Is your marketing campaign destroying the environment

According to the National Restaurant Association, 62 percent of restaurant-going consumers say they are likely to choose a restaurant based on its environmental friendliness. This metric has not been lost on the restaurant industry; nearly one-third of restaurant operators are planning to allocate a larger part of their budget to environmental efforts this year. Restaurants are taking all kinds of measures to be greener—from changing out light bulbs, swapping out Styrofoam takeout containers to using wind power and water-conserving faucets. And now is the time for restaurant marketing strategies to receive a green makeover too.

 The environmental impact of traditional marketing channels is substantial.

 o According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report, over seven billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gases were emitted into the Earth’s atmosphere by the US in 2006 and a significant percentage were emitted by business activities associated with print media advertising.

o Research by the Institute for Sustainable Communication reports that a single ad page run in a popular consumer magazine can represent as much as seven tons of carbon dioxide emissions when supply chain factors associated with papermaking, printing, logistics, transportation and landfill disposal or incineration of post-consumer and unsold media are taken into consideration.

o 100 million trees are used each year to produce direct mail which contributes 4 million tons of waste each year in the U.S. according to the Center for a New American Dream.

 

One of the easiest ways to begin reducing your restaurant’s impact is to start the move from traditional paper-based marketing towards other channels such as email, mobile and web search – to get your marketing message across. While the environmental impact of switching to any one these new marketing mediums has yet to be studied at length, the results are lowered consumption of natural resources and less waste to our landfills. And though email marketing may require some print, it is more targeted and those who receive restaurant offers and coupons via email can choose to print them only when they will be used.

 With online marketing, the benefits go beyond its green appeal; they also make economic sense. For example, restaurants that are using email to respond are seeing real value for their efforts. Last year alone email had an ROI of $48.56 for every dollar spent on it. And it’s no surprise why. Email connects restaurateurs with their most valuable customers and rewards them for their loyalty, increasing customer frequency, revenue and overall brand awareness. In comparison, direct mail only produced a $15.57 return and lacks the additional green benefit of email.

 Good for the environment and good for business – a winning combination!