Retail and Restaurants are finding Omni-Channel Fresh Food Success are You?

Food consumers are now Omni-Channel consumers. Is your food company prepared to succeed in 2014, 2015 … 2020? Here are some of the advantages to entering or expanding your business with customer relevance moving forward:

Exposure to more customers and all Sides of the Food Business

Most large food retailers, big companies, have a narrow focus. That has worked for 50 years. They have honed their brand and supply chain. They have set and defined boundaries, and it is difficult to get outside of them. Time and technology have redefined the consumer playing field. Your brand must become dynamic again or risk losing consumer relevance. There is a huge opportunity for share of market if you elect to evolve you brand with migrating fresh food consumers in take-out and take-way options.

People Reward Potential

Large food retailers typically pay more at the C-level, and are seen as stable employment currencies (not-taking risk). However the grocerant niche when vertically integrated into an existing brand creates a new level of excitement within the entire company. When sales grow, the opportunity for advancement expands, building team momentum, excitement explodes like a wildfire. Customers can feel the proactive positive buzz from employees. Doing nothing Boring Doing Something Soaring.

Proactive Change is Exposure to Success

Change is incredibly dynamic, consumer focused changed is contagious. Change evolves and will go through a bell curve, and you see the whole thing step by step when you vertically integrate change into brand and consumer values. If not integrated you do not really get to escape the velocity of the event, but change is exciting nonetheless and customers will still follow.

Impacting Consumer Relevance Means Thriving not Simply Staying Alive

Are you going to tangibly impact your company or maintain the status quo? Today like never before companies have the ability to evolving a brand at a speed not seen since your company was a start-up. What impact are you going to have on your company? There is a difference between the work you do and the impact you have. Fresh Food retailing is evolving at break neck speed, evidenced by the Dollar Store formats selling more foods and Walgreens selling fresh foods and doing it well as you can see from this video of a Walgreens in San Francisco. Is your brand evolving fast?

Spin Out, Spin Off or Springboard to more Profitability

If you do nothing but wait, watch or blame the economy you are very likely to simply spin out of control. Redefining your brand with consumer relevance will position you too either create a positive spin off or springboard to the next level. Legacy organizations need to be mindful that springboards do great things for your organization, your team and your shareholders.

Success Does Leave Clues and Foodservice Solutions® is clue # 1

LTO's (Limited Time Offers) can drive top line sales and bottom line profits while taking you in a new direction. Are your LTO's leading your brand, testing your brand or simply copy-cat marketing tactics absent strategy?

Fresh prepared ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat food in non-traditional outlets poses an ever increasing threat to restaurant growth. Want to know how to best address these new competitive threats?  Contact Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru at: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us

Amazon’s Milk-Truck Routes a Building Block of Success

Amazon is doing nothing new  delivering Milk, Bread, Lasagna, Club Sandwich and a New Phone, Amazon to delivery what consumers want, when the want it. Milk trucks are a stable in many neighbourhoods. Amazon is simply doing Milk Trucks Bigger and Better than anyone ever.  Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™ has touted Amazon’s entrance into grocery delivery as the ultimate “last mile solution” on this blog beginning in 2009 as regular readers know.  Amazon can establish according to Foodservice Solutions® “Milkman like routes” delivering what you want every day.

American Express had the successful marketing campaign “Don’t Leave Home Without It”, Amazon has the next step “Don’t Leave Home” targeting young parents, employees working long hours and seniors.  The Wall Street Journal (the paper of record) is now reporting that “Amazon is investigating the possibility of using its own trucks to transport packages to users….The company is testing its own “last mile” delivery system in San Francisco as a means of streamlining its shipping pipeline to users.”

With ongoing testing of Amazon Fresh and Amazon Spotlight, Amazon may have found a way to deliver direct to your door at home or work breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The new test service will allow Amazon to “consistently deliver packages to users the same day they’re purchased, as well as let the company dictate its own delivery schedule, including night and weekend package drop-off. That could help further drive purchases from consumers who might otherwise turn to physical retail outlets in order to get items quickly.”

When you consider the additional consumer trust, reliability, and visibility Amazon will garner with such a program it will in fact edify Amazons leadership in retail and foodservice. According to Amazon “It is a program which is going to revolutionize how shipments are delivered to millions of customers.” We agree and think food retailers must re-evaluate market, focus and positioning. Outside eyes can drive inside results.

For international corporate presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us  Grocerant Guru at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. www.FoodserviceSolutions.us

Airport Food Blending Fresh, Local, and National Food Retailers for Success

At the intersection of local consumers, international travelers and fresh food is Detroit’s Wayne County Airport.  Greg Hatcher, Wayne County Airport Authority’s director of concessions confirmed that the Detroit Airport concession program when remodeled will include 25 new food and beverage outlets.

