When you peel back the layers of the term “cause marketing,” the core of the message stands for “to do good, by doing good,” for partnering organizations that share in a mutually beneficial goal.

Tim Hortons annual $1 Smile Cookie Campaign in one week raised more than $9.2 million for over 550 charities, hospitals, and community programs across Canada in 2019 alone. THAT’S AMAZING! Through cause marketing partnerships, Tim Hortons has benefited from national media coverage, increased brand buzz, a unique competitive advantage, and the valuable brand loyalty of consumers and even more so, communities.

If the cause marketing partnership makes sense, is communicated effectively, and aligns with guests’ values, the benefits for a restaurant brand — whether big or small — can be enormous.

There are currently more than 170,000 charitable and nonprofit organizations in Canada. So how do you choose the right cause for your brand?

Identify the “why” — your purpose and goal for cause marketing

Are you looking for effective environmentally friendly ways to reduce food waste? Is there a spike in child hunger in your community? Has there been a natural disaster that has damaged a school you want to help rebuild? Your “why” will begin narrowing your search.

Start local

A report from the US shared that 43 per cent of consumers want to see a company’s charitable efforts influence their local community, a fact that is not surprising and is ideal for independent restaurant operators who want to raise their profile at home. Larger franchised operations have the resources to focus more of their energies on national and local causes for a more dramatic impact.

Go for guest support

In an era where social responsibility is top of mind, especially with the Millennial generation, which is likely to choose one brand over another based upon their efforts, understanding what your guests care about is critical to your cause marketing effectiveness. A restaurant customers survey from Statistica revealed the top five types of charities guests would like to see restaurants support:

• Those that fight hunger (48% of survey respondents)
• Those that help poor families (41%)
• Those that help children (28%)
• Short-term disaster relief (28%)
• Those that fight diseases (26%)

Gain guests’ feedback before making your final decision. Get going on the GOOD!

“buy one, give one”

Here are a few impactful ways restaurant brands can get involved:

Food and meal donations

Mealshare partners with restaurants, using the “buy one, give one” model. Partnering restaurants place a Mealshare logo on specific menu items, and when those items are ordered, Mealshare will provide one meal to a youth in need in the local community through their charity partners. As of August 2020, Mealshare had served 3,711,158 meals.

• Equipment and supply donations
• Hosting fundraising events
• Team volunteering in the community
• Environmental and waste reduction operational improvements

In January 2019, “The Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste” report shared shocking Canadian food stats. Unbelievably, 58 per cent of all food produced in Canada — 35.5 million tonnes — is lost or wasted, and a third of that wasted food could be “rescued” and sent to communities in need across the country.

Make cause marketing work for your brand, by following these quick tips:

Focus on one partnership at a time. Benefits:

• ONE clear goal
• ONE clear message
• Simpler for training
• More impactful communication

Select a less busy time of the year to launch the partnership program. Benefits:

• Staff can prioritize supporting the goal
• Less disruptive for operations
• Your bottom line will benefit from a lift in sales

Utilize every communication channel you’ve got from social media, brand website, billfolds, washroom signage, receipt printing, community groups, and local newspapers to share the goal, and spread the good.

Be sincere and transparent about the “WHY,” find the right partner for your cause, leverage your communication channels, and by doing good, the positive benefits can support building a winning, more socially-conscious restaurant brand.

To learn more, read these related articles:

• Aaron Allen & Associates Global Website Consultants
  Five Times Restaurant Chains Used Cause Marketing to Their Advantage
• restaurantmarketing.com Restaurant Market & Sales-Building Insights
  Restaurant Embracing Cause Marketing & Social Fundraising
• newswire.ca
  Tim Hortons Smile Cookie Campaign is Back – Supporting over 550 Charities Across Canada

Remember when you were daydreaming in math class, wondering when you were going to use all of this stuff again? And who would ever need 30 watermelons? Well, guess what….?

Addition

Every dime counts in this crazy industry. Are yours adding up?

“Unfortunately for the groaners, a business is all about making a profit and profit is a number,” chides David Hopkins, president of The Fifteen Group, a leading hospitality consulting agency. “Unless you have complete control over all of the numbers in your business, then you are missing out. And that isn’t just for restaurant businesses — that is for any business.”

