Restaurant Popularity Wanes Replaced by Momularity

82 Million “Mom’s” enjoy Grocerant Niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food; today it’s Momularity Success, making meal time a happy time.  Mom’s today still want to enjoy a family meal.  The problem according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru “Mom’s do not have the time to cook nor do they have the required skill-set to prepare the multi-cultural highly specific flavor profiles meals their families have grown accustom. Meal assembly is the standard today not cooking from scratch.”  

In a new report titled “Mom-entum,” by Big Fuel, adds a new perspective that food marketers must understand by to establish brand relationships with America’s 82 million moms. Big Fuel found that “As a group, this immense and potent demographic is redefining marketing in the 21st century. To impact this new generation of moms, companies must understand how to use social media effectively….

Mom: She spends two hours a day connecting with friends, family and acquaintances online.  She’s almost never caught outside the house without her cell phone.  She watches over 90 minutes of YouTube videos every month.  And she never, ever wants to be preached to by advertisers.”

Here are just a few facts about The Connected Mom from the “Mom-entum” report:

1.       35 million U.S. moms are actively engaged online;

2.       86% of all U.S. women have a social media profile;

3.       52% of moms read blogs regularly—and 15% own and maintain their own blog;

4.       75% go online to research products and services before purchasing;

5.       The top three sources moms use for product research and purchase advice are mom-focused websites, user reviews on shopping websites, and magazine articles;

6.       Over 80% of moms look to online videos to see a product in action;

7.       85% of moms enjoy casual online games and/or applications regularly.

“The Connected Mom is a force no one in American commerce has experienced before,” said Avi Savar, CEO of Big Fuel Communications.  “The established rules of engagement no longer apply.  As we state in ‘Mom-entum,’ the hard part is balancing content with brand messaging and finding the right tone and authenticity.  Make no mistake about it—the old model of ‘push marketing’ is over forever.  Brands must engage moms through honest, respectful conversation.”  “Mom-entum” is available as a free download at www.HaveMomentum.com.

Cooking a family meal from scratch that everyone will eat continues to be an obstacle for many households today according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™.  While 80% of meals are prepared at home that does not mean they are cooked from scratch. Meal assembly from Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared meal components is creating a platform for Momularity! An assembled meal is a Happy Family Meal.   Is your restaurant selling meal components To-Go? Remember America is Eating-In by Eating-Out.  Outside eyes can drive inside profits.

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

Grocerant Niche Consumer Commonalities Driving Disruption

Food channel disruptions are underway driven by the consumer’s universal appeal for discovery, plus the simple desire not to cook, or do dishes.  Food retailers must react and focus on consumer food commonalities for success. Brand authenticity helps legacy retailers create differentiation in a world where the line between restaurants and food retailers is growing even thinner.

The grocerant niche is a fresh prepared food focused sector focused on consumer meal customization combined with the convenience of fast-food, the quality of full-service restaurant dining, without the hassle laboring around an entire grocery store or sitting in a restaurant and paying a tip.  The grocerant niche is booming.

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru said the grocerant niche “is one solution that is evolving across many retail food platforms, empowering the consumer, simplifying the meal process, while saving time starved consumer both time, and money. Chain Restaurants, Convenience Stores, Grocery Stores and Chain Drug Stores are all offering meal component options. Cooking at home is no longer the desired option the new normal is home meal assembly.”

The United States restaurant sector has been stifled in a sea of sameness. Look A-Like Burger chains, pizza delivery and fern bars with copy-cat menus have left the American consumer searching for new authentic brands, flavors, and new points of distribution.

While food retailers are a fragmented group. Consumers on the other hand have a plethora of universal commonalities that indicate just where they may be headed next when buying food. Consumers are responding positively, one of the most successful elements is bundling of the meal components with a “better for you” focus.  It’s a mix and match game that is very empowering for the consumer.

Consumer are responding buying meal components in new food channels, experiencing new flavor profiles all the while individualizing the family meal.  Does your brand look more like yesterday or tomorrow? Where are you selling Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food today? How about tomorrow?

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a Grocerant Niche leveraging integration strategy.  

Has Technology Speeded up how we Define Fast Food?

Wonder why fast food, fast casual and even faster the grocerant niche, filled Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food are driving growth? Euclid has technology that anonymously tracks cell phones. The tracking of cell/mobile phones in and around stores provides some interesting insights that restaurants should be paying attention too.  

First, Euclid’s anonymously track of phones as they pass by various shopping malls and stores. Euclid takes 6 billion measurements a day and analyzes 250 million potential shopping sessions a year across thousands of locations.

The most recent Euclid study found that “In March, the number of shoppers who entered a store as a percentage of total foot traffic was 9%, up a percentage point from the same month last year. However, many of those shoppers entered the store and left relatively quickly.”

Restaurants take notice “The study found that “10% of shoppers who entered a store left within five minutes, a couple of percentage points higher than a year ago. Of course, this begs the question of why, for which there could be numerous explanations. Shoppers could be more focused, going directly to what they want and buying it.”…

Speed of service is important to consumers.  Are you starting to think that the total number of QSR’s, combine fast casual restaurants is up? Simply put YES.   Traffic decreased a percentage point from the previous year, so restaurants may want to figure out the reasons that service times are slowing in drive-thru’s or at the counter.  Even the people who didn’t leave a store within five minutes didn’t spend as much time in it as a year ago, decreasing a minute to a 23-minute visit.  How long do customers want to wait for a check when they are done dinning?

The study also found “number of people who returned to a store location more than once within 30 days totaled 13% of total visits, also down from the same time last year. Whether short attention span or shorter times in stores, retailers have a limited window to influence all those shoppers who prefer going to a store.”

