Grocerant Fresh Fast Family Meals for Four

Legacy retailers are taking a back seat to entrepreneurs, start-ups, and technology with regard to integrating the ‘pulse’ of the consumer with next steps in food retailing today according to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson.

Terra’s Kitchen clearly had the pulse of the consumer top of mind when they introduced Terra's Kitchen Cheeseburger Pizzas, an item in its new Family Meals Line. Regular readers of this of this blog know that 56% of consumers eat burgers at least once a week and that time is the new currency that is most important in consumer buying decisions.

Terra’s Kitchen specializes in family meal kits simple healthy cooking with pre-cut ingredients. Terra’s Kitchen, which bills itself as a “healthy meal-kit delivery service. The company has launched Family Meals, a line of four-serving dishes including pre-prepped and portioned ingredients in a climate-controlled, reusable vessel for easy-to-make recipes that can be prepared in 15 to 30 minutes.”

This new line expands the variety of Baltimore-based Terra's Kitchen’s menu, which currently offers more than 50 recipes available weekly, including vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, Paleo and low-calorie fare, and encompassing pre-made salads, snacks, smoothies, sides and juices, as well as meals. The new family-friendly meals are:

1.        Barbecued Chicken with Summer Tomato-Corn Salad 

2.        Cheeseburger Pizzas

3.        Chipotle Chicken and Mango Tacos 

4.        Lebanese Meatball Wraps

5.        Pork Carnitas Burrito Bowls (Fast Prep/Slow Cook)

6.        Italian Shrimp with Tomato-Bacon Gravy and Creamy Polenta

Terra’s Kitchen CEO Michael McDevitt stated "I started Terra's Kitchen when I learned I was going to become a father," "My vision for the company has always been to provide quick, wholesome meals to allow families to save time in the kitchen and have more quality time connecting around the dinner table."

Like other Meal Kit companies Terra’s Kitchen want to be different so they offer “washed and pre-chopped ingredients that come with a step-by-step recipe card, enabling kids to be more involved in the cooking process. The idea is that bypassing the supermarket and spending time getting meals ready, families can spend more time together.” Are you Looking A Customer Ahead?

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 Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Dinning with Denny’s Daily Delivery

Back in the day Denny’s was breakfast for our family on weekends, the place to stop when the family was on a road trip, and while in college the after-hours hot spot.  Denny’s is all that today but now they are closer to home than ever. 

Denny’s  now is delivering meals embracing the off-premise boom dinning boom or as Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® called it the 65 inch HDTV syndrome. Denny’s new integrated ordering platform allows guests to place an order for takeout and delivery through its website, app, or by using a variety of social media options.

Denny’s CMO John Dillon  stated “The launch of ‘Denny’s on Demand’ is the result of our commitment to leveraging new technology to reach a wider audience and make it even more convenient for today’s virtually-connected guests to enjoy their favorite diner dishes,”

Denny’s have gone a bit further than other restaurant chains as they are also launching a line of custom-designed microwaveable takeout packaging made from sustainable materials that is branded with Denny’s tweets.

Expanding the brand Denney’s integrated marketing messaging will promote the new ordering option, it's partnering with Hulu to offer diners a 60-day free trial of the streaming service after they place an order using the new system, and encouraging fans to share their Denny’s on Demand experience using custom Snapchat filters as well.

Denny’s customers will be able to order delivery (where available) or takeout 24/7, 365 days a year, from the brand’s revamped mobile app or through Dennys.com, and guests will be able to choose pickup or delivery times and track their orders.

The chain will also utilize a new online ordering option through Twitter, where diners can select and order favorite dishes by using direct messaging services. Patrons can use a branded chatbot on Facebook as well. Denny’s on Demand will rely on third-party deliverers such as GrubHub and DoorDash.

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.

Is McDonald’s Set Too Topple Pizza for Dinner?

