Edible’s Mix & Match Grocerant Niche Success

 

Success does leave clues and Edible continues finding success expanding within the grocerant niche.  Branded food mix & matched with products, services, or other brands edifies both the relationships with the consumers and all brands when done right according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  

Flowers are a wonderful gift anytime of the year.  So, when Edible announced two new initiatives as part of the brand’s continued evolution as a leading eCommerce provider of deliverable gifts and treats: the introduction of Edible Bakeshop cupcakes and a special Mother’s Day digital experience with America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) you know incremental value was being created according to Johnson.

With the nationwide rollout of cupcakes which follows a successful first year for Edible Bakeshop and brings the product category’s total sales to $55 million since the category’s official launch in September of 2020.

Get this, within three weeks of introducing Madagascar Vanilla Bean and Chocolate Truffle Cupcakes, Edible depleted its entire inventory and outperformed even its highest expectations by selling out of what was supposed to be a three-month supply.

Is there a blog reader out there that does not understand the power of mix & match meal bunding yet? As Edible continues to work with its manufacturer to meet the consumer demand and carry on with the selling of this new, exciting product. We ask just how long are you going to watch success before you give the team at Foodservice Solutions® a try?

Edible president and COO Cheikh Mboup, stated, “Given the overwhelmingly positive reception of cupcakes and the continued growth of Edible Bakeshop as a whole, we expect baked goods to quickly become one of our top product categories moving forward and anticipate it to be a leader over Mother’s Day weekend this year,”.

So, Edible’s partnership with America’s Test Kitchen adds an experiential option to the brand’s wide range of Mother’s Day gifts. From April 1 through May 23, a one-month online cooking school membership with ATK – which offers more than 320 courses from simple skills to advanced recipes – will be available for purchase as part of special Mother’s Day bundles or as add-ons to other gifts from edible.com.

Regular readers of this blog know interactive and participatory branded marketing is a key drive of the success within the grocerant niche.

Jack Bishop, ATK’s Chief Creative Officer, stated, "Food is the perfect way to express appreciation for all that moms do, and America's Test Kitchen is excited to partner with Edible Arrangements to help celebrate Mother's Day,”... “Our joint offering ensures that on top of a wonderful arrangement, Moms will have the opportunity to build their cooking skills with our renowned cooking instructors.

Success does leave clues. One clue that time and time again continues to resurface is “the consumer is dynamic not static”.  Regular readers of this blog know that is the common refrain of Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Our Grocerant Guru® can help your company edify your brand with relevance.  Call 253-759-7869 for more information. 

Edible Looking Outside the Box to Drive Growth

 

Success does leave clues and regular readers of this blog are familiar with the ongoing growth and success at Edible. We last talked about them when they expanded their product line to include the ‘Editable Bakeshop’.

Once again looking outside the box, while listening to customers touchpoints, Editable is complementing both the fresh fruit arrangements and a weak customer touchpoint gift giving messaging with the launch of Printible greeting cards.

So, most of you know that Edible, is the world’s largest franchisor of fresh fruit arrangements and other treats, is expanding its portfolio into the greeting card industry with the launch of Printible now. Leveraging new technology designed for growing a new product category of seasonal and everyday greeting cards that can be digitally customized to create truly personalized gifts is a perfect fit according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Printible is but another one of Edible’s outside the four walls, outside of the box growth innovations that combine convenience with enhanced value through personalization. Just within the last month, the company re-designed existing technology to launch “Edible, Your Way,” an initiative that allows customers to design their own dipped fruit boxes, fresh produce boxes and now fresh fruit arrangements all through Edible.com’s user-friendly customization offerings.

So, Printible is the next key ingredient in creating a fully customizable gifting experience through Edible.“The future of retail lies in personalization, especially when it comes to gifting,” says Cheikh Mboup, president and COO of Edible Brands. “For Edible, this year has been all about catering directly to our customers’ immediate wants and needs, especially in light of the ongoing pandemic. We intend to continue upgrading the Edible customer experience to be as custom-made as possible throughout the remainder of 2020 and in the coming years, and we are excited about Printible as the next major development in this evolution.

Printible is a platform for customizable greeting card sales across select Edible locations, through which customers responded enthusiastically to the opportunity to incorporate additional personalization into Edible’s wide array of gifting products. The cards and customization capabilities of Printible are unique to Edible, made possible with proprietary technology created by the brand’s technology solutions arm, Netsolace.

“Printible is starting with cards, but the sky is really the limit here,” says Sai Padmanaban, Vice President of Netsolace. “We see this new technology as a perpetual opportunity to fuel Edible growth through innovation, allowing the brand and its franchise owners to enhance the gifting experience in a way that is truly unique from one customer to the next.”

Success does leave clues. One clue that time and time again continues to resurface is “the consumer is dynamic not static”. Are you looking a customer ahead?   Regular readers of this blog know that is the common refrain of Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Our Grocerant Guru® can help your company 253-759-7869. 

Edible Expands it’ Brand Focus with FruitFlowers

When you want to attract new customers, you have to expand your brand invitation, according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. When doing that you first must look at all the current touchpoint attributes of your current customer base and determine what could you provide them at would drive an incremental purchase, while simultaneously meeting an un met need-set for them.  

So, consider that Edible, the world’s largest franchisor of fresh fruit arrangements and other treats, has officially expanded into the floral space with the nationwide launch of FruitFlowers. According to Johnson that a brand extension with credibility.

This new product line adds fresh-cut flowers to Edible’s expansive portfolio of gifting options and is a natural fit for consumers to understand and accept. FruitFlowers is now available from Edible stores either as individual bright, floral bouquets or securely paired with Edible’s premium 12-count box of fresh dipped fruit in real, premium chocolate to create one-of-a-kind bundles delivered fresh to consumers’ doors.

Edible president and COO Cheikh Mboup stated “Edible continues to innovate how we help customers celebrate all of life’s special occasions, and today that includes fresh flowers alongside our popular signature treats,” … “What makes FruitFlowers so appealing to consumers with distinctive tastes, is that Edible is the only brand to provide a fresh flower and dipped-fruit bundle using real chocolate.”

Solve pain points, with a variety of FruitFlowers combinations now available, customers do not have to contemplate whether to send a flower bouquet or a box of fresh-dipped fruit. Plus, Edible offers the convenience of same-day and free next-day delivery.

In order to maintain Edible Brands’ reputation for quality and freshness, FruitFlowers will supply flowers direct from the farm to the Edible stores from which customers order for either curbside pickup or delivery. Each bouquet will be created with only the freshest assortment of flowers handcrafted exclusively for Edible by the brand’s partner farms, making each FruitFlowers gift different from the rest.

Foodservice Solutions® team is here to help you drive top line sales and bottom-line profits. Are you looking a customer ahead? Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Outside of the Box Thinking Drives Edible Success

Five years ago, the Edible Arrangements brand had be ignored abandon and became a postmark at industry cocktail parties as it did not fit in.  Then Edible leadership spotted the grocerant niche filled with Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food filling overflowing customers and new customer migration, all just looking for new avenues of distribution and guess what.  A turnaround began to happen. 

According to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® when you combine a brand known for fresh food, grocerant messaging, and a pandemic you will end up a winner.

So, when Edible announced a record-breaking performance across the organization for the first six months of 2020. Over the course of the first half of this year, Edible sales were up 18 percent in total, with U.S. company sales since April 1 up 70 percent as the brand continues picking up steam Johnson was not surprised.

Edible Brands president and COO Cheikh Mboup credits the impressive results to the company’s commitment to being a trusted and comforting brand in times of need, as conveyed by the brand’s evolution to meet changing business demands of a loyal worldwide customer base at the height of the COVID-19 crisis.

“Across all industries, this year has presented its fair share of obstacles due to the coronavirus,” Mboup acknowledged. “As the crisis began to unfold, we focused on doing what we could as a [quick-service restaurant] to support society as a whole. We pivoted our business in many ways so we could serve communities, families and friends in ways like never before in our 20-plus years, and we are grateful those efforts paid off.

Highlights of achievements across the Edible network from January – June of 2020 included:

the launch of whole fruit and produce boxes, free delivery and curbside pickup initiatives to serve customers at-large during the pandemic;

·         best April sales in company history, up 38 percent YOY

·         best single sales month in company history in May, up 45 percent YOY

·         an all-time high Mother’s Day with more than 700,000 orders fulfilled

·         best June sales in company history, up 55 percent YOY

·         the launch of the Manage-to-Own Program that will award existing Edible stores to select candidates who otherwise could not afford to open a franchise.

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 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

In A Battle for Share of Stomach

Are you Winning? 

Edible Plans to Sell Fresh Food Fast

When Edible named Scott Wakeman Executive Vice President of Marketing the food industry took notice as Wakeman the former VP of Marketing at Checkers Restaurants understood how to marketing, sell, and package fresh food fast according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

So, when Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Inc. and Edible Arrangements, LLC entered into a long-term strategic alliance whereby Rocky Mountain will become the exclusive provider of certain branded chocolate products to Edible, its affiliates and its franchisees industry insiders were not surprised as Wakeman also understands how to work with franchisees.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory branded products will be available for purchase both on Edible’s website as well as through over 1,000 franchised Edible Arrangement locations nationwide. In addition, due to Edible’s significant e-commerce expertise and scale, Edible and Rocky Mountain have also executed a letter of intent for Edible to be responsible for all e-commerce sales from the Rocky Mountain corporate website and the broader Rocky Mountain e-commerce eco-system

Wakeman, will lead global marketing strategy and execution for Edible Brands. He will be responsible for managing and building a team that will develop a strategic marketing plan that integrates strong vertical marketing programs as well as generation strategies. Edifying the franchise base with the inclusion of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory branded products elevates consumer choice and Wakeman understands that is a key driver when selling grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat fresh food.

Tariq Farid, Founder and CEO of Edible stated “Edible is evolving, and we knew finding the right leader to fill this role was critical as we continue molding the Edible brand for the future,”. “Scott joins us as an accomplished executive with the kind of talent and expertise we need to continue pushing forward as we begin introducing innovative programs designed to drive new business for the brand.”

In his most recent position, Wakeman served as Vice President of Marketing for Checkers & Rally’s Restaurants. For this organization, Wakeman led the 900-restaurant chain’s advertising, field marketing and media strategy. Prior to his time with Checkers & Rally’s, Wakeman held various marketing and management positions with esteemed brands including the Houston Astros, Barcardi, L’Oréal and Colgate-Palmolive Co.

Wakeman graduated from Emory University in Atlanta with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and later went on to earn a Master of Business Administration degree from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Wakeman is helping Edible look a customer ahead.  What are you doing to look ahead?

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