Restaurant Marketing Ideas

Restaurant Marketing vs. Menu Labeling in Pierce County

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County health: You might regret that Reuben

 

ROB CARSON; Staff writer

Last updated: April 25th, 2010 09:15 AM (PDT)

OK, so you open the menu and see the dirty details all laid out.

The Reuben sandwich you wanted has 1,730 calories and 4,490 milligrams of salt.

Do you:

A. Choose a healthier option.

B. Order the Reuben.

C. Complain to the manager for ruining your lunch.

If you’re like two-thirds of restaurant patrons in Pierce County, you go with the Reuben.

That’s what researchers at the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department found in a recent study, the results of which were published last week in the American Journal of Public Health.

The study, conducted by the Health Department’s Elizabeth Pulos and Kirsten Leng, was designed to see whether displaying nutritional information on menus changes customers’ minds about what to order.

“Obesity is a growing problem, and more and more of us are living busy lives and eating meals outside of our homes,” said Pulos, an epidemiologist and the study’s principal investigator.

“If we want to regulate our weight, it’s important to make smart decisions in restaurants.”

Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/04/25/v-printerfriendly/1162254/menu-labeling-prompts-some-to.html#ixzz0n0nxulwr

When you are finished with the article, answer me this:  How can you turn this into a restaurant marketing opportunity?

Well first of all, I think if you begin to charge by the calorie it will appear you are getting more calories per dollar than foods with lessor calories.   (Kidding!)

Does your competitor down the street have a plan to beat your Reuben sandwich with 30% less calories?  Not likely.  

Seriously.  Here is where you can take it and leapfrog everyone.

Become the official health / calorie label restaurant.  Anything about food, health, calories, salt, fat, etc.  Not just about your menu items but for all foods.  Then make an APP for it.  The APP can be both online and offline.  Plug in the food and up pops the information.  

How can anyone NOT trust a restaurant that is giving away every kind of health information to be had about food?

They must not have anything to hide!  

In other words go bigger.  Be unbelievable.  The rules will only get tougher and the staff will need to know more.

The report says that 71% say they noticed the information.  Here is the rub:  1 in 5 people say they ordered a menu item lower in calories as a result. Ths resulted in on average, entrees sold after the labeling contained about 15 fewer calories, 1.5 fewer grams of fat and 45 fewer milligrams of sodium than entrees sold before labeling.

Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/04/25/v-printerfriendly/1162254/menu-labeling-prompts-some-to.html#ixzz0n0rMdpyr

In my mind, don't meet the minimum.  Blow it away.  Call every food association in the state and let them know your new standards.  Create press releases about the radical menu change (two per month to keep the press alive) and get the stamp of approval of the official associations to use on all your media.  Benjamin Franklin would be proud as he says "Do something worth writing about.... "

It probably won't change the mind of those looking at the menu (it will for 1 of 3 though), but it will make people feel better about themselves and I would bet a few will order just a little more since the calories are fewer.