15 Best Restaurant Guerilla Marketing Ideas to Increase ROI

The restaurant business is competitive nowadays. Different marketing styles are being implemented to ensure sustainability and profitability. Guerilla marketing is one of the most effective and trendy marketing strategies. Get the best restaurant guerilla marketing ideas and lead the marketplace.

If you search the world’s most popular and profitable businesses, you will get the Restaurant business is one of them. But it is a more competitive and challenging business than other businesses.

We see most of the restaurant has quality recipes and dishes, but the customer doesn’t know about that restaurant. What to do in this crucial time to survive and cope with other profitable restaurant businesses?

My suggestion is, you should analyze and find out different marketing strategies and tactics that will work for your business for a long time. I think restaurant guerilla marketing will be a game-changer marketing strategy for your restaurant business.

For example, Coca-Cola, Burger King, and McDonald's are successful companies by use guerilla marketing strategies.

It’s a potential and workable restaurant marketing strategy, so in this competitive market, you can try these secret marketing tactics for your restaurant business. Don’t worry, in this article, I will help you to share steps by steps to guide guerilla marketing for restaurants.

Origin & Definition of Guerilla Marketing

Guerilla marketing is a term that comes from the book “Guerrilla Warfare” by Ernesto "Che" Guevara. He was the first to describe guerilla tactics in his book in 1960. But marketing expert Jay Conrad Levinson in the mid-1980s invented and applied these guerilla marketing techniques.

Guerilla marketing is the marketing tactics businesses use without promoting their brand, product, or services directly, rather than using surprise and unconventional ways usually at a low cost. These types of guerilla marketing techniques are the same as traditional marketing but a little bit different from traditional marketing.

It relies on a personal or group of people interacting with a low budget. Even sometimes, you don’t have to pay for this marketing. But when you apply this guerilla marketing technique you should follow its guidelines.

What is Restaurant Guerilla Marketing Meaning?

Guerilla marketing for restaurants is an unconventional, cost-effective, and powerful secret restaurant marketing method that is used to attract restaurant customers in different approaches.

Gorilla, Guerrilla, or Guerilla Marketing means the whole Guerilla marketing process. It’s working for most of the businesses but you should analyze depending on your business. 

In this case, Restaurant Guerilla marketing is a specific branch of marketing that refers to those guerilla marketing tactics especially working only for restaurants or food-related businesses. Basically, marketers who carry out a Restaurant guerilla campaign don’t use a lot of financial resources to promote restaurant businesses.

It is one kind of long-lasting, potential, and viral guerilla marketing strategy. This marketing system is called unconventional marketing tactics. If you do it properly for your restaurant business, you will get proven results and your customer base will increase drastically.

You Might Also Like: Step by Step Guide to Facebook Marketing for Restaurants

What are the Types of Guerilla Marketing for Food Business?

There are different types of categories for guerilla marketing for food products. I think if you follow & apply these types of restaurant guerilla marketing techniques, you will get quick results for your restaurant business. Here are the top 12 types of guerilla marketing for Restaurants.

• Viral Guerilla Marketing
• Buzz Guerilla Marketing
• Stealth Guerilla Marketing
• Ambient Guerilla Marketing
• Ambush Guerilla Marketing
• Astroturfing Guerilla Marketing
• Grassroots Guerilla Marketing
• Wild posting Guerilla Marketing
• Street Guerilla Marketing
• Pop-up retail Guerilla Marketing
• Experiential Guerilla marketing
• Projection advertising Guerilla Marketing

15 Best Restaurant Guerilla Marketing Ideas

Guerilla marketing is the low-cost Restaurant promoting tactic. And it is a great way to promote restaurants so marketers use restaurant guerilla marketing ideas for minimizing the marketing cost and maximizing the restaurant business ROI.

Restaurants are always looking for new and inventive ways to bring in customers, and guerilla marketing can be a great way to do just that.

Guerilla marketing is a type of marketing that is done outside of the traditional advertising methods. It is often creative and can be very cost-effective.

There are a number of different guerilla marketing ideas that restaurants can use to bring in more customers.

Here are the top 15 best guerilla marketing ideas for restaurants that are still working specially for the restaurant business.

1. Graffiti Artworks on Popular Places

Graffiti artwork is stylistic writing, painting, or drawing in the symbolic form of visual communication. We know people like to watch the painting and feel interested from their inner. You can use this passion for your restaurant guerilla promotion purposes.

