Foodservice Solutions

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Retail Food Innovation with Consumer Relevance McDonalds

Consumers value food quality, food prepared consistently, and cleanliness from places that they eat. Most important today they expect food innovation, social engagement and transparency / authenticity. McDonalds is the global restaurant leader in large part because they do just that.

Cherry Blossom season in Japan is celebration of the end of winter, a renewal of sprint and ephemeral nature of life. In short it is a really big deal a time of celebration and country unity. McDonalds understand and incorporated into its spring LTO’s brand and customer edifying offerings. Including the following:

A mildly pink-colored burger called Sakura Teritama. The original teritama burger is one of the most popular seasonal burgers offered by McDonald’s Japan. It consists of a pork patty coated with Teriyaki sauce and cooked egg.

This Cherry Blossom version Sakura Teritama has the Teriyaki flavored pork patty, egg, but the buns come with aa very delicate flavor of cherry blossoms and pink mayonnaise that includes red radish. In addition Sakura cherry drinks will also be released with this LTO.

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 at Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

Friday, March 14, 2014

Restaurant Price Value Service Equilibrium and Millennials

With 90 Million plus consumers between the age of 18 and 36 milling around outside U.S. restaurants it is by far and away the most sought after group of customers. These consumers are called Millennials and are in search of food discovery, value, and a social experience. They are resetting the price, value, service equilibrium for restaurant operators.

How important are Millennials to your restaurant? In” A 2010 report from Oracle, that focused on the banking sector, estimated that Millennials’ purchasing power will reach $2.45 trillion next year and $3.38 trillion—more than that of the Baby Boomer generation—by 2018. Longer-term, Millennials seem like too big a demographic for restaurants to ignore.” The answer is very important. Now back to the formula.

The old formula was: Price + Quality + Service + Portability = Value . That formula has evolved with Millennials today Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru has reevaluated, calculated and evolved the formula with Millennials and here is the new formula: Price + Quality + Social + Portability = Value.

Retailers seeking additional incremental value from Millennials must be Constantly Changing Menu items enabling Millennials to Discover Seasonal Relevance, Authentic Sustainability with Creditability.

In a recent study of 2,000 Millennial-aged U.S. consumers titled “Understanding Millennials” conducted by the Hartman Group found:

55 percent prefer communal tables at restaurants.
68 percent ask friends before selecting a restaurant.
87 percent will splurge on a nice meal even when money is tight.
40 percent will order something different every time they visit a restaurant.
Millennials eat out the most frequently at lunch
They tend to eat four smaller meals a day at non-traditional times.
30 percent eat foods that are certified organic (as compared to 21 percent of Gen X-ers and 15 percent of Boomers).
They prefer whole foods over processed food.
They will spend more on ethically sourced meats and farm-to-table experiences.
80 percent want to know more about how their food is grown.
Food companies among Millennials’ top 10 most-trusted brands: Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Ben & Jerry’s, In-N-Out Burger.
When shopping in grocery stores, Millennial foodies spend more on premium ingredients and are more likely to opt for small-batch handcrafted beers and artisanal cheeses than the big brand names.
Custom food options, such as the 87,000 possible drink combinations that can be had at a single Starbucks unit, are seen as a need, not a luxury.
It’s just not about nutrition for Millennials. They view food as entertainment and self-expression.
Most important when choosing food in general, the top-scoring attribute was “A good value for the money,” at 36 percent. Good value was also the top-scored when respondent were asked what is more important when choosing food from a restaurant. Thirty-nine percent said value mattered most.

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a brand leveraging integration strategy. Foodservice Solutions of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche since 1991

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Jollibee’s Foundation for Success Build, Measure, Learn, Repeat Building a Global Footprint

Jollibee is the dominant Quick Service Restaurant chain in the Philippines. Jollibee has more outlets than all the other multinational QSR brands combined. Today with over 750 stores in the Philippines they are expanding around the world with stores in USA, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei, firmly establishing itself as a growing international QSR player. That however is not enough for Jollibee.

In 2011 Jollibee tested online ordering and food delivery. Jollibee is a fast food restaurant in the Philippines that was already an institution. With online ordering in just 30 minutes you can have your Jollibee food delivered to the comfort of your home by ordering online or a phone call away.

Now no other restaurant chain can reach more people faster in the Philippines than Jollibee. Since 2011 they have expanded online order success by leveraging what the Grocerant Guru at Foodservice Solutions® calls the Essential Tool Box Tools; Build, Measure, Learn Repeat. Here is a link to the delivery site: http://jollibeedelivery.com/

The entire menu of favorites is available including the all-time favorite Chickenjoy – “Jollibee's perfectly seasoned fried chicken that's crispy on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside; the Spaghetti- that is uniquely Jollibee; the Yum Burgers- made with 100% pure beef patty served with our own special burger dressing.”

