Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 15, 1993 TAG: 9309150053
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"It introduces more people into restaurants. Staff members make extra gratuities and it drives extra income," said the founder of the International Dining Club Ltd.
He certainly seems to be having fun, except that he had to leave Wilmington, N.C., ahead of schedule recently because of Hurricane Emily.
He said the business, which he started in 1971, is more focused in the South because that's where he likes to travel. That also explains his operations in Lakeland-Winter Haven and Sarasota, Fla.; Charleston, S.C.; and Savannah, Ga.
Morgan might not have opened in Roanoke five months ago if he hadn't spent some time here when he came to see the University of Miami, which he attended, play Virginia Tech. He said he'd been here 15 years ago and didn't think the city then was "mature enough, restaurant-wise" for his program.
Here's the way the dining club works:
A member pays $40 for a year's membership. Members can get two dinner entrees for the price of one, 12 times a year at selected restaurants. Visits can be made to any participating restaurant; in the Roanoke Valley there are 22.
Restaurants participate on the theory that they will get more business from dining club members and that the advertising Morgan runs for the club will bring them new customers, as well.
"Businesses agree to offer the buy-one, get-one entree, and we agree to advertise and promote restaurants to bring more customers into the front door," Morgan said.
Obviously, he said, the restaurants hope customers will order more than entrees - high-profit things like wine, cocktails and dessert, for instance.
Morgan makes his money from the membership fees.
He pays a staff of 10 and is responsible for the advertising costs, which is one reason he has decided to specialize in small to midsize cities. Advertising costs are lower in less-populated areas than in markets such as Boston and Washington, where he used to have clubs.
He said he has about 1,000 restaurants signed up for his program, most of them independents and many he has checked out personally.
He said he eats out five to six nights a week; the average person who joins his clubs eats out six to 12 times a year.
No club would make money on Morgan.
\ Sears Merchandise Group, the unit of Chicago-based Sears, Roebuck and Co. that operates the retail stores, said Tuesday it will spend $40 million on advertising to woo customers to a Sears store to see its women's apparel selection, a line the company says is "expanded" and "affordable."
The campaign, which has a theme of "softer side," was developed by Young & Rubicam, a New York ad agency, and is targeted at female customers 25 to 54 who have an average household income of $25,000 to $60,000, and who usually work.
Ads will premiere Sunday on the 45th Annual Prime Time Emmy Awards Presentation on ABC-TV. There also will be ads in Sunday magazines of major newspapers and in a number of magazines.
"We want to tell American women that we have upgraded our apparel assortments and that we have what they are looking for," said Arthur C. Martinez, chairman and chief executive officer of Sears. "We want the campaign to disarm the skeptics and pleasantly surprise our customers."
The ads will mix the company's "hard line" merchandise with its soft items. For example, one print ad begins by picturing a Sears battery and the words, "I came in for a DieHard." It continues: "and I left with something drop dead." The words are attributed to a model in an alluring black evening dress sold by Sears.
He said the apparel ad campaign is only one of several things the company is doing to spark business.
Others include a $4 billion, five-year store renovation program; the acceptance of VISA, MasterCard and American Express at Sears; new customer-service programs; and new pricing strategies made possible by cutting expenses.
by CNB