Red Robin’s Mobile Marketing

Success does leave clues and mobile marketing is a clue all food marketing tool-kits should have inside.  However, while consumers are dynamic not static, they also have long memories and the foundation of mobile food marketing was not the digital phone but a cart on the street, then came food trucks according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  

Johnson, continued saying successful food retailers understand that differentiation does not mean different it means familiar but with a twist. Red Robin Gourmet Burgers is doing just that with a food truck via a nine-state tour in its new “Forever Yummm” food truck, expecting to cover 9,200 miles in three-and-a-half months and offer samples along the way.”

Amy Woolen, Red Robin’s vice president of brand marketing stated “The fully functional food truck is designed to allow fans to experience all the Yummm and fun surrounding Red Robin's 50th celebration,” “It's highly approachable and gives people a reason to join in on the fun and celebrate this milestone with us.”

Denny Marie Post, Red Robin’s president and chief executive officer, said: "Through the years, while the restaurant has changed and the menu has evolved, the brand continues to meet the needs of generations because we infuse fun, creativity and innovation into everything we do.” Mobile Food Marketing with relevance is elevated with digital communication.  However never forget the foundation of food marketing give the consumer what they want where they want it.

Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Have you integrated the familiar with the new? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Saladworks Finds Growth inside Grocery Stores

Driving top line sales and bottom-line profits is the goal for every chain restaurant.  Finding, funding, and fueling that growth is the hard part according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Saladworks opened its first-ever location in a grocery store last February inside a remodeled ShopRite, grocery store in Philadelphia, PA. Given the strong customer feedback, two more Saladworks restaurants are now slated to open in ShopRite and Fresh Grocer stores.

“The store is doing extremely well. So we are expanding in the next 60 days into two more stores, with plans to grow in this category aggressively,” A ShopRite spokesman told the press. “Part of our mission is to put healthy food within the reach of everyday consumers. We want to put fresh, veggie-centric meals in front of as many people as we can,” according to ShopRite. “To be able to go to where the people are, we’re opening more locations and expanding our traditional and nontraditional locations, such as airports, schools, colleges, military bases and office buildings. Grocery stores have a tremendous amount of traffic and people who are looking to eat healthy.”

The Saladworks at the ShopRite utilizes only 150 square feet and stands in an island space near the store’s front entrance. Saladworks’ compact footprint makes it a flexible prepared-foods option, saving consumers time. 

Currently, Saladworks has 100 restaurants in 17 states; just think how much faster they can grow their brand by partnering with a retail grocery chain.  What partnerships can help you drives sales?

Once again I repeat that all food retailers today must understand that customer relevance is elevated when two brands build off each other complementing consumers preferences. Is your brand is searching for the new electricity to help drive the brand forward. So, just what is your brands new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, free food / sampling, beer, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, Fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.  Consumer like Eating-Out when Eating-In.

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Balkan Treat Box Food Expands with Traditional Footprint

Success does leave clues and Balk Treat Box success has grown to the point that they have out grown the food truck space so they opened a brick-and-mortar to build on customer frequency trends that were driving success according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  

Balkan Treat Box started as a food truck venture and now it is restaurant concept that features the cuisines of the Balkan Peninsula with food inspired from Bosnia to Turkey.  “With wood-fire cooking as an essential component to the menu, Balkan Treat Box will offer a new fast casual dining experience” according to the company.”

The opening of Balkan Treat Box is a dream realized for owners, chef Loryn Nalic and her husband, Edo. Loryn, a seasoned chef, fell in love with Bosnian food as she fell in love with Edo, who is a Bosnian refugee. Before opening the Balkan Treat Box food truck, Loryn traveled to the Balkan region for a two-month culinary exploration to cook with the locals and learn how to make everything from somun and cevapi to the perfect Turkish pide.  

While the new restaurant Balkan Treat Box is a fast casual, counter-service restaurant, Nalic makes every dish to order so anticipate wait times of up to 15 minutes from ordering in the opening weeks. Upon hiring additional staff, Balkan Treat Box does plan to still operate the food truck in the spring/summer season. Additional plans include breakfast and catering menus as well. Sales drive growth. How is your concept evolving?  Are you growing new points of distribution? 

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities, technology, or a new menu product segment.  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

Grocery Service Deli Food Sales Threaten Restaurant Sector Sales

Dinner for less; less money, less cooking time, less clean-up time are the undercurrents driving grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food sales at supermarkets and grocery stores today according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  

Boy, have times changed, foodservice at retail looks different across the grocery landscape as more and more fresh prepared food items continue to enter the grocery store. While the cry, ‘What’s for Dinner’ may be the same the lines between grocery and restaurant blur in a number of ways, from deli cases with prepared foods to hot food bars and sit-down restaurants with beer and wine all touting convenience.

Restaurant sector menu prices were up 2.6% in 2018, while wholesale food prices were down 0.01% and consumers seeking relief from higher prices and noticed that grocery store service deli food cost less, they have tried it and report that most of it today is ‘restaurant’ quality according to Johnson. 

In 2019, 90 percent of restaurant guests research a restaurant online before dining at the restaurant, checking menu options, pricing, and seating.  If your restaurant is not competitive in menu price, menu product mix, or have a portability component you could be losing sales to a grocery store.

More and more we are seeing grocers adding cafe-like seating areas, a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization. That is to say; of meals at made-to-order stations with all food prepared fresh for either eat-in or take-out. “

If you’re a restaurant, does your concept look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Consumers are dynamic not static you brand must be as well.  Looking different does not mean different its meal familiar but with a twist.  Should you be offering grocerant niche fresh food to drive incremental sales? Are you prepared to spur growth and meet consumer needs and demands?

Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization? Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

KFC Edifies the Brand with Relevance

Sometimes legacy brands get off message, off track, and stale in the minds-eye of the consumer according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. When that happens edifying the core of the brand with relevance is of paramount importance.

In an era of shorter and shorter attention spans Kentucky Fried Chicken’s (KFC) on-going ‘new’ face of its brand is sure to attract incremental attention while driving trial according to Johnson. The newest Colonel Sanders spokesperson is Colonel RoboCop.

Here is how this spokesperson drive value to core of the brands as KFC disclosed its latest and most enhanced security measure taken to date to protect and preserve its founder's secret blend of 11 herbs and spices used to make its world-famous Original Recipe chicken.

The Colonel's secret recipe has been the core of the brand and takes the customer back to the day when differentiation in grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat chicken was the iconic 11 herbs and spices.  What has changed is KFC is not touting delivery after all our Grocerant Guru® has said that KFC’s was the original meal replacement. 

Now edifying that point will help reposition KFC as the leader not only in the chicken space but could very well place it in the top of the restaurant space as a complete meal replacement center. Success does leave clues and What’s for dinner is still the top question for 63.4% of consumers in 2019 at 4PM. 

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities, technology, or a new menu product segment.  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

Carl's Jr. and Hardee's no Hoops just Loops

Limited Time Offers's Help in Winning the Battle for Share of Stomach

Success leaves clues and partnerships edify brand relationships better than most food retailers understand according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  The undercurrents of food industry buzz and success are grounded by the Kellogg’s partnership with Carl’s & Hardee’s restaurants.

Renewing last year’s successful Limited Time Offer (LTO)  this year Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s announced the official limited-time return of the fan-favorite Kellogg’s Froot Loops Mini Donuts starting on Monday February 25. 

Remember how things went last year.  Well, they SOLD Out.  After selling out just weeks after first launching in 2018, the Froot Loops Mini Donuts are back by popular demand. Bringing a fresh spin on a nostalgic breakfast favorite, these donuts are perfect for snack time and beyond. The popular menu item comes in the five iconic colors of your childhood: red, blue, green, purple, and yellow.

Froot Loops Mini Donuts will be available for a limited time at participating Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s locations starting at $1.99 so get in line to get yours. 

Food retailers today must understand that customer relevance is elevated when two brands build off each other complementing consumers preferences. Is your brand is searching for the new electricity to help drive the brand forward. So, just what is your brands new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, free food / sampling, beer, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, Fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different. 

Success does leave clues are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Freshii New Partnership will Drive Growth with 100 New Points of Distribution

Success does leave clues and Freshii the Canadian fast casual restaurant franchise that serves burritos, wraps, soups, salads, and frozen yogurt is picking up all the right clues. Freshii has had its share of miss-q’s over the years but each time it stumbles CEO Matthew Corrin, has picked-up the right clues to drive Freshii forward.

