Eco Positioning

This post focuses on developing an environmental positioning, through a response to a brief from a fictitious mid-market family-orientated seafood restaurant chain, called Fishy Friends:

Background:

• Customers are increasingly asking about the origin of the fish / seafood.
• The staff cannot answer these questions
• The restaurant managers claim it is only expats concerned about food safety
• Market research (including customer feedback forms) indicates that customers across all nationality, ethnic and income groups are interested in this information, with the presence of children aged 7-12 the main driver. This is the core target market for the chain.

Further, the interest in the origin of the seafood is centered on “sustainable” fishing. This may be linked to environmental education in primary schools, which is currently focused on this subject. The restaurant chain wants to leverage this for long-term competitive advantage.

The chain already has a policy of buying certified sustainably caught / farmed fish / seafood, if the price difference is 20% or less. If this policy were made absolute, and one (infrequently ordered) menu item dropped, the increase in total costs would be less than 3%, and diners indicate that they would pay a 5-10% premium if they knew this to be the case.

Recommendation:

The chain should adopt and highlight this policy on the menu, around the restaurant and in communication.

Creating activity for children based on this information (e.g.: colouring in a printed picture related to sustainable fish-farming), would add “sustainability” to the current “family fun” positioning, without conflict. This could be made it a competition, linked to a relevant NGO. Different competitions could be run every quarter, so there is always activity. Adding / renaming a menu item to highlight this, and donating S$1.00 to the NGO each time the item is ordered (in return for their endorsement) would add some credibility.

You (or your client) may not run a restaurant, but you can see the process.

The consumer is waiting: will you rise to the challenge?

First published in AdAsia Magazine. Reproduced with permission.