Portable Food Evolves to Portable Retail

Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® asks does your retail foodservice footprint look more like yesterday than today’s interactive participatory successful footprints?  If so you have a long way to go to catch up to tomorrow’s footprint if it is anything like the “Little Yellow Horse”.

Ok, just Imagine a c-store that comes to you. If you cannot you are not on the same page as Liu Zhiyong, founder and CEO of Zhen Robotics, which manufactures a snack-delivering robot, sees a bright future for his “Little Yellow Horse." 

About the size of a small washing machine, this autonomous robot delivers drinks, fruit and snacks from a local store to the residents of the Kafka compound in the Chinese capital of Beijing.

The “Little Yellow Horse” is equipped with a GPS system, cameras and radar, and the CEO of Zhen predicts that 1 billion packages will eventually be delivered every day because of technologies like his. He goes on to say that "there will not be enough humans to make the deliveries. We need more and more robots to fill this gap in manpower and to reduce costs."

China is the world's biggest online shopping market with more than half of its population making at least one smartphone purchase per month, according to professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. This compares to 14% in the rest of the world.

To get a delivery via the "Little Yellow Horse," according to a report in Japan Today, the customer selects the desired products, taps in the address and pays right on their phone. The supermarket staff place the items in the robot, and the robot takes off.  So, we ask are you looking far enough into the future or are you looking backwards for your next steps?

Deliveries in China are increasingly being made by autonomous means and several firms have received the okay to operate drones, either to deliver directly to the customer or to ferry goods between hubs.  Are you ready for some fresh ideations?

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. 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, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant

At 4 PM Do You Know What is for Dinner?

Its 4 PM: your customers are just beginning to think about what’s for dinner. 68.7 of American consumers are unsure about what’s for dinner according to the latest Grocerant ScoreCard conducted by the team at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®.

Today consumers are looking for high quality Ready-2-Eat and or Heat-N-Eat fresh and prepared food.  What they want to do is buy meal components that they can mixed and matched with other meal component  then bundled into a customized family meal that will please everyone without spending time cooking.

Consumers today have the opportunity to purchase high quality chef prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food from independent restaurants, grocery stores, chain drugstores, convenience stores, chain restaurants and non-traditional food retailers the ilk of Amazon.com and food trucks.  It is at the convergence of all of these new and legacy meal component points of distribution you find the Grocerant niche.

The grocerant niche refers to prepared food that is portable and Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat fresh food that is deemed “better for you”.  The consumers are finding grocerant niche prepared meal components in grocery store deli sections including Whole foods, Trader Joes, Safeway Lifestyle stores and Central Market, convenience stores including Wawa, Sheetz, Rutter’s Farm Stores, and 7 Eleven, chain restaurants and independent restaurants around the world.

Successful foodservice operators today need to understand that differentiation in menu items and food products doesn’t mean different, rather it means familiar with a twist; taking ordinary daily menu items, adding contemporary relevance.   Then presenting, positioning and pricing competitively; these are the universal footprints of success found within the grocerant niche.

Henry David Thoreau reminds us, “things do not change, we do” Successful retail foodservice takes on a life of its own and is dynamic not static.   Success does not just happen it is planned, focused and based on good informed choices.

Its 4PM; are you ready for your customers?  Remember, the consumer is now shopping in the grocerant niche.  Make sure your food is prepared food that is portable, ready-2-eat and or heat-N-eat and deemed “better for you”. 

Chain restaurants, grocery stores, dollar stores and non-traditional fresh food retailers today understand that differentiation in menu items and food products doesn’t mean different, but familiar with a twist.  Leveraging traditional menu items by adding a twist with contemporize relevance then positioning, placing, packaging and pricing with portability are the keys to success in retail foodservice and the grocerant niche today.

For international corporate presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson 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. Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

Yum Brands Consolidated Catering Platform

Success does leave clues and regular readers of this blog know that Steven Johnson, our Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® has been speaking highly of YUM! Brands and Greg Creed since 2015 as Yum Brands has been evolving with consumers, address grocerant niche customer migration and taking positive action steps.

Regular followers of this blog also know that Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® thinks there is one dominate element that will power success within retail foodservice over the coming years.

 Johnson calls it the new electricity that is partnerships specifically strategic partnerships.   The new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh food, sustainable packaging, local beer & wine, urban farming (produce, seafood, etc.), autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, cash-less payments, digital hand held marketing. Yum Brands GrubHub partnerships is all of that.

