Menu Boards Make it Easier to Order Better
Restaurant chains like Tropical Smoothie Cafe and Einstein Bros. Bagels are using their menu boards to tell their nutritional story without overwhelming customers with information.
By Margaret Littman, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 9/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
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ropical Smoothie Café is using new menu boards and in-store materials to highlight its Splendid Smoothie line as a low-calorie alternative. |
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| Einstein Bros. Bagels is promoting its new 400-calorie menu items in-store. |
Destin, Fla.-based Tropical Smoothie Café uses the tagline “Eat Better, Feel Better” in its promotional materials. But until recently few customers thought of the smoothie stop as somewhere to “eat.” This summer, the restaurant chain introduced a new master menu, repositioning its green-tea smoothies separate from the coffee smoothies, and unveiling new food items, including sandwiches and flatbreads, and reformulated low-calorie smoothies.
Part of that overhaul includes new menu boards sporting an icon (in the shape of a cartoon bubble) highlighting low-calorie items. The 280-unit chain is one of a number that are making use of their most obvious marketing tool, menu boards, to market more-healthful choices.
“Customers say the new menu is so easy to navigate,” says Barbara Valentino, Tropical Smoothie vice president of marketing and communications. “We have seen that sales increase on whatever images we put up there. People eat with their eyes.”
In the past, Tropical Smoothie had observed customers making their own modifications to menu items, and it wanted its smoothies to be the highest quality possible. So it retooled the low-cal options to replicate the full-calorie taste. The no-calorie sweetener it uses has a sugar quality similar to turbinado (the sweetener in the chain's smoothies), blends well and lets the chain feel comfortable marketing the low-cal coolers, Valentino says.
Lakewood, Colo.-based restaurant chain Einstein Bros. Bagels took a similar approach when it wanted to create “a healthier alternative to fast food,” says Susan Wong, director of marketing. With the help of an in-house nutritionist, 327-unit Einstein developed breakfast and lunch entrees, such as a whole-wheat tortilla with ancho chicken, with less than 400 calories each. The calorie count assumed an average 1,200 calorie intake, so each meal is one-third of the total.
This Lighter Fare has a special menu-board panel, as well as window boards, and is supported by e-mail and Web-site messages.
MORE:
WaBa Grill Teriyaki House launched a mobile text-messaging campaigndesigned to entice customers at just the moment they are making lunchtime dining decisions.
Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes gave away packets of tomato seeds this summer to emphasize how fresh and unprocessed its ingredients are.
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