‘Menu Builder’ helps restaurants put best choices forward

A restaurant’s menu is a visual “first impression” for customers. It can be appealing to people in search of something tasty, different or familiar, or a slightly frustrating ordeal that can keep diners from coming back.

Understanding that many restaurants need help in how to design their menus – and to track results over time – is the idea behind HotOperator, a business based in Oshkosh.

Founded by Kelly and Mark Laux, HotOperator is a marketing, advertising and design business that focuses on the food-service industry, from identifying menu items to managing social media.

“HotOperator … was an opportunity to put together our three areas of expertise,” Kelly Laux said. “Those are the science of consumer technology with award-winning design and marketing knowledge in the food service business.”

The latest innovation is the “Menu Builder,” a process that aims to offer restaurant operators a way to manage their menus. It will also allow restaurant operators to monitor and increase their profits and get alerts when items are either not performing well, or to put a spotlight on items that offer a higher return in the moment.

The food business generates around $1 billion in sales per day, Laux said. The problem is that profit margins are typically small, averaging less than 4 cents for every $1 the industry takes in.

“What HotOperator has developed is a strategic pricing process that helps the restaurant operator find the sweet spot for their menu mix,” she said, a technology that sets Menu Builder apart from other programs or menu creators.

The menu matrix breaks restaurant items into four categories based on each product’s ability to generate income and its relative popularity.

The end result of the Menu Builder is that restaurants can become better known for the foods that customers like most, which means generating a higher return on investments for the operation.

HotOperator was selected as one of the semi-finalists in the Governor’s Business Plan Contest, which will culminate June 3-4 at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference in Madison. Laux said the contest has helped bring structure to the marketing plan as well as a sense of urgency and a timeline for getting Menu Builder up and running.

HotOperator and Menu Builder can help restaurant operators save money and time by offering all of their menu marketing, which includes bookends, table tents, posters and other advertising creative pieces in one place.

Menu Builder can also assist restaurant operators in better managing their food purchases, Laux said. It can help them streamline their product sales. It will also change the way they manage their marketing processes, focusing more effort and energy around the items that offer the highest connection to their brand in the marketplace.

HotOperator has published a book on menu design and engineering and contributes featured articles for Restaurant Startup & Growth magazine. HotOperator has developed menus and related items for restaurants in every state in the United States as well as the United Kingdom, Australia, Cyprus, Canada, China and Japan.

— By Morgan Paige, for WisBusiness.com . Paige is a student in the UW-Madison Department of Life Sciences Communication.