The grocerant niche is booming.  Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food saves cooking time and clean-up time.  Customers are time starved and utilizing technology, new points of distributions and meal assembly over cooking?  How are you selling fresh prepared food?  Where? Are you selling food faster today than you did last year?   

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

Fast Food or Fast Convenience the Market Place is Evolving Fast as is QuikTrip

In an Omni-Channel retail world one thing is painfully clear, consumers are migrating to Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food. With new points of distribution seemingly opening monthly each offering quality, meal component options that can be bundled into a single or family meal fast it’s the most dynamic retail food sector globally. 

Legacy QSR and Fast Casual restaurants must take notice that this time around the competition is established, branded, and well-funded. QuikTrip founded in 1958, today they have 685 stores with sales over 10 Billion annually is evolving once again this time with Grocerant Niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food. When the consumer speaks QuikTrip listens and in its new footprint/concept QT Kitchens consumer can now get quality fresh prepared food made-to-order. 

QT Kitchens has “added a series of made-to-order food counters where customers can get freshly-made foods such as flatbreads, toasted sandwiches, pizza, breakfast sandwiches, smoothies and specialty coffee drinks.”  Providing customer customization via “made-to-order” elevates both the QuikTrip brand and the customer experience according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru.

Regular QuikTrip customers can bundle a meal now from either legacy branded prepackaged offerings like hot dogs, sandwiches or snack with a “made-to-order” product. Consumers seeking fresh food fast can indulge at QuikTrip with customized “made-to-order” coffee, frozen drinks, pizza or sandwiches edifying the meal and the experience.

QuikTrip fresh prepared food is a platform for new ccustomer brand activation that begins with a fresh food invitation. Successful brand management requires an inclusive strategy, executed with consumer focused innovative tactics.  QuikTrip is doing this right and will garner additional market share.

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

Yumz Frozen Yogurt Express Kiosk Fast, Flavorful, and Fresh

Are you Ready-2-Eat gourmet frozen yogurt? New Non-traditional food retailer targets micro locations with macro market goals, Yumz Frozen Yogurt express kiosk is Fast, Flavorful, and Fresh. Yumz goal is to edify non-traditional fresh yogurt locations with express branded kiosk that drive incremental customers while driving top line growth and bottom line profits. 

Yumz provides a turn-key solution to fresh Ready-2-Eat gourmet frozen yogurt. John Barnes, cofounder of Yumz Gourmet Frozen Yogurt said “It’s an ideal opportunity for retailers to expand and drive more traffic to their stores. We have made it simple to add a frozen yogurt station to any retail establishment. Our goal is to provide flexibility, an easy-to-operate kiosk, and make it as inexpensive as possible for an existing business to grow their sales and customer base.”

Yumz Gourmet Frozen Yogurt is known for its rotating selection of more than 55 frozen yogurt flavors all fat free, low in calories, and full of probiotics; and more than 75 toppings such as fruits, nuts, sauces, and dry toppings.  Ready-2-Eat express kiosk are on the rise and Yumz micro location focus with macro market goals is an success clue for others to follow.

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

Why Rush and What’s is Value in Ready-2-Eat Fresh Prepared Food?

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru Steven Johnson is regularly asked what is driving the rapid growth of the Grocerant Niche. His answer is “First and foremost is the universal acceptance by all age groups and income brackets they prefer not to cook or do dishes.  However defined value varies both by income and age.”

Here is an example, from Eric Baer of ICC/Decisions Service and one of their recent studies:  “Younger consumers shop less for meals that are time-saving in preparation, but are heavily interested in preordering prepared food items online and save their time in that aspect,” Clearly younger consumer like to use technology it saves them time as well as being a tool for discovery, particularly when it comes to food.

However Nanette Brown, ICC’s vice president of operations stated; “the opposite holds true for older consumers, “who are less concerned with the time-saving aspect of ordering ahead and who would rather save their time when it comes to their meal preparation and convenience.”

The same study found that “shoppers between the ages of 18 and 34 put price over convenience, while males ranked timesaving meals higher than females. Those in the $40,000-or-less income bracket do not use the option to preorder prepared foods ahead of time as much as other shoppers. This could be due to lack of access to the technology to do so,” said Baer.

The universal acceptance that the ICC/Decisions Service survey found was that the top two most popular attributes are fresh, high-quality ingredients combined with timesaving convenience. Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food aka Grocerant Niche food continues to drive top line sales and bottom line profits in every sector of retail foodservice.  

One thing that families find most important according to Mary Fredal “ is eating at home , it gives us time to talk with each other...

A time to turn off the electronic tools, share time together preparing food in the kitchen, sharing in serving the food, eating together at the table and talking about those things that are important to everyone, including our spiritual life, and our daily lives.

It is a time of communion - uniting ourselves with each other. Sharing our thoughts, discussing our problems, allowing family members to get to know one another and to join together in love, helping each other with encouragement, advice, counsel, wisdom, praise, loving correction, etc.

It is an opportunity to ensure that everyone eats wholesome food cooked in a way that is creative and enjoyable and healthy, organic, natural, free from preservatives, chemicals, GMOs, bacteria, artificial products.”  Bonding as a family unit still occurs with Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.  When the cook is happy the family is happy.

Outside eyes can deliver top line sales and bottom line profits.  Invite Foodservice Solutions® to provide brand and product positioning assistance or a grocerant program assessment. www.FoodserviceSolutions.us   

2014 5 P’s of Successful Fresh Prepared Food Marketing

Success does leave clues and many retail food operators are now adopting Foodservice Solutions® 5 P’s of Food Marketing: Have you?

 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 contact us via Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us  or visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant