The food and beverage industry relies heavily on our five senses, and marketing food is largely about enticing the visual palate.
From French cuisine to American soul food, global franchises have one thing in common: they are delicious to see.
To sustain a food and beverage business today, the first essential ingredient is to make good food look good.
Crafting a Unique Identity for Your Restaurant
You need to identify your target audience before making any move.
Are you a bakery or a bistro? Do you cater to families or executives?
Establishing your brand’s unique identity is crucial.
If you’re a Mexican restaurant in an area that loves American steaks and burgers, you need to make people aware that tacos are yummy too.
You also need to score an advantage by being the first of your kind in that area.
You need to be sure about your target audience before you make any move.
It is, however, essential to know what you’re also expecting from your customers.
If you’re a coffee shop, do you want to relate to executives picking up cups of coffee and rushing or struggling writers sitting with their laptops trying to make magic happen?
The Significance of Packaging in Food Marketing
A book is judged by its cover, and a product is judged by its packaging.
One of the biggest ingredients that marketing professionals concentrate on is the packaging of the product.
This doesn’t only include the literal packaging.
It starts with the basic logo design of your brand to the menu card and how it’s presented on the table.
Sometimes the logos on your cutlery can have a strong impact on your consumers.
(💡Remember to create a simple yet effective logo that is customized to your requirements and convenient for all other collaterals of stationery.)
Making a Statement with Your Unique Selling Point
Perhaps your angel investor or partner is investing in your idea because there’s potential in it.
The biggest potential that most investors see is the USP.
Anything from making the best cream cheesecakes in town to using only organic or vegan ingredients in the menu for your food truck.
Hence, it should be showcased in your packaging.
For example, a brand like Baskin & Robbins stands out because it makes an effort to come up with new flavours every month.
Leveraging Blogging for SEO
Your SEO strategy starts with an online blog.
The best place to begin is by having your own blog on your website.
You can integrate this with your other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter so that each post gets multiplied and creates a good impact.
This is your best communication channel where you can create a huge following for your brand.
(As you get bigger, partner with professional food bloggers and ask them to review about your business)
Email Marketing Strategies
Start an email marketing program and create a monthly/annual schedule so that your posts are relevant and spaced out through a period.
Emailers are quick and easy to send, and all that you need are email listings of potential as well as current customers.
Keep sending mailers about your new product offerings or competitions, exciting events, and discount coupons to keep customers engaged.
This way, you can enjoy a more dominant online presence.
The Power of Social Media in Food Marketing
Do you know how much impact your Twitter page header design has when it comes to online marketing?
A company like Burger King or Hardy’s is famous today for being so cool and relatable with the current generation because they’re on all the social media platforms, including Foursquare and Reddit.
Instagram is one of the platforms where a food and beverage business can thrive through social media.
People love clicking pictures of food.
So not only are you posting pictures of your food and events, but people are also posting reviews of your food with pictures.
Hosting Events to Drive Brand Awareness
You can host food festivals and seasonal or occasional events like St. Patrick’s Day or Valentine’s Day celebrations to offer couples special menus or packages.
This can be advertised online as well as through fliers and posters based on the grandeur of your event.
Events also help in brand awareness and spreading the word.
It is undoubtedly an effective marketing solution that drives target customers’ attention due to media coverage as well.
Listing Your Business in Online Directories
There are numerous websites like Zomato, Food Panda, etc. on food and beverages where you can list your product and menu.
There are tons of smartphone apps and websites that allow you to use their platform as a means to sell your product by giving a marginal commission to the platform.
Festive and Seasonal Offers to Attract Customers
Even without hosting events, you can always procure more customers through offers and discounts based on occasions.
For example, if you have coolers on your menu, you can highlight and offer them at discounted prices with other food items in summer.
Partnering with Other Brands for a Competitive Edge
Brands like Pepsi and Coca-Cola offer the opportunity of a more marketable product by simply making sure that you highlight their product in your marketing campaigns.
Domino’s offers Coca-Cola beverages, while more posh restaurants will showcase their exclusivity with a particular brand of rice or spices, especially an Asian brand.
Affiliations always give consumers more confidence to try your product offering.
Reinventing Your Brand Image to Stay Relevant
Finally, from Madonna to Kellogg’s characters in the packaging, all go through a revamp over a period of time to stay relevant with the current consumers and by refreshing their image.
One of the most impactful stories in terms of reinvention in advertising is showing Santa Claus wearing red attire instead of green, which it originally was.
The Coca-Cola campaign worked so well that today, Santa Claus’ image stands with the red attire that was started by Coca-Cola.
In conclusion, there are limitless opportunities to market your product, from catchy cover and packaging designs to something as simple yet crucial as the boxes used for delivering your food.
The key is to understand your potential consumer pool’s psyche and then formulate and keep reinventing your brand.
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