A McDonald’s McGold Card Could be Yours

 

Happy Holiday’s from McDonald’s.  The global fresh fast-food retailers is offering its legendary ‘Gold Card’ this holiday season.  That’s right McDonald’s is rewarding customers this holiday season with some of its very best ‘deals’ of the year according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  

New, old, and interested consumers are invited to celebrate the season with McDonald’s at McDonald’s according to Johnson, “it is a brand invitation which few will want to miss out on.”

So, McDonald’s is introducing: the season (SZN), ‘SZN of Sharing’, a first-of-its kind holiday celebration happening exclusively on the McDonald’s App. From December 5-25, McDonald’s is bringing you (and your crew) daily deals on your favorite menu items, cozy-yet-cool merch drops, and even the chance to win the iconic McGold Card (iykyk). 

You might want to begin dreaming of a McGold Card Holiday

That’s right, just what would you do if you had a McGold Card aka free McDonald’s for life? Treat your work bestie to a morning McCafé coffee pick-me-up? Surprise your neighbors with mid-week McNuggets? Delight unsuspecting folks behind you in the Drive Thru with free dinner?

This holiday season, there’s only one way to find out. Starting December 5, every purchase using the McDonald's App gets you one step closer to scoring a card not just for you, but also three of your besties, too.

Tariq Hassan, McDonald’s USA Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer, stated, "Our fans have been fascinated by the lore of the McGold Card and if it really exists. And now, we’ll make this McDonald’s legend a reality for our fans by giving them the ultimate holiday gift – a chance to win a card and then share access to it with three of their family or friends,” … “Just by using the McDonald’s App, everyone can experience the joy that comes with sharing McDonald’s this holiday season.”

Yes, there is more, you can Deck the Halls with McDonald’s Merch

For customers who want to spread holiday cheer all year round, a $1 minimum purchase in the app gives you access to two exclusive merch drops on December 7 and 14. The best part? The merch is perfect for you to enjoy with your squad – from hanging matching stockings to twinning in matching PJs.

Then the December 7 merch drop will include Chicken McNuggets stockings, McDonald’s Dream Order PJs, a McDonald’s AM Wrapper Hoodie and PM Wrapper Hoodie in Egg McMuffin or Cheeseburger prints, and a puzzle featuring your favorite McDonald’s dipping sauces.

Yet even more, on December 14, in partnership with Diamond Supply Co., the McDonald’s merch drop will feature Hamburglar graphic tees, a hoodie and a beanie.

Grocerant Niche Mix & Match Bundling with Festive Food Deals

Holiday time is family times so of course, it’s not the holiday season without sharing your favorite food with your crew. You could buy a Big Mac or Crispy Chicken Sandwich, and get one for free, score free 6-piece Chicken McNuggets with a $1 minimum purchase, or even grab a $0.50 Double Cheeseburger.

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideas look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how our Grocerant Guru® 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: us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Kroger is Capitalizing on Technology Savvy Customer too Drive Loyalty

 

The future of most food retailer’s success will be found in those that utilize technology to save time and money and that future can be found in both Gen Z and Millennial consumers according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Recently Kroger's new loyalty membership program Boost launched nationwide, representing the latest expansion of its loyalty program. This program cost, but the time saving just might be worth more than the coast according to Johnson.

So, the annual membership provides customers unlimited free grocery delivery on orders of $35 or more, fuel discounts of up to $1 per gallon and additional savings on the grocer's Our Brands products, the Cincinnati-based grocer said. Kroger estimates that the membership can save customers more than $1,000 per year on fuel and grocery delivery. The tiered program gives customers the choice of two annual membership levels at $59 or $99. 

Yael Cosset, SVP and chief information officer for Kroger, stated, "As customers continue to evolve how they shop and eat, this expansion of our loyalty program offers more personalized value in groceries and fuel, alongside easier access to convenient shopping solutions, such as Delivery," …. "We are committed to consistently delivering a best-in-class seamless experience with zero compromise—the fresh and quality products our customers want, how they want it and when they want it. We recognize this is especially important as our customers are facing an inflationary environment and rising fuel prices."