With 29 locations across the United States: mostly in the State of California and some stores in Nevada, Texas, Washington, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Hawaii Jollibee has yet to begin delivery here. However they continue to open stores in the US. Jollibee’s continued improvement and focus on Build, Measure, Learn, and Repeat positions it well for long term success and global customer relevance.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

McDonalds, Burger King, Wawa Gladly Battle Waffle Taco Marketing Blitz

In just over a week Yum Brands, Taco Bell operating unit will burst on the Internet, Newspapers, TV, Radio in what AdAge describes as a “Massive Marketing Blitz” for what Yum Brands calls a ‘Paradigm Breaking’ new breakfast menu that is being rolled out.

The Paradigm may not break for the Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared breakfast leaders. They are prepared for the fight. Even when a new report out from The NPD Group reported that the breakfast day-part visits were up 3 percent last year, and traffic for most other day-parts fell. Don’t expect McDonalds, Burger King, Wawa and all others to give up market share without a fight.

McDonalds, Egg McMuffin and Burger Kings Croissan’wich are well established industry leading products much copied yet consistently not equaled in price, service, and quality. Then there is industry leading regional convenience store operator Wawa selling 195+ million cups of coffee a year. Success does leave clues and one clue is customer trial is one thing; sustainability another.

It’s not a matter of if, but when McDonalds, Burger King and Wawa enter the marketing messaging fray over the breakfast day-part. When they do the halo of their branded legacy breakfast combined with price will create a new value proposition of consumer relevance, strong enough to shift consumers back from trial to incentivized routine. Do not discount the value of competitive messaging targeted at one new day-part player or the importance consumers place on routine.

The Waffle Taco is good. I have tried them here on the West Coast. However, it is not as consistently good as a Croissan’wich, Egg McMuffin and in my minds-eye Taco Bells coffee can’t hold a candle to Wawa’s. More important from California to Washington there are lines around McDonalds during the breakfast day-part and I never see more than a spattering of cars at Taco Bells serving breakfast.

Marketing dollars drive valued consumer messaging. When messaging combines a competitive price the value of the messaging increases for the consumer. I expect that buy July the price, value, service equilibrium will be recalibrated during the breakfast day-part with legacy industry leaders benefiting the most.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Publix, Safeway, and Albertson’s Regional Players Stuck in the Middle that’s not Good.

Amazon is preparing to expand AmazonFresh while looking for that elusive last mile solution. It has been widely reported that Amazon will by the end of 2014 have opened or be in position to open 20 more markets delivering groceries and maybe much more.

Inside industry experts including Bricks Meets Clicks Founder Bill Bishop don’t expect on line ordering of groceries to garner a lion’s share of the market. However, “At the close of 2013, the online sector had a 3.3 percent share of total grocery dollars, according to Brick Meets Click research…

Ten years from now, that market share could range from 6.7 percent on the conservative side to 16.9 percent on the aggressive side,” the report showed according to Bishop.

Those are not big numbers today or any time soon however the grocery sector overall has capitulated 15% of its market share over the past 10 years to new non-traditional avenues of distributions according to research from the Food Marketing Institute (FMI).

With more and more new non-traditional fresh food retailers selling Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared grocerant niche food, companies the ilk of Publix, Safeway, and Albertson’s will have a harder time maintaining their current share of the market. Even if Amazon only garners 2.5% of the market place that’s a smaller pie for everyone else to share, particularly regional chains.

Amazon is not alone its quest for grocery dollars. Walgreens with 7,875+ locations continues to remodel stores finding success selling fresh prepared food, meal components and legacy CPG’s foods. The seemingly endless new entrants into the fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat grocerant niche can only be seen as a shot across the bow of legacy regional grocery stores that they have to adapt to this new world order or simply fade away.

Bill Bishop believes it’s a matter of the food sector being "over-stored". Which means the pure amount of retail square footage is too great for the population size is happening in virtually every region of the country according to Bishop.

Companies the ilk of Trader Joes, Pinkies Liquor stores, Sprouts, Wawa, Sheetz, 7 Eleven and Walgreens are all selling fresh prepared food. Each increasingly offers mix and match meal component bundling that is highly regarded by consumers. Thus creating another diverted purchase for legacy regional grocery stores. Combine these diverted sales with online shopping where according to IBISWorld, online grocery is a $6 billion business and is expected to reach nearly $9.5 billion in 2017 and its clear grocery shopping is evolving faster than many legacy regional retailers.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Has Going Out to Lunch Become Pasay? The City Lunch Club Thinks So.

