The drink that helps pay for breast cancer detection

By Tam Goldsmith

Outback Steakhouse’s Saudi franchisee is turning a menu drink into support for breast cancer awareness.

At Outback Steakhouse restaurants in Saudi Arabia, customers can order a drink that supports the work of a local breast cancer organisation. Tam Goldsmith looks at a fundraising idea that asks very little of the customer or the people running the restaurant.

Restaurants are asked to support good causes all the time. The trouble is that even a well-meaning campaign can become another job for staff who are already trying to get food out, turn tables and keep customers happy.

Outback Steakhouse in Saudi Arabia has kept things fairly straightforward. A designated passion fruit drink is linked to Zahra Breast Cancer Association, with its value donated to support the Saudi organisation's work on breast cancer awareness and early detection.

The restaurants are operated by World Restaurants Company, the Outback Steakhouse franchise operator in Saudi Arabia. Customers who want to take part do not need to make a separate donation or add anything extra to their bill. They simply order the drink.

THE CUSTOMER DOESN'T HAVE TO BE ASKED FOR MORE MONEY

Anyone who eats out regularly will know how often another request appears at the end of a transaction. There might be a prompt to round up the bill, add a charitable donation or scan a code to support a particular cause. None of those ideas is necessarily bad, but customers can become tired of being asked to spend more.

The Outback campaign avoids that conversation because the customer is buying something from the menu. They get the drink they ordered, while Zahra benefits from the purchase.

It is also easier on the restaurant team. Staff already know how to take the order and serve the product, so there is no separate event to organise or lengthy fundraising pitch to remember. They need to understand the campaign well enough to explain it properly, but otherwise the transaction looks much like any other order.

That may seem like a minor point until you consider how restaurants actually operate. A charity idea that works beautifully on a quiet afternoon can become a nuisance when the kitchen is backed up and every table is occupied. If staff can still manage the campaign when the restaurant is at its busiest, it has a much better chance of lasting.

THE CAUSE IS LOCAL TO THE PEOPLE BUYING THE DRINK

Zahra Breast Cancer Association works in Saudi Arabia to improve breast cancer awareness and encourage early detection. For customers in the Kingdom, the organisation is dealing with an issue affecting women and families in the communities around the restaurants.

That local connection matters. World Restaurants Company may be operating an American restaurant brand, but the people employed in its restaurants and the customers eating there are in Saudi Arabia. Supporting an organisation working in the same country makes it easier to understand where the contribution is going and why the operator chose the cause.

This is also one of the advantages local franchise operators can bring to an international brand. Head office knows the brand, but the franchisee should know its market. The causes that matter to customers in Riyadh or Jeddah will not necessarily be the same ones that attract attention somewhere else.

For a franchise network, allowing room for that local judgement can make community work feel considerably less corporate.

IT HAS TO SURVIVE A BUSY RESTAURANT

The practical test for any restaurant initiative comes when the doors are busy, staff are stretched and customers are waiting. If a charity campaign adds several steps to every transaction, enthusiasm can disappear fairly quickly.

Attaching the contribution to a menu item removes most of that problem. The customer orders the drink and the team serves it in the normal way, while the charitable element sits behind the sale.

There is no awkward conversation about how much somebody wants to donate. Customers who like the idea can order the drink, while those who would rather have something else can carry on with their meal without having to decline a request for money.

For a franchise operator running several restaurants, that simplicity helps too. The campaign can be explained to teams without introducing a completely separate system that every location has to learn and manage.

SOMETIMES SIMPLE IS ENOUGH

Charity partnerships can easily become complicated. There are launch events, special promotions, staff campaigns and the inevitable photograph of an oversized cheque. Those things can attract attention, but they also take time and money to organise.

There is something rather sensible about putting the fundraising into an ordinary restaurant order instead. One customer buys the drink and Zahra benefits. Later another customer does the same thing, and the contribution grows through normal restaurant trade.

The operator still has responsibilities. Customers should be able to understand what is being donated and which organisation receives it, and any franchisee putting its name behind a cause needs to be confident in the organisation it is supporting.

Beyond that, the restaurant can get on with being a restaurant.

For franchisees looking for ways to support their communities, that may be the useful lesson here. The programme does not have to be enormous to be worthwhile, and it does not have to create more work than the restaurant can comfortably handle.

What We Can Learn From This

Community work is much easier to keep going when it fits into the normal working day. A franchisee could take an existing product, connect it to a reputable local organisation and explain clearly to customers how the contribution works. The cause should mean something in the market where the restaurants actually trade, and staff should be able to manage the programme without it becoming another burden during busy service. A simple idea that keeps raising money month after month can ultimately do more good than an elaborate campaign that disappears after launch week.

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