Menu balance
How to spread prices between cheap, medium and expensive items, and how to display them.
Omnes' four rules
- Price proportionality: the most expensive item costs up to 2 or 3 times the cheapest. A business can't be expensive and cheap at the same time.
- Item proportionality: the medium price zone has as many items as the cheap and expensive zones combined.
- Fit between offered and demanded prices: the average ticket must be within ±10% of the average menu price.
- Fit with the customer's budget: the daily special goes in the medium price zone.
Price or product strategy
If you compete on price, list prices in a column on the right of the menu: customers focus on the price.
If you compete on product, place the price as close as possible to the dish description: it has less psychological impact.
Formulas to practice
Omnes' rules
Check whether your menu prices are well spread between cheap, medium and expensive.
Pricing coefficient and selling price
The theoretical price of each product: cost × coefficient, plus taxes and fees.