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™ Steven Johnson was excited that Hatcher and the Wayne County Airport Authority approved  Plum Market (A Grocer) with Zingermant’s Deli. Johnson stated “this reinforces the success of and extends the reach of the Grocerant Niche once again”.

Traditionally grocery shopping and airports aren’t synonymous, and most travelers don't think groceries and airports. Worry not, we are talking Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat  prepared foods and snacks, and not so much entire box of cereal, bag of coffee, or can of soup. 

Mingled in with traditional legacy restaurant brand food concepts PF Chang’s China Longhorn Steakhouse Potbelly Sandwich Shop, McDonald’s, Bruegger’s Bagels, will be  Plum Market and Zingerman’s Deli which are  “beloved Michigan/Ann Arbor area favorites, well known for locally-sourced natural, organic, and specialty items found in a high-end gourmet market. Famous Zingerman’s made-to-order sandwiches and bakehouse favorites, along with Michigan wines and craft beers”

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™ believes Detroit is “simply following consumer momentum, meeting the needs and expectations of consumers today, demanding Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food” 

Hatcher’s goal is clear he is striving for customer relevance.  He stated “Branded concepts are important so travelers that may not be as familiar with (a certain operation) can gravitate to the brands they know. But, there’s a balance between strong brands and local presence, (and) making sure that people understand what Detroit is all about.” 

Success does leave clues one clue is Convenience Stores, Grocery Stores, and Drug Stores fresh Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food that is branded is welcome everywhere.  Where are you selling fresh food?

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a brand leveraging integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche since 1991

Yum Brands Looking more like Yesterdays Brand than Tomorrows.

Yum Brands succumbs to industry dynamics capitulating market share in U.S. one again with U.S. same store sales declines at Pizza Hut of 3%, KFC 4% and Taco Bell at 1%.   One thing is perfectly clear Yum Brands is nothing like forty three year old Starbucks. Yum Brands has three brands losing U.S. customer relevance.

The age of a brand albeit Darden, Yum Brands or Starbucks does not make a difference when speaking about customer relevance and positive same store sales growth. Starbucks a forty three year old company continues to look more like a consumer relevant brand of tomorrow than a legacy brand of yesterday. In today’s Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food Grocerant World Starbucks fits right in. Yum’s KFC one of the original grocerant niche (meal replacement back then) companies has lost its customer, grocerant niche, positioning, and focus.

Starbucks continues to post positive same store sales and positive customer counts, all the while expanding the brand in new channels.  There is one thing that Starbucks and McDonald’s have that’s proven successful, that is a proven formula of success steps:  Build, Measure, Learn, and Repeat.  Simply put Starbucks and McDonald’s learn from miss-steps and move forward with brand focus, consumer relevance, while globally implementing integrated marketing plans.  

Yum Brands seemingly has spent five years focused on China, China, and China building stores and reacting to miss-steps or China specific industry problems. During that period U.S. store base has capitulated customer relevance and market share in every branded category. 

Restaurant sector customer migration continues while many legacy restaurant chain operators have a blind-eye to new competitive forces evolving within the Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food niche.  C-stores and Grocery Deli’s foodservice offerings continue to garner share of stomach via restaurant customers.  Many legacy food industry analyst only compare restaurants to restaurants while consumers think only of their “STOMACH and WALLET” according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™. 

Companies the ilk of Wawa, Sheetz and Rutter’s Farm Stores are expanding fast, each focusing on fresh food as an advantage. 7 Elevens and Casey-s General Store are both exceeding goals with fresh prepared pizza sales.  7 Eleven extends its reach in food within chicken category regularly. HEB, Central Market, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s success is attributed to restaurant quality Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.   Outside eyes can provide inside results. Is your brand positioning for yesterday or tomorrow?

Success does leave clues and the battle for fresh prepared food sales is in fact a battle for share of stomach that Non-traditional fresh food retailers are winning today.  McDonald’s and Starbucks are winning as well for they utilize a proven formula of success steps:  Build, Measure, Learn, and Repeat.

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 contact us via Email us at: grocerant@q.com or visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

Legacy Food CPG Brands Rewriting How Too Sell

Food companies are evolving slowly in search of consumers. Legacy companies that have established value for their brand and products have found sales slipping while brand recognition and brand value have not diminished.  Puzzled, they focused new research on the consumer and found “The Customer Has Move” both in preferred points of shopping and communication according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™.

In a new study Growth Strategies: Unlocking the Power of the Consumer,” by the Grocery Manufacturers Association found “more than 40% of CPG companies plan to sell products directly to consumers this year, finding direct-to-consumer effective for testing new products and growing their consumer base.” What do you think should restaurants sell meals direct to consumer?  Do with delivery?

Clearly when 40% of CPG Brands Plan to sell products direct-to-consumer by passing legacy points of distributions continued sector disruption is to be expected.  Today, digital channels and mobile are important in the direct-to-consumer process, and are rewriting the rules of retailing for CPG brands. The trick is finding the balance between legacy brand values and today’s consumer while providing innovative shopping experience can very well increase loyalty and profitability with customer relevance.

The new technology shortens the path to purchase. Users can easily go from watching a how-to video to finding a retailer who carries the featured product and making a purchase. Now, shoppable videos can translate into customer relevance, a referral tool, entertainment, and sales. Can C-stores and grocery stores leverage shoppable videos? Many do which do you like best? 

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a brand leveraging integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche since 1991

Take-Out Takes Off Technology Drives Disruption Once Again

Competition for customers heats up as home cooked meals go on-line for or sale. Chefs are now able to cook from home, sell meals, watch the kids, pay the bills all while cooking dinner for the family! Technology continues to ratchet-up the competition in the retail food space empowering chefs to build a reputation one customer at a time without the expense of opening a restaurant. Better yet business travelers can get a home cooked meal.

In Copenhagen there is a website that is turning private homes into Take-Out restaurants. It lets users advertise what they are cooking, when and for what price.  The site, Dinnersurfer.dk, is referred to as a restaurant version of the popular lodging site Airbnb, on which homeowners make their spare rooms or unoccupied dwellings available to paying lodgers for a fee.

Airbnb, is a big hit with consumers and Wall Street.  With its last round of funding Airbnb was valued at $ 10 Billion Dollars. There is no doubt Airbnb will enter the home cooking niche as well.

The advantages for consumers they in most cases pay less than if they had gone to a restaurant with the added benefit that many of the homemade dishes may be healthier than the greasy high calorie fare typically available at take-out counters.

Ana Teresa Salas, a 32-year-old consultant from Copenhagen offers meals on Dinnersufer.dk and said
"Sometimes I only put one serving up for sale, sometimes up to 20. It depends on what I'm making and how much time I have," …"It sounded exciting. I make food for my family every day anyway, and I always make too much," said Salas, who sells her food on the website two to three times a week.”

"On weekdays I try to make food that's healthy, without too much starch and fat," she added…"When I make healthy dishes it's mostly women, and when it's pasta and so on it's mostly men," she said.

The retail food space is evolving fast.  Drug stores, Liquor stores, Home Chef’s, and internet star-ups are all targeting the Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food space.  Airbnb, JustEat, and a plethora of others are creating new points of distribution.  Is your company asking the right questions when developing your five year plan? Do you need out-side eyes?

 
For international corporate presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us  Grocerant Guru at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. www.FoodserviceSolutions.us

Fresh Prepared Food, High Technology, Fast Service and Walmart

What’s for lunch when you are hungry and in a hurry? Are you on your way home and need something quick for a family dinner?  At the intersection of Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food, mobile technology and the world’s largest food retailer you can find the answer it just might be Walmart.

We all know the Walmart Supercenters, Walmart’s Neighborhood Market the Grocery store now Walmart is expanding the classic Spoke-N-Hub retail template into convenience stores completing the circle, becoming closer to customers with a new convenience store concept called Walmart To Go.

Customers don’t like getting trapped the large footprint supercenters shopping when they only need one or two items.  They don’t like getting trapped in a grocery store just for one or two meal components are needed to complete the family dinner.

Trapped no more while Walmart To Go opened a month ago. Just this week we learned that Walmart To Go  has an ordering app that is food-service focused. “The free system enables customers to order and pay for their meal ahead of time for a speedy pick-up, a definite boon at lunch. Or they can grab dinner while stocking up on groceries and doing a fill-in shop until the next time they can hit a full-sized Walmart”

One of the hallmarks of the grocerant niche is bundling meal components into a customized family meal.  Here are some of the choices found on the app by Peter Romeo:

“Gourmet Hot Dogs, today’s special, a platter of dry-rubbed and smoked pork ribs, be more satisfying? “We recommend the ribs dinner,” says the app I’m using, which notes the price is only $6.47, and that includes two sides.” I have a choice of nine, ranging from Baked Potato Casserole to Crab Salad. I can try any or all of the others for an extra $1.29 each. Then again, I could always pop for the pizza, a steal at $3.49 for a 7-inch pie.”

Extending Walmart’s brand into a complete Spoke-N-Hub template increases fresh prepared food retails competitiveness. While industry elites chide my notion that Walmart will become a key player within the Grocerant niche; I remind them they chided my notion that they would become the largest food retail in the U.S. as well.  With a focus on branded food, quality fresh food, and price; Walmart will again reset the Price + Service + Quality = Equilibrium once again.

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a brand leveraging integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche since 1991