But How? You can be branding your Restaurant business through Graffiti artwork in the most popular public places like Streets, Road Sides, Zebra crossing, Vehicles, etc. with permission of the authority.

In this way, you can seek public attention easily for your restaurant. So you can highlight your Restaurant name, tagline with special dishes through the eye-catchy Graffiti artwork. People can easily understand and be interested in your delicious foods.

It’s a long-lasting guerilla marketing idea so people can see your Restaurant’s Graffiti artwork every day. As a result, they will memorize your Restaurant Brand and know your cooking specialty. Day by day they will feel interested in your restaurant and increase your customers.

Within the next few days, you will see that your restaurant popularity spreads very soon and establish your restaurant brand strongly.

You Might Also Like: How Much Do Restaurant Owners Make? - Complete Break Down

2. Postering on Popular Places

The poster is a temporary but effective guerilla marketing process that you can use as a restaurant guerilla marketing campaign.

For that, you can design attractive and eye-catchy posters using your restaurant logo, slogan, and delicious foods. And then distribute these posters in your local’s popular public places such as Bazaar, Bus Station, etc.

You can also postering in local vehicles such as auto-rickshaws, backside, Street walls, etc. with permission of the authority.

People like to read and see an attractive graphics design, so when you postering an attractive poster about your restaurant, people like to watch and feel interested in your restaurant.

3. Hang up Banners on Popular Places

On the other hand, Banner is another great way of guerilla advertising where you can design banners and then hang them up in popular places where people can see them easily. 

A banner bearing a powerful guerilla marketing symbol, so the design must be informative and eye-catchy with a message about your restaurant business.

When you hang up attractive banners in popular places, people will see your banners regularly and then feel interested in the restaurant’s food. The banner is always long-lasting so you will get long results but you have to pay for banner places.

4. Branding your Delivery Bags, Vehicles, and Others

Branding is the best way to identify your restaurant. Your branding will reflect why your restaurant business is different from your competitors. 

It expresses your restaurant's food qualities, uniqueness, specialty, services, environment, etc. This is the best way customers recognize your restaurant. 

So you can brand your restaurant delivery Bags, Vehicles, Staff uniforms, Mugs, Plates, Decorating the restaurant, etc. everything of your restaurant. It is an effective restaurant guerilla marketing strategy so when you design your bags, vehicles, staff uniforms you should care about the business logo and colors.

When the delivery man delivers food using bags and delivery vehicles, people can see your restaurant brand, which means increasing your restaurant brand value.

When people come to your restaurant they can see your waiters who serve food wearing uniforms which means increasing your restaurant brand value, and many more.

You Might Also Like: 7 Unique Ideas to Create a Restaurant Marketing Plan That Maximize ROI

5. Arrange Local Events

Arranging local events is a low-budget guerilla marketing idea among the other local markets. It helps you to get new customers from grand opening your restaurant business.

When you open a restaurant business, debut new dishes or services, you can host a charity event, cooking competition, flash move, or arrange a big local cultural event. The performer must be wearing your restaurant branding T-shirt, Mask, and other costumes.

After the end of any performance show the restaurant banner, signboard, business cards, and others that people easily recognize your business and can remember all time.

Remember, by hosting successful guerilla marketing events for your restaurant, you will get local customers and boost your sales, and increase your restaurant brand value. These are the great benefits to your local guerilla marketing campaign.

6. Flyers Distribution

A flyer is an often printed bulk paper that is used for business advertisement and distributed directly in hand on a large scale in public places. You can take this flyer’s guerilla marketing advantages for your restaurant business.

It can produce big results for your Restaurant with a small budget. So design professional flyers and distribute them to the right places such as directly people, door to door or car to car,  shop to shop, etc., and then you will get potential customers for your restaurant.

Flyers are still working as effective guerilla marketing in restaurants. So when you design flyers you should keep in mind that flyers will be informative and eye-catchy otherwise you won’t get your expected feedback from your target audience.

7. Tasks to be Performed and Results

Make your restaurant environment quiet and always enjoyable. Because when people come to your restaurant, they will feel better and enjoy eating food. 

So you can arrange various tasks such as singing songs, playing games, dancing, etc. that if anyone wants can be performed.

