MARKETING: How to Market Your Healthy Food to Attract Health Enthusiasts
With summer here, some of your guests are hunting for the elusive “beach bod.” For many, that means trying to eat clean and healthy. If you’re looking to score some points with the fitness fanatics in your area, creating and marketing your healthy food items is a great way of getting their business. Here are some tips to get in front of them.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Antarctica Sees Huge Ice Decline
This… is not good. In 2014, there was 12.78 million square kilometres of sea ice and that plunged to just 10.75 million square kilometres by 2018. Antarctica has now lost as much sea ice in four years as the Arctic has lost in the past 34 years. Even though the cause of the decline remains unknown, scientists are at a loss as to whether it will continue. Researchers cautioned about attributing the loss to climate change and they added that it is too early to tell whether the recent pattern is merely a blip or the start of a long-term trend. However, if the Thwaites Glacier collapse, it would raise sea levels by 11’, so there’s still plenty to be concerned about.
History of Portable Music
Thanks to smartphones, streaming services and wireless headphones, music is now more portable than ever. The above chart shows several milestones on the journey that started with the first Walkman in 1979 and seems to be nearly completed in 2019: the total liberation of music.
Political Tweets
Democratic primary candidates tweeted 6,650 times about the economy during the first part of 2019. Many candidates, particularly Governor Inslee of Washington, have used energy and environmental issues to distinguish themselves from the rest of the pack. It had 2,275 mentions on Twitter while Healthcare had 1,756.
WHAT PRICE FAIRNESS
Why it matters to you: Fairness is a key aspect of minimum wage, but fairness for whom?
Most state government budgets end on June 30th each year and that is a typical time for statutory policy changes. The year that just ended on Monday is no exception with 22 states and local jurisdictions increasing their minimum wage amounts. For example, several cities in California will see an increase of $1.50 an hour. State wide increases are happening in New Jersey and Oregon, too, lifting them to $10 and $11.25 per hour each. This chart shows that the average minimum wage increase across 20 states and municipalities is $0.93 cents or about 8% higher than the prior year.
If you are in one of the affected locales, then you are already aware of these increases and have organized your business to endure them. One of the key ways to combat a wage increase is to raise prices, but that can be a tricky choice. Regulars will certainly notice, and you may outpace your competitors if you aren’t careful. We thought a little equation might help you better navigate your efforts. Average labor costs per restaurant run between 30-35%. If you are experiencing a wage increase due to minimum wage, then you can calculate how much prices must increase to cover the cost through this simple calculation: Cost of Labor % Increase X Current Cost of Labor % = % Price Increase. This will give you the exact amount of a price increase necessary to offset the labor cost increase.
Using the average increase of 8%, your ideal price change will be about 2.5%. So, if your chicken wings are $12, you would only need to add $0.30 cents. You can even inform guests as to why you increased prices and what values. They too know that labor went up and will be more understanding than you may assume. Just don’t make it sound like you’re blaming your workers – that never goes over well. Either way, only you can decide whether to endure the cost growth or grow pricing to keep pace.
[Source: Restaurant Business Online]
IT’S A GAS, GAS, GAS
Why it matters to you: Gas and food are inextricably linked and one is on the rise for sure this summer.
Speaking of rising prices, looks like the price of gas is on the rise again this summer. Bolstered by an increase of new taxes, national fuel prices have increased over the past few weeks in anticipation of the summer driving season. This is, of course, relevant to you because gas price increases can cut into other additional household spending. The good news this year appears to be that we have largely avoided the direct connection between gas prices and additional spending money for consumers. In fact, we can look back to 2011-2014 as years when gas prices did have a direct impact on sales in your restaurants. During that stretch, prices averaged $3.61 per gallon, or almost a dollar more than this summer’s projected price.
Our industry is invariably victimized by any tension on consumer discretionary spending, but that only happens when there is a significant increase in fuel cost. While you may not think of yourself as being connected to the world economy, there is no denying that instability across the globe can impact your business. For example, with tensions rising in the Middle East and Venezuela, our biggest oil trading partner, it’s not hard to envision a steep increase in pricing if things in either geolocation going sideways. Consequently, keep your eyes open, if something dramatic transpires to stay ahead of the effect of increased fuel prices on your traffic this summer.
[Source: National Restaurant Association]
