Chick-fil-A Edifies Customer Relevance with Meal Kits

Menus, meal kits, and marketing Chick-fil-A extends their brand into the home building a deeper relationship with the consumer.  Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® described this brand extension as an example of industry leadership at the intersection customer understanding and building a new food sales platform to drive incremental growth. 

Successful restaurant chains must evolve with the consumer and Chick-fil-A is doing just that by evolving its business model into the grocerant niche with its own meal kit brand, Mealtime Kits, at 150 locations in its home city starting Aug. 27, 2018. If success does leave clues and it does the restaurant business model will be forever changed according to Johnson.

Convenience stores, grocery stores and legacy meal kit companies will be watching this move closer than many restaurant chain executives. However, if successful in this ideation or the next ideation the retail food-space is forever changed according to Johnson.

It is now clear that Chick-fil-A’s insights from ethnographic research, industry syndicated studies, and internal data indicate that customer migration into the grocerant niche will continue and that they are not going to sit back and capitulate customers or the opportunity for growth. Chick-fil-A is first major quick-service chain to offer meal kits according to Johnson.

With a full understanding of consumers fresh food desires Chick-fil-A is edifying consumer’s desires for a non-subscription service.  By limiting the options of five meals with premeasured ingredients that customers can pick up in the drive thru-or at the front counter they eliminate the paradox of choice overload.

Chick-fil-A understands that driving incremental year over year same store customer counts requires doing something different. The c-level team at Chick-fil-A also understand that differentiation does not mean different it means familiar but with a twist.  Meal Kit’s available for pick-up at the drive thru is a fresh fast food option that consumers have been looking for according to Johnson.

This just might be the new electricity to drive the entire fast food sector to new highs over the next ten years according to Johnson. So, just what is your brands new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food 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, meal kits, urban clothing, grocerant consultants, urban farming (produce, seafood, etc.), autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, cash-less payments, digital hand held marketing. This program has all of that.

Foodservice retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.  That will require brands to embrace new fresh food partnerships more now than ever before according to Johnson.

Michael Patrick, an innovation program lead at Chick-fil-A who is leading the Mealtime Kits effort stated “We know our guests are busier than ever and need a variety of convenient dinner options,”... “We designed our offering so our guests don’t have to order ahead, subscribe to a service or make an extra stop at the grocery store. They simply pick up a Mealtime Kit at one of our restaurants at their convenience.”

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities.  Are you looking for a new menu product, food segment, brand, or menu integration strategy?  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche since 1991

The Grocerant Niche is Upsetting the Foodservice Status Quo

Gen Z and Millennials in search of food discover consumers are now driving the growth of Omni-Channel food retail according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®. The success of Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food has been documented, talked about and written about for one reason of late. It is driving top line sales and bottom line profits within existing points of distribution and more importantly at non-traditional points of fresh food distribution garnering share from legacy food retailers.

If you are not cultivating a brand you are simply curating your brand? Are you still doing what you did in 1999, 2005 or 2014?  Is your food company prepared to succeed in 2018, 2019 … 2025? Here are some of the advantages to entering or expanding your business within the grocerant niche.

Abandon Brand Protectionism

If you want to garner additional customers to drive top line growth you must look outside of for current box.  Brand protectionism is dying.  Are you over protecting your brand?  Most large food retailers, big companies, have a narrow brand focus.  That ways yesterday’s strategy for yesterday’s customer.

It time to look a customer ahead not protect what worked 20 years ago. Most legacy retail food brands have honed their brand and supply chain. They have set and defined boundaries, and continue to limit the brand to those predefined boundaries.

Time and technology have redefined the consumer playing field. Your brand must become dynamic again or risk losing consumer relevance. There is a huge opportunity for share of market if you elect to evolve you brand with migrating fresh food consumers in take-out and take-way options.

Customer Outcomes Trump Customer Status Quo

Are you paying your C-team to play it safe? Large food retailers typically pay more at the C-level, and are seen as stable employment currencies (not-taking risk). While do no harm was the C-Level mantra of the 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000’s no one ever said do noting or do the minimal.

The grocerant niche when vertically integrated into an existing brand creates a new level of excitement within the entire company. When sales grow, the opportunity for advancement expands, building team momentum, excitement explodes like a wildfire. Customers can feel the proactive positive buzz from employees. Doing the same old thing is simply doing nothing and is boring for your team.  Doing something new is soaring. Customers notice companies on the move and reward them,

Consumers are Dynamic not Static Exposure to change is a positive

Change is incredibly dynamic, consumer focused changed is contagious. Change evolves and will go through a bell curve, and you see the whole thing step by step when you vertically integrate change into brand and consumer values. If not integrated you do not really get to escape the velocity of the event, but change is exciting nonetheless and customers will still follow.

