Aldi and Lidl named world's top brands Lookout US Retailers

Regular readers of this blog know that Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® of discuses the success Aldi has found in the United States.  In fact Aldi now has 1285+ retail outlets open and plans to spend another 3 billion US Dollars opening new stores in 2016, 2017, and 2018.  Lidl is now preparing to open it first units in the U.S. in 2016.  

This week Aldi and Lidl named world's top brands for shopping experience.  The German discounters were praised for their simple brand message in the Global Brand Simplicity Index and that is before Lidl has even open one unit in the U.S. 

Both discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl have been named the world's top brands for giving customers a simple, clear and hassle-free shopping experience. Aldi topped the annual Global Brand Simplicity Index from US-based brand consultancy Siegel & Gale for the sixth year in a row. 

The Global Brand Simplicity Index polled 12,000 people and ranked 87 brands worldwide in order of the clarity and simplicity of their products and the way they communicate with shoppers. Aldi and its counterpart Lidl, which took third place, were praised for expanding their range of products their and strongly-communicated 'money-saving' messages. Google took second place in the list. 

Here is something very interesting Siegel & Gale said 63 percent of consumers are willing to pay more for a simple retail experience, making it ironic that the list is consistently topped by the budget supermarket chains. More than half of adults in the UK now visit an Aldi or Lidl each year.

 

"Brands that offer simpler customer experiences are rewarded with passionate customer loyalty, more innovative employees and greater revenue. In short, embracing simplicity improves the bottom line for brands and organizations,” said Howard Belk of Siegel & Gale. 

Top 10 brands worldwide from Global Brand Simplicity Index

1. Aldi
2. Google
3. Lidl
4. Netflix
5. McDonald's
6. Burger King
7. Ikea
8. YouTube
9. eBay
10. KFC

Times are a changing as fast food chains McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC also made the top 10, appealing to a wide range of consumers they no longer make the top of the list.  Success does leave clues and both Aldi and Lidl have leveraged those retail food clues to create a brand advantage.  

Aldi and Lidl Photo: AlamElizabeth Anderson

For international corporate presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us  With extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking he educate and elevate everyone while providing success clues for all.  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us or www.GrocerantGuru.com

Delivery Will Drive Yum Brands Sales at KFC and Taco Bell

Yum Bands KFC unit understands food delivery, and can do it very well according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® as regular readers of this blog know.   KFC Canada has offered food delivery for a long time, in fact KFC Canada in during the 1990’s and early 2,000’s KFC Canada regularly reported delivery sales of 20 percent per year according to our Grocerant Guru®.

 

Yum Brands CEO Greg Creed is still relatively new in his position but he is making changes that are good according to our own Grocerant Guru® from spinning off / out China to delivery.  In fact this spring during conference call with analysts Creed stated “that its delivery business usually grows at a ‘faster rate’ than its main business.”… Creed went on "The great thing about buckets of chicken, it holds its temperature incredibly well."

KFC has started testing delivery in Los Angeles and San Francisco will be able to have food delivered. KFC said it expects to expand the delivery service into Houston by the end of this year. In all, KFC expects 100 restaurants to offer delivery before it decides to expand the service. There are more than 4,300 U.S. KFC restaurants.

The KFC delivery test we believe is the direct result from the Taco Bell experiment with delivery that began this past July.  Now you don’t have leave your couch next time you crave a chalupa or KFC Chicken Tenders.  Taco Bells tested delivery with DoorDash at some 200 stores in their Dallas, Los Angeles, Orange County, Calif., and San Francisco Bay area markets.

The one weak spot for Yum Brands according to our Grocerant Guru® is Pizza Hut.  While Pizza Hut does delivery well they sure missed the mark on marketing the past three years if year over year sales and customer counts were a metric.  

What’s even more disappointing is this Holiday seasons Pizza Hut TV Commercial, Pizza Hut's Holiday Gift: Michael Bolton Under the Mistletoe.  It is a great commercial with a ‘halo of good will’ but once again Pizza Hut’s marketing team seems not to understand today’s consumers or the retail environment according to our Grocerant Guru®.

We wonder how in our Omni-channel retail world the marketing executive team at Pizza Hut  after creating new commercial featuring Michael Bolton singing Holiday classic they failed include the Michael Bolton album in the mix and match Triple Treat Box?  What were they thinking?  Do they not know that McDonald’s sells more toys than any other retailer in the world?  Do they not know that Starbucks continued industry leadership success is based on an Omni-channel retail product platform? 

Success does leave clues and we hope Pizza Hut will gather a few new clues.   Let me know what you think should they have added the album?   

Is your brand operating like it did in 1990 or 2000? Do you want to look more like a brand of tomorrow than a brand of yesterday?  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

Wawa Expanding Success Once Again

While Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® was tinkering with meal kit ideations for client presentations one C-store that is sure to add meal kits to its successful fresh food fast line-up is Wawa. In fact this past Monday Wawa announced that it plans 120 or more stores in South Florida between 2017 and 2022. The first ones will open in Palm Beach and Broward counties, with Miami-Dade County to follow in 2018.

"Our plan was always to have a presence across most of the state," Chris Gheysens, Wawa's president and chief executive, told about 100 civic leaders Monday during an announcement at the Perez Art Museum Miami.

While Florida's first Wawa opened in 2012 in Orlando. Seventy-nine have opened in the state since then, but the closest to South Florida is in Fort Myers. This new announce is a clear indication that Wawa has made new loyal customers in Florida and wants a bigger share of stomach from the Florida marketplace.

Wawa may find even greater success in South Florida because of its dense population and transplants who know the brand from up north, according to Gheysens. 

Wawa is an industry sector leader in grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food according to our own Grocerant Guru® as regular readers are well aware. One retailer that will be a bit taken back by Wawa growth will be Publix.  

Wawa’s fresh food quality, outstanding food consistency is something than just might become problematic for Publix.  Clearly Aldi is the low cost leader in Florida and now that Wawa with stretch the length of the state I bet Wawa fast becomes the quality fresh food leader in Florida.  

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Scorecard or a Grocerant Program Assessment.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant   Call: 253-759-7869 or Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us   

UberRush is an Empowered Food Start-Up Disrupting the Foodservice Status Quo

Many legacy restaurant chains are capitulating market share by way of continued year over year customer count declines.  What is even more bothersome is many continue operating today using the business of 1980 or 1990.  Yes, they look more like yesterday’s restaurants than tomorrow’s successful food retailer. 

Chef’s and food entrepreneur wannabes no longer have to build a restaurant, or build more restaurants to grow a brand or serve the entire city.  The new model is empowering Start-Ups, adopting to the new food retail playing field  from chefs, food marketing managers, and chain operators and could in time disrupt many a legacy restaurant chain.

Restaurants and other food business owners have thought about offering delivery, but decided against it for a plethora of reasons including “our food does not travel well’, time, logistics infrastructure, and cost considerations.  

Those excuses are gone now that UberRush is now offering them the option of its delivery services so that these businesses don't have to build their own. Here is one example, UberRush has partnered with ChowNow in San Francisco, New York and San Francisco to provide delivery services for restaurants. The two expect to work together in more cities soon.

Uber and ChowNow, an online ordering and marketing platform for restaurants, are partnering to bring a delivery option to thousands of restaurants that use ChowNow for their online and mobile ordering.  The big point however is that you don’t even need a retail outlet.

UberRush can deliver your branded Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food from a home kitchen, commercial kitchen, industrial warehouse or anywhere you chose to manufacture, assemble  and market your food from. 

Visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  if you are 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 or you can learn more Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us