How many of you have kids and are considering ordering Dinner from McDonald’s now that they are offering delivery at more than 2,000 stores in the US?  When your kids are asking What’s for dinner, would you elect to replace that dinner pizza with McDonald’s once a month, twice a month or once a week? McDonalds thinks so.

McDonald’s ability to take the time testing delivery around the world and developed systems, food, and service to understand the benefits, complications, and outcomes will prove a key driver of incremental success.

Delivery will drive continue unit level sales success. McDonald’s has with delivery created a platform that will drive top line sales, bottom line profits while garnering market share from other foodservice sectors all while edifying the McDonald’s brand with relevance according to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® team which calls this system Build, Measure, Learn, and Repeat. 

When it comes to food delivery McDonald’s has taken its time in rolling out food delivery in the United States but that does not mean that they have done lots of food delivery.  In fact it has been widely reported that last year alone global food sales of food delivered by McDonald’s restaurants reached $ 1 Billion and that’s before they ever delivered one meal in the US. 

Southeast Asia has been the primary testing grounds for McDonald’s delivery including the following countries:

1.       Hong Kong

2.       Signapore

3.       Philippines

4.       Australia

McDonalds is dynamic not static and building sales in new non-traditional avenues of distribution elevates consumer relevance with it target audience specifically younger customers, late-night diners that want their food delivered.

McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook stated “We see significant potential” in delivery….We’re encouraged by the early results.” McDonald’s noted that delivery orders tend to come in the evening or late night — so far, 60 percent of delivery orders come during those periods.

Easterbrook believes that the ability to grow dayparts with underutilized capacity via delivery is a perfect fit for the company at this time.  The team at Foodservice Solutions® believes that there will be a three year ramp-up with delivery at McDonald’s and at the end of three years McDonald’s will have garnered a larger share of stomach. Did you hear that Pizza Hut, Papa John’s and Domino’s?

Our Grocerant Guru® believes catering office breakfast and lunch events will drive market share gains, putting pressure on Starbucks, while dinner will garner share from the Pizza sector.  McDonald’s recorded over $ 1 Billion in delivery worldwide in 2016.  At McDonald’s delivery is an integrated strategy not a one off tactic according to our Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson.

The Grocerant niche and fresh food sales today is all about time as our Grocerant Guru® reported back in the day. Simply put; today time is the new currency that is the most important in consumer buying decisions. McDonald’s has 14,000 locations in the U.S., and 75 percent of the population lives within three miles of a McDonald’s. 

McDonald’s CFO Kevin Ozan said at a recent Bernstein conference “I say this from experience as one who orders delivery a lot, one of the most important things in speed”. He said most people could get their food less than 30 minutes after order from McDonald’s. “You never get that. It’s usually an hour, whether you’re ordering pizza or Chinese food or anything else.” We might say locations, locations, locations!

 Remember Build, Measure, Learn, and Repeat well McDonald’s did learn with over $1 Billion in Delivery sales in 2016 and over the years they have learned a lot about food quality, service, food sales and delivery.  Is your brand looking beyond traditional points of distribution? Is your brand prepared to target another sector of foodservice?  Is your brand building customer counts or capitulating customers?

 Leaders lead and McDonalds understands that the customer is dynamic not static and the customer is on the move.  Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson stated “McDonalds stop practicing Brand Protectionism long ago and that is one major key reason they have exceed globally and will continue.  McDonalds understands that you cannot do what you have always done and stay relevant.”

 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. 

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

Foodservice Channel Blurring Garners Attention as Wawa Wins

Channel blurring only exists in the BLIND eye of Neanderthal chain restaurant and Grocery Stores brand managers according to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson as he stated back in 2010 and it has never been more evident than today.   

The line between foodservice channels exist only in the minds-eye those protecting their own jobs not those interested in the evolving consumer, path to purchase, retail sales growth according to Johnson.   A new study shows consumers regard the service provided by Wawa  (a state of the industry convenience store retail chain), as superior to what they get at Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse. Simply put brand protectionism is dead once again our Grocerant Guru® said that first back in 2009 but so much for understanding the undercurrents driving our evolving foodservice sectors.  

Retail foodservice today is about Share of Stomach, and you are either capitulating share of stomach or garnering share of stomach customer by customer.  Is your retail foodservice brand garnering year over year customer counts or capitulating customers?

Edifying Foodservice Solutions® findings recent research by White Box Social Intelligence found “Wawa is more likely to meet service expectations than all 619 restaurant brands the researcher monitors on a constant basis. Closest to the c-store chain in positive service evaluations was Papa Murphy’s, followed by Seasons 52, Fleming’s and Wienerschnitzel.” The consumer knows best.  Is it time you began rethinking how to integrate Foodservice Solutions® FIVE P’s of Food Marketing?

White Box Social Intelligence also revealed “consumers’ intentions of visiting the monitored restaurant chains have continued to wane, by a hefty 6.4%, and that they believe the food quality of those brands has slipped from a year ago. Yet their estimation of restaurant service rose by 10.2% year over year. Wawa was one of the brands that scored high in customers’ intention to return, with only Qdoba and Carvel ranking higher.

This information will form a new monthly benchmarking report from White Box’s parent company, TDn2K, the source of People Report and Black Box Intelligence data. The Restaurant Guest Satisfaction Snapshot scores chains on six attributes: service, food, propensity of customers to return, beverage and value.

Wawa’s top rating on service was indeed a surprise, says Victor Fernandez, TDn2K’s executive director of insights and knowledge. “It all depends on expectations, whatever the expectation of what good service is,” he says. “Obviously people expect something different from Wawa than they do from Fleming’s.” But they’re more likely to have those expectations satisfied at the c-store chain, he indicated. While Victor was surprise no one on the Team at Foodservice Solutions® was after conducting over 7,790 Grocerant ScoreCards.

The 1.2% dip in consumers’ estimation of chains’ food quality was also a surprise, Fernandez said. It could be a statistical blip that’s reversed in the May Restaurant Guest Satisfaction Snapshot, he suggested, or it could be the result of two more persistent factors.  So, Victor we think it is time for you and others to look at some of those persistent factors aka consumer facing grocerant niche valued attributes.

The fact of the matter is the consumers have moved on and channel blurring only exists in the BLIND eye of Neanderthal chain restaurant and Grocery Stores brand managers not in the minds-eye of the consumer.  Restaurants, Grocery stores, must evolve or risk capitulating incremental customer counts to other retailers that are addressing the attributes that are relevant to consumers today. 

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. 

7-Eleven Industry Leadership on Display

This week 7-Eleven Inc. the global leader in branded convenience store foodservice launched an initiative to provide customers with the calorie information for its proprietary fresh food and beverage offerings. Many of our regular readers remember back in the day (1965) when 7-Eleven branded and rolled out the Slurpee.  Leaders lead and 7-Eleven is implementing fresh food calorie disclosure. 

The disclosure includes “floor stands stocking Big Gulp cups, along with translite signs and clings attached to fountain machines, provide the combined calorie counts of a Big Gulp beverage and a hot food item such as a Big Bite hot dog or chicken sandwich. Signs positioned near baked items provide the combined calorie counts of a medium iced coffee and two cookies or a fudge brownie.”

A 7-Eleven spokesperson  is quoted as saying "7-Eleven's mission is to give its customers what they want, when and where they want it, Research shows customers expect to have calorie information available when deciding whether to purchase a product, and 7-Eleven is therefore moving forward with calorie disclosure."

The undercurrents of menu labeling requirements have put increased scrutiny on fresh food retailers around the globe and clearly 7-Eleven has stepped up.  At its Canadian stores last year 7-Eleven rolled out price labels and menu boards that provided calorie counts for more than 300 non-packaged food and beverage products.

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.