Ring Bros. Marketplace - Ring Bros. Experiment in Grassroots Green Marketing

Chatham Fish and Lobster offers fresh Cape Cod seafood including fish, shellfish, live lobsters and clambakes.

Nata's Noodles offers freshly made pasta, prepared gourmet meals, delectable desserts and an extensive catering menu.

Ring Bros. Markets offers farm fresh fruit and produce, groceries, unique specialty foods, warm fresh breads, fresh squeezed orange juice, a healthy salad bar and of course our famous gourmet fruit baskets.

Spinner's Gourmet Pizza, Mexican & More!

Ring Bros. Experiment in Grassroots Green Marketing

MarketingProfs Daily Fix
by Ted Mininni
10/05/07

An interesting article caught my eye in the September issue of Progressive Grocer. The article titled, EXCLUSIVE: Ring Bros. In-store Experiment to Turn Waste Into Power, struck a familiar chord with me as a marketer.

Many ask how community-based independents can carve a place out for themselves—or even survive--in today’s super-charged, highly competitive marketplace, so this might give small business owners something to chew on.

In a nutshell: Ring Bros. is an independent grocery store in South Dennis,Massachusetts—on beautiful Cape Cod. The owner decided to test a new bioenergy technology in its store for two very good reasons:

• To save money and turn its organic waste into energy
• To increase revenues by selling surplus power to other businesses in the same shopping plaza; and to sell nutrient-rich compost, a natural by-product, to farmers.

The gist: the retailer received a $195,000 grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s Renewable Energy Trust, an organization that develops and promotes clean energy. A system will be installed next spring using “anaerobic digestive technology” which breaks down organic waste and emits methane gas in the process. The gas can then be utilized to power a turbine, generating electricity.

Not only will Ring Bros. store recycle all of its own organic waste, save on costly locally-generated electricity and make money on the by-products; the retailer will no longer have to pay to have its garbage trucked away—consuming less fuel in the process.

While this new system will not rid the retailer of non-organic waste, it is estimated that Ring Bros. will save substantially on its waste management spend. In the grocery business, where margins are razor-thin, and profits measured in pennies on product offerings in many instances, these savings will go to the retailer’s bottom line.

Now it seems to me there’s a real marketing opportunity here. As some Daily Fix readers may recall, I posted a blog entry in August titled Marketing a Green Business. When businesses take measures to become more environmentally friendly, it’s not a bad idea to let the consumer know about it.

For independent, small businesses, marketing the higher level of service they offer the customer (hopefully they do!) along with a legitimately greener position, ought to strike a very positive chord in their communities.

What kinds of initiatives do you think small businesses can take to stake out their unique positions in today’s competitive marketplace?