Kroger Chairman and CEO Rodney McMullen revealed, they were encouraged by the number of new members in the four pilot divisions as delivery sales increased significantly compared to non-Boost divisions, McMullen said in a statement. 

"Kroger achieved strong first-quarter results as we successfully executed on our strategy of Leading With Fresh and Accelerating With Digital,” he said.

“Boost contributes to our rapidly expanding seamless ecosystem, bringing value and convenience to many more families across America as we roll-out new delivery fulfillment centers," said Bill Bennett, Kroger VP and head of e-commerce. Bennett also added that that through Boost, Kroger is confident it has built a differentiated membership program that its customers will love.

Digital natives like convenience more than shopping. Time starved and inflation just might drive incremental customers into this new program according to Johnson.

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 us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

In a Battle for Share of Stomach

Technology Partnerships

Help

Wendy’s Price Drives Frequency and Brand Adoption

 

Yes, the line between restaurants and food retailers continues to grow even ever thinner. The fight for America's food dollars and share of stomach continues to intensify.  Today, consumers can find fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food options at a wide and growing array of outlets across every channel: convenience stores, chain drug stores, restaurants, grocery stores, club stores, vending, gas stations, and dollar stores and Wendy’s wants to win.

Most food manufacturers, retailers, and restaurants worry about choice overload, consumers have embraced their new meal choices. The restaurant industry is slow to innovate according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Johnson stated, typically the larger the chain, the slower they move to adopt something compared to a smaller chain or independent restaurant. The goal of chain restaurants is simple—to feed one meal at a time in the restaurant while protecting and edifying the brand.”

Consumers are dynamic not static so, historically, chain restaurant leaders have denied the credibility of start-up competitors as irrelevant. The pizza sector is a great example; evolving from family dining independents to a national chain of "Red Roof" Italian, then to delivery-only outlets.

However, it is at the intersection of the consumer, freshly prepared food, and technology we find that consumer eating behavior is now beyond the control of traditional food marketers. Evolving culture, lifestyle, demographics, and uncertain economy all put pressure on the American food consumer: Demands of work, economic shrinkage, raising a family, commuting, social interaction, kid's after-school activities, all contribute to a food marketplace where convenience vies with price.

 

Today, restaurateurs need to be particularly mindful of developments within grocerant niche for they are driving the change within the price, value, service equilibrium in retail foodservice and how and where consumers find meals and meal components. Here is Foodservice Solutions® current formula: 

 

(Mobile Access +Social Media + Digital Payments + Delivery) X (Price +Food Quality + Speed) = Value 

 

From Incremental Value:  Constantly Changing Menu (Seasonally / Sustainability with Credibility) 

 

Focusing on value, Wendy's is bringing back the Bacon Double Stack as part of the $5 Biggie Bag. The bag includes the Bacon Double Stack, four-piece chicken nuggets (Spicy or Crispy), small fries, and a small drink. That is an interactive, participatory meal comprised of valued meal components.

Consumers can order online, via the Wendy's mobile app or head to their nearest Wendy's restaurant to #SecureTheBag. They can also download the Wendy's app so you don't miss out on future major bag alerts and earn free Wendy's with Wendy's Rewards.  Focusing on meals and meal component’s is a touchpoint no food retailer can forget. Value drives brand frequency, which in turn drives incremental value.  

Looking for success clues of your own? 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 us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Battle for Share of Stomach

Baskin-Robbins Inviting Customer Participation with Interactive Marketing

Back in the day known for have 31 flavors Baskin-Robbins leveraged choice as a way to drive interactive participatory customer loyalty. According to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® one success clue everyone can pick-up from Baskin-Robbins is understand what consumers expect from your brand, evolve it with relevance, and you will edify your brand. 

That said, once again focusing on interactive participatory marketing, Baskin-Robbins is transporting ice cream lovers to a magical new world with the launch of its new Creature Creations lineup that brings three whimsical characters to life in a decked-out scoop.

This time the cast of characters, have playful personalities that everyone can relate to, brings imaginative fun from the menu board down to the last bite and gives consumers another way to let their ice cream creativity run wild – just in time for National Ice Cream Month.