You can make a High-Five place, Handshake, or use a Statue performer who will perform on behalf of your restaurant. Remember, you must design this type of guerilla marketing using your branding.

Besides, you can arrange a lottery, coupon system, lucky winner, or customer of the day.

When customers perform any of these tasks and you will announce the winner’s name and give them a surprise gift, they will be overwhelmed and show gratitude to your service. 

And then take pics or selfies with the winners and share those photos on your Restaurant’s social media page and tag the winners. They will also share this winning feeling with their community, which means your restaurant’s reputation will spread quickly.

8. Perform Viral Something in the Restaurant

Now I’m sharing with you guys trendy & viral guerilla marketing ideas for restaurants. We always see something viral happen on social media like funny, surprising, and emotional videos, images, music, memes, etc.

As a Restaurant owner,  you can perform these viral videos, music, and funny things in your restaurant that must be positive. You can also perform uncommon or creative things those people like and will be viral.

People always follow the trends so when you perform this viral something in your restaurant people always come to watch and feel good and pass the time in your restaurant and eat foods or drinks.

You Might Also Like: How Does a Restaurant POS System Work: 7 Sequential Steps!

9. Give a Special Offer On Special Day

We are feeling special on a special day. On this day, people like to move and hang out with their friends & family in the restaurant. If you promote your restaurant by following the restaurant guerilla marketing ideas you can boost sales easily.

“Convert the Special Day to Customer Day.”

For special day purposes, you can give special offers to your customers. On this day, customers have preplanned where they will hang out and which restaurant they will eat at.

Before a special day, you can write the offers on a placard with big letters in front of your restaurant. You can also make flyers, posters, and banners for upcoming events.

For instance, you can offer Buy 1 & Get 1,  50% off, 30% off, 20% off discount offers, and if possible sometimes give a full free offer to increase brand value. 

These are working and proven restaurant’s guerilla marketing tips to increase the customer base and boost sales of any restaurant from a normal day.

You Might Also Like: Most Profitable Restaurant Type To Make More Money

10. Arrange Food Competitions

Food competition is a new and trending guerilla marketing idea. If you open a brand new restaurant, it will be the best idea to arrange a food competition. People always like to take on challenges so if you arrange a food competition that would be viral guerilla marketing.

For example, You can set a specific time for 4 groups of people to eat a big plate of food within 10 to 15 minutes. Those groups of people will be winners who can eat food within a short time.

For this food competition, Design the restaurant food competition place attractive by using your competition food's Dish, Logo with using the Restaurant Punchline, etc. When the food competition starts, you can go social media live, take pics of every participant of groups, take reviews about the competition and then update on your restaurant’s social media pages.

11. QR Code Stickers Label

QR Barcode is an updated technology used for representing data in a visual in a 2D readable form. You can use this barcode system for your restaurant guerilla marketing purposes.

Now make QR barcode stickers for your restaurant and distribute them all around the city. Nowadays people are very much interested in scanning barcodes and the big deals so you can get these benefits for the restaurant.

For example, You can give a big discount offer to someone who will scan the barcode and purchase any food from your restaurant.

12. Custom Mascot Costume

Mascot costume marketing is a cost-effective great guerilla marketing idea. Mascot has been giving memorable experiences to children and adults. The child wants to have fun,  play, hug, and adults want to take pictures with the Mascot.

It’s a long-term memorable guerilla marketing strategy. You can make a custom design Mascot Costume for your restaurant and hire a Mascot performer. When you properly do Mascot guerilla marketing, you are ensuring your restaurant brand identity and food dishes.

A successful Custom Mascot Costume will be able to personify your restaurant business through a recognizable character. It can easily help you to engage your loyal customers. Now entertain your audience with a Mascot and engage them as a customer.

You Might Also Like: 5 Easiest Steps to Create a Dynamic Restaurant Website & App

13. Celebrity Endorsement for Branding

Celebrity endorsement is a more powerful restaurant guerilla marketing idea than other marketing. Because they have lots of followers who already follow their regular lifestyle. You can use the celebrity's fame or social status to promote your restaurant brand and foods.

When the celebrity promotes your restaurant’s foods, you will get instant orders from their followers. You can invite them to taste your food or hire them to eat in your restaurant and wear the branding dress code.

