Legacy chain retailers must evolve or they will
fade away. The consumer is dynamic not
static and all food retailers and start-up fresh food retailers must strive to
create or maintain consumer relevance while evolving their own brand. Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven
Johnson believes that the following ten clues to build contemporized food brand
relevance that will edify your brand while building top-line sales and
bottom-line profits.
Purpose: Customer relevance with evolving focus. The most
successful brands are inclusive, include values greater than themselves. That means they focus on a Lifestyle, a
philosophy, an emotion, a point in time.
Today that must include a halo of better for you the consumer as better
for the consumer is better for the retailer.
A story: Most major brands have a story. Examples: If you like Wawa you know the
family history, If you line McDonald’s you have heard the story or seen the
movie If you like Ford vehicles, you might be familiar with the story of Henry
Ford or if you love your Nikes, you probably know how the Nike swoosh logo was
created. You get the picture. What’s
your story and where is your story being told?
Consumer
interaction:
Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®
firmly believes that within foodservice retail they brand, products, and
footprint must be consumer interactive and participatory. When your business is first starting out, don't fool yourself into believing
that your marketing efforts are 'brand building' efforts. They're not because to build a real brand, you have to have an
extensive track record with consumers. Consumer will build the brand and the
story for with you.
Trust: Establish operating standards
that are measurable for every department within your company and each standard
must edify a customer facing tactic, communication, service, or product. When you've consistently delivered for your customers long enough, you'll gain
the type of trust that many brands have.
Would you buy a Edsel today? Maybe so, but you are buying to today as a
relic not as a product of today.
Consistency:
Consumers today
choose a product or service because of brand association. The consumers is buying an expectation, a
promise. Perhaps it's the expectation that the branded product is of higher
quality or that the service will be provided in a more efficient manner. The
expectation must be met time after time.
Differentiation: Customer
migration from a legacy to an new brand
is often borne of differentiation. Many brands offer
products and services that are commodities but they're successful in developing
some differentiation in the product or the avenue of distribution for their
products and services that consumers are sold on.
Imitators: Imitation
is the sincerest of flattery and you're probably not a
'brand' until you have
competitors trying to copy you. Do what you do best and
lead your niche don’t follow. Enough said.
Market
leadership: Success does leave clues, collect your clues and
own them. Top
brands are usually looked at as leaders in the markets they compete
in. Own the space, and understand why you do.
Evolve: The consumer is dynamic not static your brand must be as well. The best brands are flexible and capable of reshaping and reinventing themselves and their
messages over time. Brands are either growing or dying.
A strong
marketing presence: The
information super highway has evolved into a mobile marketing platform in the
palm of your customers hand; your message must follow with the traffic. Don’t get stuck on the road less traveled.
For
corporate presentations, confidential engagements, educational forums, or
keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based
Foodservice Solutions® at: Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/
Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or www.FoodserviceSolutions.us . Facebook.com/Steven Johnson
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