There are three lovable creatures, a Unicorn, Mermaid and Monster, cross over from their magical world into Baskin-Robbins shops through playful cup designs, an edible white chocolate topper and a colorful explosion of sprinkles. No matter what creature you may be, the Baskin-Robbins’ Creature Creations™ crew will speak to you through their own unique designs that bring their colorful personalities to life:

Unicorn Creature Creation: The Unicorn Creature Creation proves there’s no such thing as too much flair for any adventure – or ice cream treat. With a majestic white chocolate horn and a sweet smile, this creature is up for flippin’, flyin’ and ridin’ on rainbows – and rainbow sprinkles.

Mermaid Creature Creation: Dive into the creatures’ imaginary world with the Mermaid Creature Creation. Topped with a wave of sprinkles and an edible mermaid tail, this lady and her posse of playful dolphins will add a splash of excitement to any scoop.

Monster Creature Creation: With a single inquisitive white chocolate eyeball, the Monster Creature Creation is always looking for some fun – and a reason to celebrate with ice cream. Topped with a fun-filled eruption of colorful sprinkles, this creature will make you scream for ice cream.

Creature Creations can be customized with any Baskin-Robbins flavor, giving everyone a chance to embrace their inner creature. Each Creature Creations™ purchase will also come with a free creature-inspired crown to give everyone a chance to sprinkle some extra magic into their day.

Shannon Blakely, Vice President of Marketing at Baskin-Robbins  stated ,“At Baskin-Robbins we love to provide families with fun ways to connect,” … “We’re incredibly excited to launch Creature Creations™ and have everyone experience a totally out-of-the-ordinary way to take an imaginative ice cream break and let their inner creature out.” How is your brand evolving with relevance?

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® 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 us on our social media sites by clicking the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

White Castle Wants to Warm Customer Up for Christmas

White Castle is a brand known as the “House of Crave” where brand loyalist will go to great lengths to seek out and get a ‘slider’ anytime of the day or night.  According to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® rewarding while edifying brand loyalist is one of the things that White Castle does better than most restaurant chains.

In an effort to keep it brand loyalist warm White Castle, has added a new item to its House of Crave inventory that’s sure to be a hit for the holidays – a festive blue sweater featuring the White Castle logo and rows of sliders, snowflakes, fries, wreaths and drinks.

The warm-and-cozy sweater, which is available in sizes small to 5XL, is perfect for outdoor fun and family gatherings, not to mention for ugly (and beautiful) sweater contests. Orders placed by December 16 will arrive in time for Christmas; expedited shipping will be available after that date for an additional cost.

The ugly sweater, which was created in partnership with the Ugly Sweater Store, pairs perfectly with White Castle’s slider socks and the royal blue White Castle beanie.

Battle for Share of Stomach

To make the ugly sweater even more enticing, all House of Crave orders placed on December 2, Cyber Monday, will receive free ground shipping. So, anyone planning to purchase an ugly sweater or anything else from the online store can save money by shopping on that day.

Check out the fun and unique items that round out the Top 10 items – all adorned with the iconic White Castle logo – in White Castle’s Holiday Gift Guide:

·         Silver winter-themed lunchbox decorated with snowflakes and an ornament

·         Blue, light-up glass ornament

·         13-ounce blue ceramic campfire mug

·         Blue knit scarf with three white stripes

·         A pink or light blue creeper (onesie), available in newborn through 24 months

·         Fashionable flannel pants with a checkered pattern of black and electric blue

·         Titleist DT TruSoft golf balls

·         Slider-scented candle (100% of net candle sales will be donated to Autism Speaks)

·         $25 White Castle gift card to satisfy the crave morning, noon or night

·         White Castle ugly sweater

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

Teriyaki Madness Technology Drives Customer Returns

Regular readers of this blog know that 2019 is the year that food marketing partnerships are driving customer relevance while edifying top line sales and bottom line profits for large and small branded food outlets according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Teriyaki Madness less than a year after the successful launch of its new app that allowed its fans to get their big bowls faster and easier than ever before, is spicing things up yet again too garner New Electricity.  Rolling out an all-new loyalty program with every Teriyaki Madness purchase, fans accrue points that can be redeemed for free drinks, sides and bowls of all kinds.