Go live on your social media, take videos and pics and tag them and share them on social media. You can use their pics and videos as your branding banner and poster to attract people.

14. Food Blogger Influencers

Are you looking for smart guerrilla marketing ideas for restaurants, if so, obviously, food blogger marketing is for you? It’s another cost-effective and powerful guerilla marketing tactic for your restaurant. Food blogger influencers always cover restaurants & foods related topics. 

They are one kind of micro-social influencers who have certain fans and followers. People trust them and pass their time listening to what they say, watching their food review videos, podcasts, etc.

A food blogger expert on the restaurant industry so they can generate public awareness, create a buzz for a restaurant, and can influence their fans to make decisions easily.

For your guerilla marketing for food products, you can invite or hire the local popular food bloggers to review your restaurant and foods.

For food bloggers, you can design the restaurant’s chairs, tables, and other essential equipment with your restaurant branding like name, special foods, logo tagline, etc., and request them to wear your brand dress code, show your business card, tell your address and location when they review your special dishes.

When they review, people remember your brand easily and then will get certain foods ordered from their loyal fans for your restaurant.

You Might Also Like: A Details View of Restaurant Billing Software

15. Using Automated Digital Food Ordering System

After completing above all the restaurant guerilla marketing ideas, your Restaurant gains popularity and recognition as an established restaurant brand in your local area. As a result, your customer base will increase consistently. 

In this time, you need to manage easily and smartly. How can you do it? You can use an automated digital food ordering system. You can use Bhojon, a world-class cost-effective restaurant management system.

It comes with a great benefit for both the service providers and the customers. Now the restaurant owners and the customers can save time and the service is getting more convenient.

An automated digital food ordering system assists the customers to place an order from anywhere, anytime and the foodservice providers can receive the order and deliver the desired food to the doorstep of the customers within a few moments.

You can use this food ordering system for your restaurant guerilla marketing. Now integrate QR Code Scanner System where customers can place an order without contact with you. It is the easiest & convenient way to order food. For guerilla marketing, QR Code, food order machine, etc., the design must be using your restaurant branding.

You Might Also Like: Technology in Restaurants: Top 15 Prominent Types to Leverage

Bonus Guerilla Marketing Ideas for Restaurants

However, last but not least now I think you have completed above all the guerilla marketing ideas for restaurants tips and tricks and now you’re a popular restaurant brand.

What are you to do now? You should keep your restaurant brand’s popularity. How? Here are the top 10 restaurant customer services tips to keep your restaurant popular consistently.

1. Neat & clean restaurant environment
2. Be honest with your customers
3.  Ensure customer’s exact waiting times and try to keep them busy
4. Quick customers response and give the same priority to every customer
5. Try to give friendly and personalized food services
6. Audit and update your food menu in the customer's budget
7. Have a digital presence like Online Ordering and Reservations
8. Use up-to-date technology for better customers service
9. Implement a loyalty program
10. Encourage customers for feedback, acknowledge customer complaints and try to bring changes as customer needs.

You Might Also Like: 10 Unique Restaurant Interior Design Ideas 2024: The Key Aspects To Attract Customer

Benefits of Guerilla Marketing for Restaurants

Guerilla marketing for restaurants is a low-cost but the best result marketing strategy. Above, I have already shared with you the proven top 15 best restaurant guerilla marketing ideas & hacks. If you read step by step this full article and perform as said I think will get potential benefits those are recapping below. 

Fast Results

Are you looking for fast results marketing ideas? If so, obviously you can apply restaurant guerilla marketing tips and tricks for your food products. It’s a cost-effective restaurant marketing strategy that will give you fast results & ROI within a very short time.

Minimize Marketing Cost and Maximize Profits

Guerilla marketing minimizes your restaurant marketing cost and helps you to get potential customers that increase your restaurant sales and maximize restaurant profits. This is a long-lasting marketing strategy so you will be benefited for a long time. Most of the Restaurant brands use these restaurant guerilla marketing tactics and today they are established restaurant brands.

Increase Repeated Customer and Referrals

When will your new customer be the repeated customer? The easy answer is when you have delicious food dishes and recipes that are different from your competitor’s restaurants.

Besides, It depends on your food quality, customer service, neat and clean restaurant environment, using updated restaurant technology, marketing strategy, and many more. The existing customers will be your repeated customers when you fulfill their desires.

