The Chain Restaurant Status Quo is Broken

Traditional restaurant brand building practices are no longer effective; they aren't just broken, they simply no longer work. They are Kaput, Dying, Replaced, they are Yesterday.  The customer has moved.  Have you? Has your brand?  

The retail food consumer has moved, competition has increased, and Multi-channel retail has been replaced with Omni-channel retail.  Simply put, the playing field has changed, and if you're still playing on old turf with yesterday's rules, you are in trouble and you’re company is in big trouble.   

If you are sitting back waiting for the economy to rebound, food prices to drop or customers to come rushing back in the door.  It just might be too late. Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™ Steven Johnson has been following the consumer since 1991 and outlining the new universal success clues, actions, and language of the consumer.  

The rise of the grocerant niche has not been sudden, not dynamic, rather a steady evolution highlighted and accelerated by an economic down turn.  The consumers has new priorities, protocols and engaged new technologies, is more informed, embracing new avenues of fresh prepared food distribution.  Gone are the days when having a “restaurant quality” dinner means going to a restaurant exclusively.  

Gone are the days of Top Down Menu Development. In the new evolving world of Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food it is about the consumer. It’s about creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization. It is no longer about you promoting, you selling, you pushing or your LTO. It is about the consumer, the community, inclusion.  

Success comes in this new era of Omni-channel fresh prepared food by empowering franchisee to test, to try, to fail.  Success will come when you empower all customer-facing teams in daily cross-functional engagement, from C-level to line level. Success will come when you invite, include, empower customer input.  

The customer has moved.  Restaurant brands today must move with the consumer or risk losing consumers to new avenues of fresh food distribution. The gone are the days of brand protectionism practices at all cost. Today brand protectionism is a brand that is consumer interactive and participatory.

Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  If you are interested in learning how the 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities.  Foodservice Solutions of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant