The movement to accurately label menu items with nutrition information is gaining ground at a remarkable pace.  In 2008, the state of California, the cities of New York and Philadelphia, and two counties in Washington and Oregon passed legislation requiring restaurants to provide nutrition information to their customers.  20 more cities, counties, and states currently have similar laws on their dockets.

Studies have shown that 75% of consumers favor mandatory menu labeling in food service establishments.  Consumers are already familiar with nutrition labeling since it became standard on food products, and most want the same information when they dine out.

Critics cite the cost of analyzing menu items for their nutritional content as being prohibitively expensive for most small and mid-size food service businesses.  They also say menu variety will disappear because once a recipe is analyzed for its content, it cannot be changed even slightly since this will alter nutrition information.

However, the National Restaurant Association (NRA) supports menu labeling legislation, but has chosen to lobby for a national bill that will preempt the growing patchwork of local and state laws regulating menu labeling and set a single national standard for menu labeling.

The Labeling Education and Nutrition (LEAN) Act was introduced in 2008 and sets a national standard for restaurant menu labeling.  It is supported by the NRA and the Coalition for Responsible Nutrition Information (CRNI), an NRA-led advocacy group.  LEAN is currently in front of Congress and awaits a vote.

As restaurants in places like California begin the process of evaluating their menu nutrition information, a new industry has sprung up around nutrition.  One of those companies is MenuCalc, a San Francisco based organization that has compiled a huge database of laboratory analyses of common food ingredients.

Restaurateurs can use this information, which is accessible through the web, to create their own menu nutrition data.  No matter what, menu labeling is probably a trend in the food service industry that is beyond the point of no return.  It’s likely that in 10 years nutrition information will be as common on menus as Nutrition Facts labels are on food products today, and that leaves restaurateurs two choices:

Analyze and post nutrition information for their menu items today, or put it off for tomorrow.

Think of your restaurant as a 5 gallon bucket.  Every day you fill that bucket with customers.  Sometimes there’s a steady flow, sometimes it’s just a trickle, and sometimes it seems like a flood.  No matter what kind of day it is, every customer flowing through your doors grades their experience and makes a decision on whether to come back or not.

The fewer holes you have in your bucket, the more customers you retain, and the more likely your bucket is to be full on a daily basis.  After all, you don’t need much of a flow into your bucket if it’s already over half full.  The Restaurant Marketing Group recently released their annual Leaky Bucket Report, which studies in-depth the most common holes in the major restaurant brands around the nation.

The trends in this year’s report probably won’t surprise you, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some lessons here to take to heart.  According to the Leaky Bucket Report, 36% of respondents to the survey cited price and value as a reason for not returning to a restaurant.  That’s an 11% increase in a single year.

Customers are looking for value.  That means good food a great prices.  Fine dining has been getting killed in the current economic climate.  In fact, anybody who is viewed as too expensive is headed for disaster (think Starbucks).  Undoubtedly you have seen national chains like Applebee’s roll out prix fixe dinner menus and other deals on traditionally pricey food (like steaks) at cut-rate prices.

Quality service rose 10% to 23% as a reason for restaurants to leak customers.  The most interesting thing about the 2009 report is that location declined 7%, the first time a restaurant’s proximity was less important to customers in years.  It appears that customers are saying “Give me a good price and great service and I will travel a few extra miles for it.”

The good news is price and service are two things a restaurant can control, as opposed to location, which most cannot.  These are truly trying times for anyone in the restaurant industry, but it appears that those who chose to focus on the basics of good restaurant management, i.e. good service, good food, and good prices, are going to be the ones who survive the downturn.

In the end, the causes for leaks in your bucket are always the same; the only difference is that in times of growth, the stream of customers into the bucket masks the leaks.  When that stream fades to a trickle, it’s what you’ve managed to save in the bucket that will get you through.

One should note that an effective logo conveys a message, a simple statement, one that clients, consumers and customers can identify with that speaks of trust, integrity, value, caring, quality and service. A picture is worth 1,000 words and thus, the right picture (logo) says so much in such a small space. It imprints in the minds of those that see it.

Many companies do not live up to their purported marketing, brand or logo, but those that do, will rule the day. A good logo is worth its weight in gold if the company will follow thru on the message. Companies as well as entrepreneurs should understand this and never cut costs on the development of their brand or logo.

Let me ask you a question here, and mind you this comes from a Franchise Company Founder; if the wrong logo can cost you millions in sales, and you are investing huge sums of capital in starting your company, why wouldn’t that your brand and logo done right not be worth the same?

Corporations spend millions re-doing their brands when the time comes to upgrade, the costs to change out signs, stationary, and re-brand are too huge to contemplate sometimes. And so another question I ask is if it costs millions to re-brand, well why not get it right the first time, build your brand and goodwill and make it count out of the gate?

Now, I realize many that are reading this article are coming from a small business perspective, but if you plan on building your company big someday, then you must be thinking ahead at the importance of your logo and brand, it’s paramount. Think on this.

By Lance Winslow of the Online Think Tank

Mid August and everyone is out and about seemingly buying fresh fruit and produce at local fruit stands, farmers markets and from road side truck farmers. Fresh equates to authentic quality and value with consumers. How about your brand are you creating fresh new authentic experiences for your customers? Who will be the first to utilize the “POP UP Store” concept to showcase new food items for their grocery store, Supermarket or Restaurant?

Some Grocery stores are showcasing a fresh food out side of the store with a “farmer roasting corn”! This is close but not a full pop up. Others in the south have peppers be roasted outside the store. Both examples provide the customers an in-depth experience that is positive prior to even entering there store.

Every food retailer show utilizes “POP UP Stores” in their communities to showcase their best known and products and introduce new products to the market. The Grocerant niche is developing new products weekly at some locations but many go unnoticed. POP UP Stores provide you and opportunity to embed your brand, products while creating unique seasonal sampling opportunities. Sampling is the best way to capture new customers. http://www.foodandbeverageunderground.com/grocerants.html

Steve Johnson is President of Foodservice Solutions in Tacoma, Washington and holds a Masters of Science in Food Marketing degree with distinction from Saint Joseph’s University, Bachelors of Arts degree from the University of San Francisco.

(Republished with permission: http://grocerants.blogspot.com/2009/08/pop-up-food.html)