In 2016, Freshii introduced meal boxes at most locations which include breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks. The boxes are available in plans ranging from 1 to 30 days and focus on healthy eating finding incremental success in the grocerant niche.

Freshii is in the middle of the Grocerant niche now focused on ‘better-for-you’ fresh full-flavored food according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Now Freshii has a new partnership with Walmart Canada locations in Ontario its first partnership with a major grocer. Freshii healthier meal options says its products will be in 100 Walmart Canada stores by the end of April as well as online.

Can a new partnership drive your sales? Don't let your brand simply do what you always have an become the next Kraft, Heinz or Campbell's Soup. Food selling partnerships are a proven platform driving top line sales and bottom-line profits. This relationship is an outstanding example how a brand can drive incremental adoption putting new electricity in your brand relevance by adding new points of distribution.

Is your brand is searching for the new electricity to help drive the brand forward. So, just what is your brands new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, free food / sampling, beer, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, Fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing and eSports.

All retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different. 

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information

Hand-Held Food Marketing’s Up-side

The simple fast is that only 0.03% of restaurant menus items are now delivered and the average price for restaurant menu delivery order is $24.30 according to Tasewise data analytics.  Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food that can be personalized, customized, and bundled into a family meal is elevated with hand held digital food marketing according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

The NPD Group reports that restaurant digital orders have grown at an average annual rate of 23 percent since 2013 and will triple in volume by the end of 2020, and the majority of digital orders, 6 out of 10, are by mobile apps.  That said; look at the up-side from 0.03%.  If you’re not filling your seats with butts, you had better start selling your meals and meal components online / with digital hand-held marketing tools according to Johnson.

Currently restaurant’s app or website represents 70 percent of digital orders and the remaining orders are through third-party apps or other types of apps or websites, according to the findings of NPD’s recently released Delivering Digital Convenience report.

All food retailer should start considering third-party apps, the ilk of DoorDash, Grubhub/Seamless, and UberEATS, as they account for more than their fair share (40 percent) of the 20 most-used apps. Utilizing third-party apps today is quick, easy and a low-cost way to break into fresh food delivery according to Johnson. Are expanding your brands reach into the palm of your customers hand?

Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization? Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information

Food Discovery Autonomous Vehicles and Youthful Experimentation

While the line between food retail channels may be blurring in the minds-eye of the consumer both Gen Z and Millennials quest for personalized food discovery seems to have few limits according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  

Understanding digital native’s is fundamental for companies the ilk of Sodexo focused on feeding students on college campuses.  Success for Sodexo like many other food companies requires customer relevance enough to create new electricity according to Johnson. 

To that end in a new partnership between Sodexo and autonomous vehicle developer Starship Technologies formed to provide autonomous vehicles that are now delivering groceries from a campus grocery store and food from several foodservice outlets to students across campus at George Mason University.

This new avenue of distribution provides services to supply 25-plus small vehicles, allowing George Mason's 40,000 students, faculty members and staffers to have products delivered anywhere on campus, within minutes, for $1.99 per delivery.

The Starship Deliveries mobile app, which is compatible with iOS and Android, allows users to order items from campus grocers including 2nd Stop, Blaze Pizza, Starbucks and Dunkin'. More partners will be revealed in the coming weeks.

The service, which works in conjunction with student meal plans, is intended to make food and beverages more accessible to ease the hectic lives of students and faculty.To use the technology, customers:

·         Open the Starship Deliveries app on their mobile device;

·         Choose from a range of food and beverage items;

·         Drop a digital map pin on the screen where they want their delivery to be sent;

·         Upon receiving an arrival alert, meet the robot and unlock it through the app; and

·         Retrieve their order.

Mark Kraner, executive director for campus retail operations at George Mason University  stated; "We're excited that our students, faculty and staff get to be at the forefront of this pioneering campus food-delivery service," … "This will enhance life for everyone at the university, and that's something we're continuously looking to build upon. Our commitment to providing an optimal campus experience is one of the things that distinguishes George Mason University as a place where everyone can thrive."

Each robot can carry up to 20 pounds, or roughly three shopping bags full of products, and is able to cross streets, climb curbs, travel at night, and operate in both rain and snow. They make their delivery in no more than 15 minutes — depending on travel distance and items ordered — and are stored in pods located around campus, where their batteries are automatically switched so they can continue operating.