Consumer Relevance Will Drive Momentum

Are you going to tangibly impact your company or maintain the status quo? Today like never before companies have the ability to evolving a brand at a speed not seen since your company was a start-up. What impact are you going to have on your company? There is a difference between the work you do and the impact you have. Fresh Food retailing is evolving at break neck speed, evidenced by the Dollar Store formats selling more foods and Walgreens selling fresh foods and doing it well as you can see from this video of a Walgreens in San Francisco. Is your brand evolving fast?

Success Steps are a Springboard to Profitability

Are you not growing because of Obama Care, the minimum wage hikes, or lack of qualified workers? If you do nothing but wait, watch or blame the economy you are very likely to simply spin out of control. Redefining your brand with consumer relevance will position you too either create a positive spin off or springboard to the next level. Legacy organizations need to be mindful that springboards do great things for your organization, your team and your shareholders.

Foodservice Solutions® is clue # 1

Today, LTO's (Limited Time Offers) can drive top line sales and bottom line profits while taking you in a new direction. Are your LTO's leading your brand, testing your brand or simply copy-cat marketing tactics absent strategy?

Fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food in non-traditional outlets poses an ever increasing threat to restaurant growth, is a pantry buster for grocery stores, and a quagmire for C-stores. . Want to know how to best address these new competitive threats?  Contact Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  1-253-759-7869

Grocerant Growth continues to fuel Foodservice Customer Migration

Regular readers of this blog remember that restaurant sector customer migration that continues today began in 2005. That was the first year in 35 that spending on food for home increased over food away from home. 

Non-traditional retailers have exploited consumers desire for fresh prepared food expanding grocerant niche food offerings while leveraging the FIVE P’s of Food Marketing garnering share of stomach from the restaurant sector; according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. 

While legacy industry consulting companies and research firm simply missed this shift in consumer focus, the team at Foodservice Solutions® did not.  These same firms to save face and protect turf want you to believe there is a universal consumer convergence within the “fast casual” sector.  Guess what?. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. If you are a food retailer and think that you only compete with restaurants, get over it.  There is a race for share of stomach in retail specifically within fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat sector by well-financed competitors. They want your customers.  The fresh prepared food sector is booming according to Nielsen’s Volume 3 of the Total Consumer Report fresh prepared food sales were up 108% last year alone. The retail food world knows it and restaurateurs you should too.

Its 4 PM: your customers are just beginning to think about what's for dinner a June 2018 FMI report found that. 65% of American consumers are unsure about what's for dinner. Time Starved Consumers are looking for high quality Ready-2-Eat foods and or Heat-N-Eat meals. Today's time starved consumer want to purchase meal components that they can bundle into a customized family meal that will please everyone without spending time cooking.  The one universal commonality driving customer trial and migration is fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food aka Grocerant niche food.

If you’re company is spending money on outdated legacy focus information based on yesterday’s metrics you will continue to lose share of stomach and share of wallet to those focused on the consumer. Fast Casual, Casual and QSR restaurant chains have all lost share to new non-traditional retailers. Don’t be fooled trying migrate into a place defined by groups that simply missed the fork in the road the consumers took.

New non-traditional points of distribution and retail food competition are opening daily and it important to be mindful of the migrating consumer. Do you know how to build sales with a grocerant focus?  We do.

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.

McDonald’s Marketing Consumer Interactive & Participatory Relevance

Success does leave clues and McDonalds has left clues for many chains to follow.  Once again McDonald’s is doing all the right things with its marketing initiatives as it created 'Frylus' to Help Guests Take Selfies according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.   

Selfies continue to drive customer buy-in, elevate social media mentions, and garner customer relevance according to Johnson.  McDonald’s say’s “The Fylus will keep your phone clean when you take a selfie.”  This is straight forward authentic messaging.

Last year we saw the Frork. Now, it’s The Frylus. In honor of National Selfie Day, as McDonald’s unveiled yet another fry-themed concoction to garner a bit of hummer and drive sales. Frylus is meant to celebrate the chain’s new 100 percent fresh beef Quarter Pounders, as well as the upcoming national event, 100,000 Frylus contraptions (plus phone stand), meant to keep your phone clean while eating, are being given away at 2,000-plus stores on June 21 with the purchase of a Quarter Pounder.  Do you want to see where you can get a Frylus well just click here.  McDonald’s collaborated with Instagram celebrity Kirby Jenner on the promotion.