Hopkins and his team work with new and existing restaurants to achieve maximum profitability, brand amplification, efficient operations and a strong brand presence.

“So many people in the hospitality industry don’t realize how much more profitable they could be with a little guidance,” says Hopkins.

“It’s important to keep your numbers relevant, so you know exactly how your business is doing. You can’t make the right decisions without the right information,”

David Hopkins, president of The Fifteen Group

Subtraction

Ball parking costs, using inaccurate measurements and adopting an “it’s fine” attitude can all impact the bottom line.

“It’s important to keep your numbers relevant, so you know exactly how your business is doing. You can’t make the right decisions without the right information,” says Hopkins.

Your staff need to be ready to make adjustments based on what actually happens in the kitchen, bar and front of house, and therefore need to be well trained.

Simple calculations like recipe yields can affect your entire operation — purchase amounts, labour requirements, recipe and therefore menu costing: it’s the domino effect.

Example

• Your famous recipe for mashed potatoes yields 6,250 mL or 50 x 125 mL servings. But, last night, there wasn’t any left after 45 orders of that side. Why? The ‘why’ is important to find a fix for this situation. Was the math wrong? Was the portioning wrong? If different potatoes were used, would the outcome be different?

Subtract the guess work!

Multiplication

Banks don’t accept % values. Which is why The Fifteen Group are huge advocates of Menu Margin Pricing — focusing on profitability of items and how they relate to other menu offerings as opposed to the per cent cost of the dish.

A 30% food cost — an industry standard — is an easy way to track food costs. However, the devil (and the profitability) is in the number details.

Example

• The food cost of dish #1 is 25% and the food cost of dish #2 is 35%. Which would you prefer to sell? Are you sure? What if you knew that Dish #1 offered $5 profit and Dish #2 provided $10 profit? The choice is simple when put in those terms.

Multiplied over days, weeks, and months, a simple refocus significantly boosts profitability.

Division

Dividing and delegating tasks is the only way to get it all done. Your time is valuable (and likely in short supply). But every task costs money, in labour.

“Running a restaurant is extremely time-consuming and hectic,” acknowledges Hopkins. “Too many operations just do bookkeeping to get books done.“

Outsourcing

Outsourcing to a company like The Fifteen Group may allow restaurants to dedicate more of their time to honing other aspects of their business.

Do what you and your staff do best. If butchering is not a strength of your kitchen team nor important to your brand: outsource. Especially if it saves dimes to dollars and allows you to focus on strengths. But again, it comes down to knowing the numbers.

“Too many restaurants write and post schedules without having the cost of the schedule calculated (which is a number),” says Hopkins. “You are never going to maximize your profitability if you are writing staff schedules without seeing the exact cost implications of those schedules to the bottom line.”

Got your number?

“Numbers are essential to running a profitable kitchen; tracking the cost of goods sold (COGS) ensures appropriate ingredient purchasing. The proper application of math is absolutely essential to ensure you know what you need, and where you can save.“

Cost of Goods Sold = Opening Inventory + Purchases — Closing Inventory

The game is simple. Be in charge of your numbers. Keep them relevant, understand what they mean, adjust when necessary. It will all add up — profitably.

Cost of Goods Sold = Opening Inventory + Purchases — Closing Inventory

TIPS on Saving $$$ – Making $$$

• Standardize all recipes
• Use strict inventory records
• Keep accurate measurements
• Work with multi-functional ingredients
• “Every restaurant has control over strategic ingredient use and vendor selection,” says Hopkins.
• Rewrite menu adhering to menu psychology. Menu psychology is the principle that consumers have predetermined ways of scanning a menu and responding to colours, numbers and symbols. How can you use that psychology to “engineer” the menu for higher profits? 

Examples

• Strategically place specific menu items in the “golden triangle,” where eyes typically track a menu first 
• Limit categories to a maximum of seven items so as not to overwhelm
• Don’t use dollar signs $, since they remind diners they are spending money
• Reevaluate using menu margin pricing. This is a reminder to put aside just the food cost and determine the $ of profit per menu item instead. You can’t deposit %.
• Reduce portion sizes, but not flavour and taste

Working with soup bases can save you time, labour and money. Two experts share their chef tips and soup-er recipes.