Food retailers today must understand that relevance drives trial and adoption this new partnership drive relevance with digital natives.   Is your brand is searching for the new electricity to help drive the brand forward. So, just what is your brands new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Can you Win the Battle for Share of Stomach 

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, free food / sampling, beer, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, Fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.   Sodexo and Starship Technologies plan to expand the foodservice- and grocery-delivery technology to additional campus locations globally in the future.

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Is Hy-Vee Emblematic of What’s Happening to Traditional Grocery Stores

If an outsider were to read the press clipping about Hy-Vee for the past four years one just might think of a dog chasing its own tail.  What in the world does Hy-Vee what to be when it grows up?  Well, according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Hy-Vee wants to be what it has always been: everything to everyone.  Clearly, that’s not working for any legacy grocery store.

Hy-Vee “roughly two months opened its ‘Fresh & Fast Concept they are planning more locations. New media outlets report that “In addition to the new store in Altoona, Iowa, Hy-Vee is planning to open two more locations "soon," the news outlet stated. One will be in West Des Moines, south of the freestanding Hy-Vee HealthMarket that opened last summer in the Jordan Creek Town Center, and the other in Des Moines.

The fresh-focused, smaller-format concept provides shoppers with standard products found in a typical convenience store, including fuel pumps, roller-grill favorites, frozen food and wine and spirits. The new units ff anything like the location in Davenport, they will be roughly one-tenth the size of Hy-Vee's largest grocery store, in Bloomington, Ill. And shoppers even can make their purchases in the store or through Hy-Vee's Aisles Online click-and-collect service.

At the new location, shoppers also can enjoy an "abundance of prepared meals, [and] a build-your-own-pizza bar," the Register said. It is intended to help on-the-go shoppers seeking to grab a "quick pizza" or "throw a family meal in the oven" on a day when the family needs to eat but a complete grocery-shopping trip cannot be made.”  So, what are we to think? Well not much it was just two years ago they were opening new stores with 60,000 SQFT with full-service restaurants? Why such a change in focus so fast? Were they on the worng track then or are they on the wrong track now, or should they be just adding more restaurants in the stores?

Business models evolve, brands evolve however, if success does leave clues it’s clear Hy-Vee has not pick up the right clues.  Is you brand still trying to be all things to all consumers?  How is that working for you?

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

The Grocerant Niche has a Growing Customers Base Do You

Most of our regular readers understand that “The future has already arrived; it’s just not evenly distributed.” A quote made famous by William Gibson sure comes to mind don’t you think. 

Fresh prepared “better for you” food and food options are driving success within the grocerant niche which continues growing rapidly in every sector of retail according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Once the kingpin of food sales was regional food retailer’s, now they risk being marginalized by new concepts with smaller footprints, lower cost of goods, and faster service.  Food retailers must understand the new dynamics in the industry and react properly in order to accelerate growth.  The focus is on the Grocerant Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh and prepared food.

“My mom made two dishes: Take it or Leave it.”  Is a line made famous by comedian Stephen Wright? Once again, the food price, value, service equilibrium is resetting in Grocery stores, Restaurants, and Convenience stores all the while the dollar store sector is entering the fresh food space targeting the 65.3% of U.S. households with one or two residents. 

Dollar stores are entering the grocerant niche with Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh and prepared food that will provide a platform for continued customer migration as the battle for share of stomach continues to expand. Traditional food sectors have noticed discontinuity in consumer food shopping behavior and all are fighting for a greater share of stomach.  

Battle for Share of Stomach

Contributing to this displacement is a focus on short term market metrics particularly price as restaurants continue to raise prices grocery stores have had declining price driving a price advantage consumer have begun to notice are attracted too. One problem consumer doesn’t like to cook dinner four night a week, so they go looking for a grocerant niche solution Ready-2-Eat and or Heat-N-Eat meal solution according to Johnson.  

Restaurants, Dollar Stores, Club Stores, Ikea, Grocery store deli’s, and Convenience stores, are sell meal components that are mixed and matched then bundled into a family meal.  What kind of food are you selling and where can it be consumed? Where are you selling branded food?

Outside eyes can deliver top sales and bottom-line profits.  Invite Foodservice Solutions to provide brand and product positioning assistance or a grocerant program assessment. Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more:  Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us  or visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us