Teriyaki Madness VP of Marketing Jodi Boyce Stated “As we continue to grow, we knew we needed to invest in building stronger relationships with our customers through the type of mobile convenience they expect of their favorite restaurants today,” … “The first step was partnering with Punchh to develop our mobile app last summer. Now, we’re introducing a loyalty program that will reward our fans for choosing to satisfy their cravings with Teriyaki Madness.”

In addition to earning a free bowl with the purchase of another bowl and two drinks just for signing up on the app.  Teriyaki Madness new loyalty program will also feature special offers and sprint deals that reward customers for earning a certain number of points in a given month with a discount or free item, starting with offering double points for all orders through July 31!

Teriyaki Madness VP of Marketing Jodi Boyce also has plans to incorporate a donation feature where customers can donate the point’s they’ve earned to a charity to provide meals for others rather than use the points themselves. Plus, they’ll give you a free bowl on your birthday, just because.

Boyce adds continues “We’re excited to roll out our Loyalty program as a way to thank our regular customers while also attracting new ones thanks to its strong value proposition. “Punchh has a stellar reputation and the type of partner integration we needed to deliver for our loyal fans, and we can’t wait for them to experience the added convenience and stellar rewards this new platform offers.”

So, what are you doing too drive new electricity?  According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new menu related 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, plant based  foods,  sampling, toy’s, 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 food and beverage retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food and beverages that are 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 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.

Microsoft Global Grocery Technology Platform Elevates Competitiveness

Microsoft excels at developing software technology platforms for business and Loblaw knows a good thing when they see it according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  

Yes, Canada’s largest food and drug retailer is leveraging Microsoft’s cloud computing, data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to help power its digital transformation, with a focus on developing a more personalized experience for customers, while edifying its competitiveness according Johnson.

We must note that Loblaw joins the likes of the top five U.S. grocery retailers by sales — Walmart, The Kroger Co., Costco Wholesale Corp., Albertsons Cos. and Ahold Delhaize — as Microsoft cloud customers.

The Redmond, Wash.-based tech company unveiled sweeping partnerships with Kroger and Albertsons in January and with Walmart last July to use its Azure cloud platform to help drive their digital initiatives. Costco adopted Azure as its hybrid cloud platform in 2017. Other food and drug retailers using Azure include Walgreens Boots Alliance, which announced a partnership with Microsoft in January, and Giant Eagle.

Loblaw worked with Microsoft to integrate its AI technology into the retailer’s PC Optimum loyalty program to tailor deals and offers to members based on their online preferences.  David Markwell, senior vice president of information technology at Loblaw “We’ve partnered with Microsoft to create digital experiences that not only meet our customers’ expectations, but exceed them,”

Markwell continued “A key objective was to “democratize” customer data stored in siloes, a project that Loblaw and Microsoft were able to accomplish in 90 days.” “With the data already collected but separated into different customer experiences, it made sense to move it all to the cloud and to leverage AI tools to drive results,” Markwell (left) explained. “With AI, I see this democratization of knowledge and ability to make decisions being moved out into the business units.”

Using Azure to securely store and process data, Loblaw redesigned its customer data by disassembling the siloed information and then anonymizing and aggregating it to build a feature to customize offers to PC Optimum members at scale.

“It allowed us to cross-pollinate user experiences and deliver it to millions of people at once,” said Peter Danforth, vice president of loyalty program strategy and management for Loblaw. “What AI enables us to do is make a decision at a scale that was just impossible before.”

By using Microsoft’s cloud and AI solutions to redefine the customer experience, Loblaw was able to develop more personalized deals, making a stronger connection with its shoppers. According to Johnson Loblaw is looking a customer ahead.

“Predictive AI can help us to communicate on a one-to-one basis with each customer or provide relevant offerings to each customer,” said Jenny McConvey, director of targeting support and systems at Loblaw. Are you elevating you brands competitive footprint?

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? 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.