A good soup base can be an immeasurable asset to the foodservice kitchen. It adds depth of flavour to dishes, can be built upon to create signature recipes and eliminates the cost of raw ingredients required to make a consistently flavourful stock. There are many advantages to using a soup base as the platform for soup innovation:

Time- and labour-saving

Making the switch from scratch recipes to “speed scratch” recipes, including those using and building on a good soup base can mean significant time and labour savings for operators. “Scratch made stocks, and sauces derived from these stocks, can take hours of skilled labour,” says Kyla Tuori, corporate chef at Unilever Food Solutions. “The cost of raw ingredients used to make a consistent flavourful stock can be a hassle, as well as the storage needed for these raw ingredients.”

Cost-saving

On the rising cost of labour across North America, Gerald Drummond, executive chef, North American Foodservice, Campbell Soup Company, says, “As minimums continue to increase, chefs and operators need to be creative in driving down costs while continuing to give customers creativity. It’s always a delicate balancing act.”

Inventory-saving

“Having a good-tasting and well-balanced base helps the operator have greater variety on the menu while not increasing their inventory,” Chef Drummond continues. “It allows for the ability to offer multiple menu items while using the same product, as well as being able to stay relevant when it comes to food trends.”

Creative

What makes a good soup base? Beyond lending great flavour and aroma to dishes, Chef Kyla says, “a good commercial base is a concentrated product meant to be diluted to mimic a scratch-made stock (yet is also) so much more, and can be used for seasoning, marinating, and enhancing other scratch-made recipes.” When it comes to which base(s) to choose, knowing what you want to achieve will help dictate what is important to look for. “Not all soup bases are created equal, or alike,” she continues. “With the variety of formats, ingredient decks, and (nutritional or special diet) claims, there is a base for every application and operator.”

Versatile

Beyond soup, many soup bases can be used in a variety of applications. Chef Gerald suggests turning a cream soup base into sauce for flatbread or pizza, alfredo sauce for pasta or using as a rich and flavourful base for chicken pot pie.

“Powder bases can be used in their raw form for seasoning dishes,” says Chef Kyla. Since these bases are often ‘salt first’ in the ingredient decks, they can add a lot of flavour where it may otherwise be lacking.

“Paste bases, due to their consistency and ‘ingredient/meat first’ ingredient decks, are great for rubs and marinades,” she adds. “They will adhere easily to the item that you are marinating and infuse it with flavours. Liquid concentrated bases can be used for seasoning dishes, marinating, glazing, and as a finishing enhancer. They are the most versatile of bases due to their consistency and flavour complexity.”

It’s time to soup up your creativity in the kitchen, as well as your profit margin, with the addition of soup bases.

When it comes to choosing oils for your kitchen, the key to increasing revenue and taste is quality and convenience, says Jeff Poulo, national sales director for Saporito Foods.

The company is a leading supplier of high quality canola, corn, sunflower and vegetable oils, imported olive and blended oils, shortenings, margarines and zero trans-fat high-performance frying oils to retail, foodservice and export markets.

“Quality and convenience are the most important factors to consider when choosing an oil to use and cook with. Whether you are cooking at home for your family, or you’re a chef in a busy restaurant cooking hundreds of meals, you want an easy to use, great tasting, high-quality oil,” says Poulo.

Oil performance and options

When it comes to High-Performance (HP) oils, Poulo says his company’s oils come at a slightly higher price point but provide better performance, which translates into better value. Specifically, HP oils last longer in the fryer, reducing cost per use and have less oil retention in food and less flavour transfer from one item to another.

Operators should be aware that olive oil has been affected by crop disease and production losses over the past two seasons, significantly reducing supply and causing a substantial increase in price. This has “led to an influx of poor quality, expensive, misrepresented products,” says Poulo. He advises operators to ask their suppliers how this has impacted their products.

Saporito Foods has a stringent quality control protocol in place with its European vendors to ensure the highest quality olive oil is delivered each and every time.

Here are some tips to help you get the best value and flavour from your oil:

Don’t be fooled by the lowest-cost options:

There are a variety of choices in the marketplace, ranging from regular salad cooking oils and specially-handled oils to high-performance frying oils. This can make it difficult and confusing when trying to choose an oil, so price becomes the deciding factor. But the lowest priced oil may not be the best choice for your application or the most cost-effective solution.

