Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Demystifying of food in a channel open environment.


Consumers are delighted with the rapid qualitative changes occurring in the food industry. It’s all about the ability to get better food in ever channel of distribution; for the customer that means they get what ever they want when ever they want it! One example is: Convenience stores are migrating into quality fresh food and at and exciting pace! Grocery stores are increasing margins with ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat prepared food that range from oven fresh pizza to deep fried fish and hot scallop salad and fresh baked bread sandwiches with hand carved meats!
Recently Convenience Store News held a Future Forum Virtual Trade Show just one of the many state of the art informational perks of the magazine. Here are some key takeaways provided by Mike Griswold of AMR Research and I quote” With the blurring of channels, the ability to buy similar products from multiple locations has never been greater” With unemployment lingering and the economy at a near standstill he stated “Retailers focusing only on process and cost will not survive in 2010”. Griswold said, “because many others are focusing on shoppers and looking for ways to take market share from the competition”. He continued “People are looking for small, close and easy on the wallet," Going forward the future of food retailing the focus will be where food is sold and how it is sold as appose to what type of food they are selling.
I have discussed many times in this blog that how people eat and where they eat is more important than what they eat. Restaurateurs focusing on “what they do” rather than what the customer is doing will have a very difficult future. I am convinced that we will see more and more unique mobile truck food operators and portable kiosk operations. Copy cat marketing and concept positioning that needs justification and rationalization upon rollout is neither innovative or productive over the long run.
Companies like who have both a famous product and brand must change. Here is one example of innovative change: Coca-Cola’s Coke's new Freestyle fountain drink dispenser capable of more than 100 beverage choices, which includes 30 RFID-chipped cartridges that contain highly concentrated flavorings. The flavors are so powerful that only a few drops go into each drink recipe. With Freestyle, "We're changing the consumer experience and the way we're marketing to consumers," stated Jean-Michel Ares from Coca Cola. Success does leave clues and Coca Cola is one company that is leading not following: http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant

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