Remember, an existing satisfied and loyal customer will refer your restaurant to a new customer. Thus, If you maintain your restaurant’s overall service quality chain, your customer chain will increase day by day and get more repeated customers and get more referrals.

Long-Term Benefits

Guerilla marketing is not only cost-effective marketing but also gives a long time benefits. If you don’t believe you can compare restaurant guerilla marketing with other marketing strategies you will get the answer.

A long-term restaurant marketing plan will be a comprehensive marketing plan that defines restaurant goals for the future. A restaurant guerilla marketing plan can build awareness of your restaurant brand on a regular basis for the target audience.

You will see that most of the marketing results are for specific duration and cost. But if you use guerrilla marketing ideas for restaurants, you will get long-term benefits. 

When you apply any marketing strategy for your restaurant business you should follow its consistency and frequency because both come into play in creating long-term marketing benefits that boost your sales & ROI.

You Might Also Like: 15 Best Restaurant POS Systems in 2024 (In-depth Analysis)

In the End

Restaurant guerilla marketing is a well-known cost-effective marketing strategy from popular restaurant brands.

 It’s one of the low-budget long-term marketing strategies so if you want you can choose my article for the best restaurant guerilla marketing ideas for your food product business.

Remember, before running a guerilla marketing advertising campaign you need to know what to do, why to do it, where to do it, and what you want from it. Make a marketing plan, study its law with rules and regulations, take the authority’s permission, and more.

In this article, I share my personal proven experience on restaurant guerilla marketing and still having good results. I strongly believe that you will benefit from this guerilla marketing.

FAQ’s

What kind of marketing is guerilla marketing?

Guerilla marketing is a type of marketing that uses unconventional methods to promote a product or service. These methods can be anything from street stunts to social campaigns. Guerilla marketing is often less expensive than traditional marketing methods, and it can be more effective in reaching a target audience.

Is guerilla marketing effective?

Guerilla marketing can be very effective, but it depends on how well it's executed. Guerilla marketing is all about getting creative and thinking outside the box to reach your target audience in a unique and memorable way. If you can come up with a clever campaign that catches people's attention, you can generate a lot of buzz and awareness for your brand or product. However, if your tactics are clumsy or obvious, they will likely fall flat and have the opposite effect.

Is guerilla marketing expensive?

Guerilla marketing can be expensive if you hire a marketing firm to do it for you, but there are also many free or low-cost options available. You can create a guerrilla marketing campaign yourself by using low-cost or free tools like social media, email marketing, or print materials and restaurant SMS options to get your customers back on track.".

Why guerilla marketing is the best?

Guerilla marketing is the best because it is creative, inexpensive, and effective. It can be used to reach a large audience quickly, and it often generates a lot of buzz.

What are guerilla marketing examples?

Guerilla marketing is a form of marketing that uses unconventional tactics to get attention. Some common examples include using street teams to hand out flyers, using guerilla advertising tactics, and using social media to create viral campaigns.

What is the difference between guerilla marketing and digital marketing?

Guerilla marketing is a form of marketing that uses unconventional methods to promote a product or service. These methods can include stunts flyer marketing, banner, and poster, guerilla advertising, etc. 

On the other hand, Digital marketing is the use of digital channels to promote a product or service. This includes the use of websites, social media, email, and digital advertising.

Is Guerilla Marketing Illegal or Legal?

Every marketing has a few restrictions, rules, and regulations. If you apply guerilla marketing tactics for your restaurant business, you should follow its rules and regulations. Last few years ago, Coca-Cola was fined for illegal graffiti guerilla marketing.

Why was Coca-Cola fine for Guerilla Marketing? Coca-Cola was fined because of graffiti on historic places without permission of the authority.

So if you take the authority's permission and maintain local law with rules and regulations, I think guerilla marketing will always be legal. If you don’t know the local advertising law, you can hire a lawyer.

Remember, the purpose of restaurant guerilla marketing advertising must be clear-cut in order to give a misunderstood message to the audience. The message must be legitimate, polite, and informative.

Read Also

• 7 Proven Ways for Restaurant Management - Complete Breakdown
• Top 5 Tips for Restaurant Inventory Management
• Best Creative Restaurant Menu Design Ideas to Boost Up Sales
• How to Fund a Restaurant Startup with No Money