Crunch the numbers:

With deep frying you may have a choice between one 16L container of oil at $20 and another type of oil priced at $18 — a 10 per cent savings. But, depending on the brand, quality and application, this may only be a perceived savings before the kitchen actually consumes the oil.

As a simple example, if the pricier oil is a higher quality product, and lasts four days in the fryer instead of three (as the lower-priced oil may), then there’s an immediate and identifiable savings of 25 per cent on a $20 outlay, dramatically reducing cost per use.

Also, if the higher-priced oil has even as little as two per cent better oil retention level (the amount of oil that remains in the food) that’s a savings of $0.40 per 16L.

One extra day in the fryer, or 25 per cent better performance on a $20 item = a $5 savings per 16L.

Two per cent less consumption due to better oil retention on a $20.00 item = $0.40 savings per 16L.

Bottom line?

The lower-priced oil can actually end up costing much more than initially anticipated. The lower-priced oil can cost your kitchen $24 per 16L ($18+$5+$0.40) rather than $20.

These are potentially sobering numbers for any restaurant operator and shows why outcome versus output of initial cash should be considered when making any purchasing decision for your kitchen, particularly when it comes to oils.

Dos and don’ts of fryer maintenance

• Never refill a wet fryer since water causes oil to break down more quickly.
• Don’t fill baskets over your fryer to prevent food particles from contaminating the oil.
• Never season products over fryer as spices can break down your oil.
• Do not put seasoned, fried product back into fryer.
• Do not overfill fryer baskets or shake baskets during frying.
• Skim off food particles regularly.
• Filter your oil regularly to realize the full value of better quality oils.

During the pandemic restaurant operators have had to up their technology game, whether by launching apps, beefing up online ordering, or introducing contactless payment options.

The National Restaurant Association in their report, Reopening Guidance, recommends that you make technology your friend: “Contactless payment systems, automated ordering systems, mobile ordering apps, website updates and simple texts can help you to communicate and conduct business with reduced need for close contact. As you begin to reopen, keep communicating with customers (your hours, menu items, reservations, etc.), and help promote your social distancing and safety efforts.”

Here are some tech solutions you’ll want to keep on board when you’re planning to reopen:

Contactless payment systems, pre-ordering and mobile ordering

Talk to your POS provider for more solutions to help you go completely contactless without losing contact.

Use texts to diners to let them know their table is ready to eliminate lineups and encourage pre-payments where possible.

Other tech hacks are set to change and improve the dining experience, to help operators pivot from takeout back to dine-in and to help reassure guests that dining-in is a safe experience.

Registry and contact tracing

“To restore economic growth and jobs, public healthcare experts are wrestling with how best to transition bars and restaurants from takeout to dine-in and how to reintroduce the public to gathering safely in public spaces as stay-at-home orders are relaxed,” said Alberio Bathory-Frota, CEO of Patronscan, a worldwide I.D. scanning firm.

Patronscan has developed an electronic guest registry that measures occupancy levels and makes contact tracing faster and safer. New Zealand already requires the hospitality industry to register all guests, and some states in the US have already introduced similar services. If a guest or employee contracts COVID-19, healthcare providers are able to use the information from the registry to notify staff and customers of their need to be tested. These heightened measures will help create a safe dining experience for everyone.

Get friendly with QR codes

Suddenly, they’re everywhere — those “interesting” barcodes so common in grocery stores. Now they’re finding a new home in restaurants concerned with contact during the pandemic. Operators are placing them at host/hostess stands and outside the restaurant’s front door where diners can call up menus on their phones. QR codes also allow guests to order and pre-pay using their phones — another way to avoid unnecessary contact. 

New POS solutions

More than ever, operators will need to consider all the POS hardware, menu and ordering iPads, and other types of tech used daily in the restaurant. Many of these surfaces, used by both staff and guests, are plastic, and may allow germs to survive for an extended period of time. Before reopening, you’ll want to research new solutions, such as anti-microbial POS screens, to keep germs at bay. What about voice-ordering technology? If Amazon, Google and Apple can do it (“Hey, Alexa!”), can this technology be so far-fetched?