Are You Customizing Your Cooking Demonstrations for Your Guests?

[shanpaul]

I'm wondering if anyone takes a quick survey of your guests before starting to cook/demo, and then majorly changes what you do & say depending on their answers. For example, if you end up with a bunch of "foodies" do you talk or demo dramatically differently than if you have a group of people who want in & out of the kitchen as quickly as possible? Or do you have the same spiel regardless of the guests?

I'm thinking of trying to come up with a fun survey at the beginning which would help me categorize the guests a little bit and then direct the info more directly to where the majority of the guest feel their cooking interest & skills are.

Anyone already do this?

 

[babywings76]

That's a good idea. It also helps to give you the chance to get to know the guests and making things more personalized is a way to get them to feel more connected to the show. One time I found myself on robot mode and saying a few things that I always say and then remembered that it didn't apply to most of the group. I felt kind of dumb. (It was talking about gift giving ideas for teacher gifts and such, when the people there were either young and single w/ no kids yet or older w/o kids in the house.) Oops! :blushing:

 

[millthayer]

Like the show I had a couple months ago in a retirement home and talked up our cookware as having a lifetime guarantee...when all of a sudden the ladies started laughing and I still didnt get it, cuz I too was in robot mode...Then a lady yells out, "I dont think we're too worried about the lifetime thing hon!" We all had a good laugh!!

 

[Doodlbug329]

What I do during the holiday season is ask everyone this question - "Pretend you are involved in a Holiday potluck dinner. What are you bringing?" This way people either answer that they are bringing a main dish or appetizer (these are your kitchen people), dessert (these are your bakers), drinks or were just asked to come without bringing anything (these are the ones who are not really into cooking at all, or want to be in and out ASAP), or they are the ones throwing the party (these are the entertainers - really interested in Simple Additions). You can tweak it to fit any season, but it works particularly well during holidays because it may be fresh in their mind as something that just happened!!

 

[raebates]

A little, but not a lot. I usually talk with my host about what kind of crowd she/he's expecting. I chat with people as they arrive. This allows me to personalize some of what I say--like pointing out good new parent items to the new mom or dad.

 

[lesliec]

I usually ask my host what her friends will be expecting. I do definitely tweak my show based on their involvement and what I read from them, but I don't necessarily survey them all.

 

[lesliec]

I did do something different at a show a couple of weeks ago..... It is a group of nurses and I have had a couple of shows with this group. Instead of having them introduce themselves and tell their favorite product, I had them tell us how they had used what they bought at the last show and what they liked about it. It went really well, and I think really helped to boost sales.