Is 2014 the year that sitting at your desk wasting time solving the daily paradox; figuring out what to eat for lunch, then which restaurant to go for lunch ended? Well one New York City Tech-Start-Up hopes so.

So what’s For Lunch? Simple City Lunch Club (www.CityLunchClub.com)

Here is how it works:

Sign up, add employees and select a start date.
Pick how often you want lunch delivered
Every morning you’re employees will get an Email with 3 curated dishes from a restaurant near your office
Each employee wanting lunch picks one of the three dishes via Email by 10:30 AM
Lunch will be delivered between 11:30 AM and 1:00PM
Eat, Enjoy, and Indulge don’t worry no tax or tip needed it’s all included.

Since I do not work in NYC here is how Madeline Stone writing for the Business Insider described her work week experience using the City Lunch Club.

“The startup has partnered with 25 restaurants in New York City to deliver fresh, high-quality lunches to subscribers. Members choose how many meals they want to order in one week, with lunches costing between $10.99 and $12.99 depending on how many they select.

I tried out the City Lunch Club for five days. An email arrived early each morning with the day's restaurant and lunch options and I picked my lunch with the click of a button. The startup schedules lunch to arrive between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., and they followed through every day of my trial. My food arrived between 12:15 and 12:45 on each of the five days, and it was always warm. My one complaint would be that the quantity of food that arrived was much more than I would ordinarily eat for lunch, and I always had leftovers.”

I like this concept. Its clear the Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food sector aka the Grocerant niche is expanding exponentially in way’s legacy restaurant operators are unprepared to cope with let alone management and simplicity. Many legacy restaurants still try to be all things to all people are finding that simply leaves them stuck in the middle.

For international corporate presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Grocerant Guru at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions. His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. www.FoodserviceSolutions.us

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Roadrunner Markets a C-Store with Consumer Interactive Success

Not all convenience stores are the same. All convenience stores including Roadrunner Markets have taken notice how Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food is changing the landscape and garnering top line sales and bottom line profits. Roadrunner with stores in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee is no different.

Roadrunner Markets focusing on the consumer and the booming grocerant niche filled with Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food has two programs that are consumer complementary, consumer interactive, and consumer participatory that edify consumer relevance today.

Growlers Grow Growth

What’s a Growler? “A growler is a glass or ceramic jug. C-stores running growler programs have draft beers on tap that they pour into the growler and sell to customers, who usually bring the growler back when they’re ready for a refill. The practice is slowly picking up steam across the country as the craft beer trend grows. This Growler program is consumer interactive and participatory.

The Roadrunner growler program currently has a branded program at two stores under the Chuggernaut name, and plans to introduce a third growler program at its new Jonesboro, Tenn.

The Chuggernaut station at Roadrunner” features 20 beers on tap. The kegs are kept out of sight in a back room directly behind the beer station. The full-service program has to be manned by a store employee who fills the growlers for customers. The beer is served in 64-ounce glass growlers that come with a screw top lid. Employees tape a label on the outside so customers buying more than one growler know what beer is inside, as well as information about that particular brew. Samples, unfortunately, aren’t allowed.

Typically, a refillable growler from Roadrunner costs $5, and the average retail to fill the growler is $8.99. To entice customers to try the program, the chain runs a promotion called “Growler Giveaway Tuesday,” where customers can get the growler itself free when they buy one beer fill-up from one of the 20 draft beers on tap. “

Frozen Yogurt Fuels Food Sales

Roadrunners understanding that the consumer interactive, participatory, contributed to the success of its game changing growler program and now has introduced a frozen yogurt station called Vincent Van Yo self-serve frozen yogurt concept to one of its Tennessee stores, and is also set to introduce it inside the Jonesboro store it is currently building.

Here is how they describe it. ““The one we have now is a kiosk-type, retrofit design. The one we’re building is more the type you’d find in a yogurt shop. It’s a similar situation with the yogurt as with growlers in that we can bring people who wouldn’t normally experience this type of offering a value-added experience right inside our stores,”

The current yogurt program in the existing location offers three machines, nine flavors and numerous toppings from fruit to Oreos and from candy bar bites to syrups. The Vincent Van Yo program creates a consumer interactive and participatory platform allowing for customization, personalization and mix and match bundling all hallmarks of the grocerant niche according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru.