Consumers Are Eating Up Green Cuisine
July 4th, 2009 by Carolyn Parrs & Irv Weinberg , Mind Over Markets
photo credit: ellievanhoutte
A recent study by the Food Action Group found that 70% of consumers polled would be more inclined to visit green or organic restaurants regardless of price, up from 37 percent in 2007. And while the search engine Google returned 1,467 results for the phrase “green restaurant” in 2006, today a search on that phrase returned nearly 79 million results. That proves the growing appetite America is developing for better, safer and healthier food.
For any out there who think that green is a passing fad it’s time to put that old thinking to bed. Green is growing in leaps and bounds. And it’s not just to save the planet. One more e-coli scare, one more hamburger meat recall, one more peanut butter fiasco, one more incident where even that staple of American food happiness, the Toll House cookie, becomes suspect, and you can see why consumers are turning green every chance they get.
Help accelerate that shift by telling your customers the benefits of green cuisine. It’s not a hard story to tell if you think about it a bit. Doesn’t a tomato raised on a family farm have more appetite appeal than one grown on a factory farm? Don’t eggs laid by free range organic chickens sound more appetizing than eggs laid by an imprisoned chicken juiced up on chemicals and hormones? Doesn’t broccoli that comes from your neighborhood Farmers Market sound way more delicious than broccoli trucked in from 1,600 miles away (that’s how far the average store-bought veggie travels to your plate)? Marketers, those are gems waiting for you to uncover.
When you strip everything aside, marketing and advertising are really a sound foundation of facts and information waiting to be told well. More than anything, remember that people do not eat pizza to save the planet. They eat it to enjoy it, because they love the taste of it and because it’s a sensory delight. And a story of better, tastier and healthier ingredients should net out as a story of better taste and more enjoyment.
We really are at critical mass right now. The thought of conventional and industrial grown food and all the little surprises that can come along with it are enough to turn America’s stomachs and turn their purchase patterns to a better way of eating and living. And that’s a very appetizing fact and marketing tidbit for all of us to chew on.
Got a tasty tidbit you want to share?