Food companies the ilk of Restaurants Supermarkets, Conveniences Stores, Dollar Stores, and Department Stores selling food that want to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food.  That will require brands to embrace new fresh food partnerships more now than ever before according to Johnson.

In a move to garner incremental customer relevance across all of Yum Brands banners CEO Greg Creed  made a power move in fast food’s delivery this week announcing an expansive U.S. partnership with third-party giant GrubHub. 

Partnerships that work are good for both companies first KFC and Taco Bell’s ability to offer online ordering,” in all existing GrubHub markets is a win for both brands.  However with a $200,000 Million Dollar investment into GruHub clearly the partnership begins with plenty of respect on both sides.  The cash inflow will allow GrubHub the ability to build out new markets for expanded delivery service with building restaurants waiting for the taking. 

Close to y half of YUM!’s 45,000 restaurants already offer pickup and delivery via online ordering. Greg Creed, CEO of Louisville, Ky.-based Yum, said KFC delivery is being tested in several markets, citing Indianapolis, Ind., Louisville and Omaha, Neb.

What GurHub and Yum Brands have done is take legacy delivery programs and integrate a platform for branded consolidated catering to be offered market by market.  Yum Brands consolidated catering program now has Take-Out, Online-Line Ordering, Mobile Ordering and Delivery.  Today Yum Brands marketing strategy looks more like tomorrow than yesterday.  What does your marketing strategy look like Yesterday, Today or Tomorrow?

Once Greg Creed shows he understands the mind-set of the grocerant consumers and he is doing all the right things according to Johnson. Proof YUM! is purchasing $200 million of common GrubHub stock, enough said. What’s under your catering umbrella, yesterday’s tactics or tomorrow’s strategy?

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Freshii Flying High

The best way to introduce your food brand to consumers is via sampling your food, taste testing, and social media today according to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson. Next month Freshii will be doing just that when they begin selling food on hundreds of Air Canada flights each day. 

This October, Air Canada travelers will get a new option for their meals from Freshii. The Toronto, Canada healthful fast-casual chain has an agreement in place “serve a selection of its food on hundreds of Air Canada flights per day” beginning on October 1, 2017.

Freshii CEO Matthew Corrin stated  “The sky is the limit when it comes to delivering on the Freshii mission of making healthy food convenient and affordable to citizens of the world,” and the team at Foodservice Solutions® believes that this is a great new avenue of distribution for Freshii. .

Corrin continued “I am a frequent Air Canada flyer myself, and I am proud to partner with this global airline to support their innovation for the benefit of their customers and our guests alike.”

Freshii menu items the ilk of “Pangoa Bowl and Fiesta Wrap will be available on Air Canada flights for lunch and dinner, and its Avocado Smash Box will be available for breakfast. Specific menu items can be seen on the onboard menu in seat pockets of certain flights in North America offering the airline’s Air Canada Bistro.” So if you are not eating on chances are you will see someone else doing so or read about it on the plane.

This is a win, win according to our Grocerant Guru® and  Benjamin Smith, president, passenger airlines at Air Canada stated “We’re excited to bring Freshii’s innovative meals and snacks as a new option to our North American onboard bistro service.

New non-traditional locations are nothing new for the 332-unit Freshii chain.  They have placed food in non-tradtional location including restaurants in Target stores and has made public entreaties to Subway operators and frozen yogurt franchisees in its effort to grow.

This is clearly not a first  as Airlines have been offering branded food and beverages on flights. Virgin America serves Philz Coffee, and JetBlue Airways has served Dunkin’ Donuts coffee for years. Delta Airlines serves Starbucks Coffee. The regional airline Sun Country will deliver Jimmy John’s subs on some flights.

Thinking about exposure, incremental customers remember that Air Canada is one of the 20 largest airlines in the world and served nearly 45 million customers in 2016. The airline provides passenger service to 64 airports in Canada, 57 in the U.S. and 95 in Europe. I ask you where are you selling food?

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, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant

Domino’s Dominates Delivery

Leaders lead there is no doubt in the minds-eye of anyone at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® that when it comes to technology, delivery, and customer relevance that Domino’s leadership is undeniable in fact our own Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson who believes that Domino’s branded delivery has taken a dominate position in the minds-eye of the consumer.

Most regular readers of this blog have seen, experienced, Domino’s fist chain wide delivery vehicle. That car has become a point of qualitative differentiation for Domino’s according to Johnson that simultaneously drove a marketing message that Domino’s was ‘Looking A Customer Ahead’.

