Monday, January 5, 2009

Step 3: The Poll

So, with a name and a logo we could start getting the word out about the Tobacco Road Sports Café concept. We started this blog and also sent an email campaign to the Amra’s email subscriber list asking them if they’d like to opt-in to a Tobacco Road email list. Over 300 people opted in right away.

At this point construction was already underway and the guys brought up the possibility of making the restaurant non-smoking. It is certainly a risky move in tobacco country. So, we decided to post a poll on our blog and we sent an email to the 300+ Tobacco Road email list subscribers. We left the poll open for a few weeks and the results were clear. Over 80% voted for non-smoking in both the bar and main dining room.

I saw a commenter on another blog suggest that the poll was rigged. While I understand that consumers can be a bit jaded, the suggestion is ridiculous and insulting, to be quite honest. If anything, we were leaning towards smoking because it certainly is the “safer” option.
In conclusion, we are happy that Tobacco Road is a place where our guests and employees can enjoy a smoke-free atmosphere.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm really glad that Tobacco Road decided to do the healthy thing for their customers and go smoke-free. As a result, I've heard from quite a few people that TR will be the only place to watch any and all sports.

As anyone who travels knows, being smoke-free certainly doesn't hurt business in bars or clubs in other states. Now if the state legislature will just do the right thing...