Grocerant Guru’s 10 Clues Too Drive Customer Counts UP

The retail foodservice customer is not fickle they are evolving, dynamic and moving forward searching for ways to many dinner complexity free according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson.  I hope you are not the Neanderthal brand marketer we talked about in yesterday’s blog.  

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, bottom-line profits and year over year customer counts.  Here are his 10 Clues:

1.       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. 

2.       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?

3.       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.

4.       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.

5.       Consistency:  Consumers today choose a product or service because of brand association.  The consumer 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.

6.       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.

7.       Imitators: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and you're probably not a 'brand' until you have competitors trying to copy you. Enough said. (However, we have imitators trying to play catch up and we thank you for edifying our brand and sharing this blog.)

8.       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.

9.       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.

10.   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.

Success does leave clues feel free to reach out for a private corporate presentation, confidential engagements, educational forums, or keynote. Contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® at: 253-759-7869 Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  Facebook.com/Steven Johnson Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

Food First Technology Second

Remember the old adage Food First for those of us of a certain age the quality, consistency, flavor and freshness of the food will always be number one.  In fact Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® stated “our Grocerant ScoreCards indicate today the number one reason to return to a restaurant, or prepared food vendor is the ‘quality, flavor, and freshness’  of the food.

In a new study by AlixPartners, however drew some contrast as to how a food retailers must evolve while maintain quality, flavor and freshness including the fact that 44 percent of consumers cited “want to eat healthier”.   Not surprisingly, is a growing gap between millennials and baby boomers when it comes to technology. The Study found:

1.       Forty-two percent of millennials said that technology is “very” or “extremely” influential in their decision to dine out.

2.       That number plummets to 18 percent for baby boomers.

3.       In total, 42 percent of respondents say they’ve never used mobile technology for dining out and that only 40 and 35 percent, respectively for the generations, care if there is free WiFi in the eatery.

4.       Loyalty programs also appear slow to catch on. Only 19 percent of consumers said loyalty programs are “very” or “extremely” influential in their decision-making process—a number that is up 5 percent from a year ago.

5.        Forty percent polled said they haven’t joined a loyalty program. However, those who are in one are using them more frequently (36 percent compared to 31 percent from a year ago).

6.       Fifty percent of millennials in the survey expressed interest in the availability of call-in-advance delivery. Baby boomers, at a 46 percent clip, prefer traditional “in-the-moment” delivery.

7.       Nearly 75 percent said they order delivery from the same restaurant routinely, and more than half (53 percent) credit that to a lack of good options.

8.       Thirty-eight percent said they would like to see more casual-dining options, while 37 percent want more fast-casual offerings, and 34 percent hope for additional fast-food outlets.

9.        A whopping 71 percent said they prefer to order directly from the restaurant, showing that third-party services aren’t for everyone.

Kurt Schnaubelt, managing director at AlixPartners edified the team at Foodservice Solutions® findings noting that Food quality (63 percent) was number one in their study followed by  price (57 percent) led the way as motivators. Also, 56 percent said that grocery stores are better options due to price.

Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing 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.