and that the beers are sold at the agreed price. Palm can also impose certain restrictions, for example about the format of the menu and the number of copies ordered.

Action-oriented

This method is excellent for promotions and other actions. The Palm representatives can for instance inform the catering businesses at the coast about a “seaside action”. The owners will get a username and password to order the action menus. Palm decides how many menus are delivered and provides the menus with adequate promotional content.