Now that Ford motors and Domino’s Pizza are teaming up to test self-driving pizza delivery cars in Michigan, as part of an effort to better understand how customers respond to and interact with autonomous vehicles we can envision another spike up in customer relevance for Domino’s.

Soon randomly selected Domino’s customers in Ann Arbor, Michigan will have the option to accept pizza deliveries from a Ford Fusion Hybrid autonomous research vehicle. But the car won’t be driving itself. Each car will be driven by a Ford safety engineer, with other researchers onboard, who will zero in on the last 50 feet of the customer experience.

Sherif Marakby, Vice President of Ford Autonomous Vehicles and Electrification, described the project as ethnographic research stating that “We don’t want to wait until we get everything done on the tech and remove the driver. We’re trying to start doing the research. We still are working on the technology, because it’s not ready to be put on public streets,” he said. “It’s simulating that the vehicle is in autonomous mode.”

Russell Weiner, president of Domino’s USA, said in a statement. “The majority of our questions are about the last 50 feet of the delivery experience.”… “We’re interested to learn what people think about this type of delivery.  Areas of focus include how willing are people to come outside to pick up their orders, the way they approach the car, and how they interact with the screen outside of the vehicle to get the food.

Is your company ‘Looking A Customer Ahead’?  Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  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. 

Foodservice and Technology Inseparable

When it comes to retail foodservice today technology is seemingly as important a fresh food with flavor according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson.  How customers order their food, where they order from are evolving how we define service in foodservice today. 

In a new study conducted by Oracle Hospitality titled “The Hotel 2025 and Restaurant 2025 reports conducted in February 2017 proved to be very insightful. Here are some of the insights:

Recognition and Personalization Will be a Driver for Future Technologies

• 33 percent of restaurant and 72 percent of hotel operators say that guest recognition via facial biometrics will be in use within the next five years.
• 31 percent of restaurant guests and 41 percent of hotel guests will be more likely to visit an establishment with greater frequency if they are recognized by a server or associate without having to give their name or show a loyalty card.
• Both restaurant (49 percent) and hotel (62 percent) guests agree that having this recognition would improve their experience.
• 28 percent of restaurant customers would visit more often and 45 percent said it would improve their experience if service was faster because they were recognized.
• 42 percent of restaurant guests find suggestions based on health invasive and 68 percent find suggestions based on digital footprint invasive.
• 47 percent of hotel guests agree that using artificial intelligence to suggest items based on past purchases would improve their experience.
• 72 percent of hotel operators agree that AI-based systems that leverage guest preferences and buying history to make targeted dining recommendations will be mainstream by 2025.

Consumers are Warming to Voice-Activated Experiences

• 36 percent of restaurant guests say ordering through a virtual assistant would improve experience and 17 percent would visit more often, along with 50 percent and 33 percent of hotel guests respectively.
• 59 percent of hotel guests believe controlling their room via a voice-activated device would enhance the guest experience and operators agree. Hotel operators polled indicated that managing room control and ambiance management (78 percent) via voice activation would be widespread by 2025. Hotel operators also believed that ordering room or hotel services (70 percent) via voice activation would be adopted by 2025.
• Operators are keen on gathering customer feedback by voice; 61 percent of restaurant operators and 68 percent of hotels said this will be in use in the next 5 years.

Virtual Reality will Enhance the Booking and on-Property Experience in Hotels

• Consumers also indicated that virtual reality tours of hotel properties (66 percent) and virtual reality lounges for entertainment (44 percent) would improve the guest experience.
• Hotel operators also believe virtual reality technology will be widespread by 2025 with a variety of use cases: staff training (68 percent), guest entertainment on property (64 percent), and previewing meeting rooms (63 percent).

Robots Won’t be Replacing Hospitality Staff Anytime Soon

• 50 percent of restaurant guests said being served by a robot would not improve the guest experience and 40 percent would visit less.
• 37 percent of hotel guests said being served by a robot would not improve the guest experience and 22 percent would visit less.
• 64 percent of restaurant and 58 percent of hotel operators say that the use of robots for cleaning is appealing.

Operators Begin To Consider Investment in Wearable Technology

• 51 percent of restaurants and 63 percent of hotels say staff activity monitoring via wearable device will be in use in the next 5 years.
• 59 percent of restaurants and 78 percent of hotels say that staff checking into work and onto workstations via wearable device will be in use in the next 5 years.

Do your marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us 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.