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.

Walmart is Winning the Long Game

Last week when Kroger announced that it will close all 14 of its Kroger banner stores in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina it reminded the team at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® that three years ago we were the first food consultants to predict that Walmart would be the leader of the grocery sectors “middle’. 

While being stuck in the middle of any retail sector did not use to be a good thing as times change so does our thinking.  Being the leader of the ‘middle’ of the grocery sector just may be the safest place to be according to Steven Johnson the Grocerant Guru®.  Walmart’s rollout of rotisserie chicken proved that their current ability to succeed within the Grocerant niche may still be five years away. 

Kroger has another banner in Raleigh-Durham Harris Teeter that does well with grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food positioning in the mind-set of the consumer. Yet, we question if they can maintain that customer mind-set with their current product mix offerings.

Harris Teeter much like Mariano’s a Kroger banner in the Chicago area mind-set customer relevance, sales, and profitability can prove to be a mixed bag. Kroger has several markets that they have two competing banners.  If Raleigh-Durham is a clue it just might be that brands and banners that compete against themselves just migh be a strategy that worked best in the 1980’s or 1990’s rather than today.

WinCo, Aldi, and Lidl are all building new stores, evolving their solo brands to best compete in the retail foodservice world and have proven that the three of them have lower price points than Walmart, fewer ‘out of stocked’ items than Walmart, and service that rivals or beats Walmart. It is for that reason we once again say Walmart is now the leader of the ‘middle’ of the grocery sector.  Today that is a good thing. 

After all just think about it what does that mean for Albertson, Giant Foods, Kroger and Publix which one of them can win against Whole Foods, Wegmans, or Central Market? The foodservice sector is evolving faster than ever.  Customer migration back and forth from restaurants, grocery stores, c-stores, drug stores, and dollar stores has never been so intense. 

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.

What’s for Dinner? Fast Fresh Flavorful Grocerant Meal Components

The traditional line between retail foodservice sectors continues to shrink.  Today grocery stores struggle to sell food to fill consumer’s pantry while restaurants struggle to fill seats.  What continues to drive retail foodservice sales in every sector of retail are meal components comprised of fresh prepared food according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Today’s customers focus on convenience has elevated fresh prepared meal components that can be mixed and match into a customized family meal into a retail platform of food industry disruption. It’s at that intersection of disruption that the team at Foodservice Solutions® was first to identify, quantify, and qualify the Grocerant Niche. 

In fact as regular readers of this blog know Steven Johnson came up with the name grocerant and was first to publish it in Nation’s Restaurant News in 1996 in an article title ‘Call Them Grocerants”.

The fact is online shopping is convenient but a side-show in forecasting demand for What’s for Dinner.  Online shopping has become the bases for big bulky ‘family sized’ items the ilk of Dippers, Toilet Paper, Paper Towels, Cases of Beer.  While dinner more and more is ordered, pick-up, pick-out, or delivered comprising fresh prepared meal components one meal at a time according to Johnson.

Yes, online grocery shopping is expanding as Nielsen & FMI report with 65% of Millennials saying they have bought groceries online, 55% of Gen X, and 41% of Boomers.  However Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant ScoreCards indicate that the frequency grocery shopping online drops off as orders are getting bigger bulky items increases and fresh prepared food become more and more a mainstay for the family dinner.

Nielsen predicts that by 2022 four short years from now online grocery sales could reach $100 billion in sales, representing about 20% of all groceries sold. What that indicates to those conducing our Grocerant ScoreCards is that there will be an incremental increase of 24% in demand for grocerant meal components over the same period.

Were are not saying that the pantry is dead but ask Millennials what they have in their pantry and 9 out of tem will provide you a list of 8 eight or less.  Who needs a pantry for meal items whey there are 29 restaurants for every traditional grocery store in the US and fresh meal components can be found at retailers the ilk of IKEA, ABC Liquors, and Costco.

Companies the ilk of Kroger, SuperValu, and  Walmart have missed the mark there continues to be time and consumer demand that they could make a stand in new areas the ilk of meal kits and meal component mix and match bundling.

Consumers have blurred the line as they are no longer looking to fill a pantry rather they want to set the table with fresh prepared food.  This is a very competitive business, retailer from restaurants including fast food, fast casual, and casual dining outlets and grocers from Wegmans, HEB, Safeway and Kroger all in the hunt for a larger share of stomach. So What’s for Dinner?  Grocerant niche Fresh Prepared food.

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.