Hi-tech methods in the Bar Business

A certain other straight-focused board which I occasionally peruse* had a very interesting thread recently.

It was on some high tech statistics-based marketing methods a straight establishment used. I have the feeling that the author of the thread was trying to stir something by letting commercial secrets out of the bag - the thread was fairly promptly locked and the poster banned- the Moderators made reference to a private dispute.

Anyway, it was an interesting read. Here are some excerpts, (I have edited out the name of the establishment).

Here is a policy they had that might be of relevance to a massage place:

"Our "Honest Pictures" policy for example- no retouching. Take any bar website with a few dozen professionally shot, Photoshopped pictures. Then swap it out with a few dozen raw pictures. First thing that will happen is your sales will plummet. Believe it or not, good pictures sell better than bad:-) The fun bit- is how do you determine what a "good" picture is?

Answer: Metrics.

Each and every lady at the in the establishment had several dozen photos taken of her. Different angles, locations, expressions. Both the views/clicks, and number of bookings that each seperate photo produced for that lady were tracked. The poor performing images were dropped, if none performed satisfactorily, more were shot and tested. So, at the end of a month or two, the lady was left with a set of photos that had a quantifiable, proven ability to produce two to three times more income for her than even Photoshopped pictures could deliver. From this we not only could process new "random" pictures, into high conversion sales tools, but determine the optimal pose, depth of field and histogram profile so that future profile pictures were less "random" and possessed qualities known to convert, even before they underwent testing. All this because "looks nice" does not mean "sells well". Metrics is about tracking results- not opinions."


And this is what the business did to try and increase the amount of passers-by going into the premises:

"Have two staff, the "Hello Welcome" girls, or even a couple of beggars watch the front of your bar. One tally is for each person that walks by, the other is for each person than walks in. Then, have the ladies say what they normally say to each potential client walking by. The ratio of customers that walk in, to those that walk by is your Conversion Ratio. That's it- congratulations- you now have metrics:-)

The next day, have all the ladies try saying something else- for my little bet we found that there were at least half a dozen hooks that converted at double or more of "Hello Welcome". It was close, but with the short period of data we had, it *looked* like saying "Hello Welcome" actually converted a few percentage points WORSE than saying nothing at all. Regardless, the result of testing several variations was a 20% increase in the bar's gross- with hand tallies and verbal hooks only. Unfortunately I lost the bet- I said 30%:-) In my defense, the ladies were very, very rough..."


Interesting that saying "Nothing at all" was a better than saying "Hello Welcome". I wonder did any of the bars in Soi Twilight think of doing a similar study by any chance?!

Anyway, as I said it was an interesting read. The author had promised more sections on "HR Policy" and "Social Capital" (No less!) but unfortunately as the poster has been banned from the site I guess we will not be seeing them.

When I read it the piece first thought was that I doubted whether many of the gay business in Thailand would have done anything as "scientific" as this, with so many of the business being owned by older gents and hobbyists. But perhaps I am wrong? :dontknow:

Are there any existing or retired bar owners who want to share any statistical or metrics based policies they tried to attempt to grow their business?

Anybody want to suggest any practices the gay bar and massage owners could try?



*PattayaAddicts, for the really curious amongst you

Sixty years ago when I did my first sales course in retail, we practiced greeting customers with Good morning Madam your lipstick is smudged" We then had to try that for a week and report back.

The aim of the lesson was to demonstrate that in almost all cases, the customer is not listening to your greeting or is silently going over what they want to ask. In most cases they will say thanks regardless of what you say and then ask-------. In some cases especially women they will get flustered if you break their thoughts and they could walk out. We were taught to greet with a smile and to say nothing.

I can quite understand that saying something to a customer on the street might actually prevent them from coming in the door. The research quoted above suggested that the important thing was what was said, but I reckon that how it is said is at least equally important.

As I walk through Sunnee Plaza, for instance, I'm might be tempted into a beer bar. But if - as is often the case - there is quite a camp boy verbally urging me to come in, I will usually pass on by as in doing so he will have destroyed my fantasy that his place might be one where the more masculine type of boys hang out. If the greeter had said nothing, I might have tried the place!

[On the other hand, of course, pace the original poster's supposition, maybe the Sunnee bar owners have actually done some business research and discovered that most visitors to Sunnee Plaza come looking for femme boys and so would actually be attracted inside by my hypothetical greeter!]

I refuse to go into a bar when manhandled by a DOORMAN. There are several doormen in Sunee that are agressive, so I avoid their bars.When I go to soi 1 Pattayaland the same things applies as well as Sunee.

Treat me with respect. dont touch me.Let me make up my own mind about a drink or if any boy is interesting. I dont need a dyke or a boy without a cock to tell me who I want to take home.

If I am enjoying the view dont push me or I will leave. I know things are tough and they are for all of us. But I am a grown man that likes to make up his own mind in his own time.