Food and bev fun fact: sustainable success in the food and beverage industry requires a delicious product and A+ marketing. But making advertising that helps amazing food and bev brands get a seat at the big table can often feel soufflé-level difficult (quality hard-to-make food reference).
With that in mind, let’s explore three keys to getting your food and bev brand into people’s mouths (sounds gross but we stand by it)
1.
Find your secret
special something
With so many food and bev brands (and parity products) in the world, it’s essential to home in on the one unique thing your brand or product has that people want—and the competition isn’t giving them. And then tell the world about it in a simple, relevant and original way.
White Castle Secret Special Something: very small, very tasty sliders.
We developed traditional and digital media, as well as the tiniest website ever. We even held grand openings that celebrated all things diminutive—like these real little, real good kindergarten grads. (Dang, so cute.)
Helper Secret Special Something: deliciously easy dinners.
The best way to pull dinner together in no time? Keep Helper handy.
Cayman Jack Secret Special Something: deliciously easy cocktails.
2.
Boost sales around tentpole moments.
Like summer movie blockbusters, odds are your brand’s appeal peaks during particular occasions. Well, consider those moments delicious, profit-sheet-filling, low hanging fruit. If possible, build hyper-relevant marketing efforts around those opportunities—and make sure your brand delivers a great experience to keep customers coming back—even during your “artsy indie movie off season.”
Fazoli’s tentpole moment: Awards Season (when you need amazing snacks: like breadsticks, obviously.)
Malley’s tentpole moments: Easter, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and, in this case – Mother’s Day.
Popcorn Indiana’s tentpole moment: A Netflix co-branding premiere. (Pass the popcorn, please.)
3.
Eliminate food media waste.
Most CPG food and bev brands can’t afford to leave leftovers. Which is why using ACV (All Commodity Volume) data to narrow the focus of media spends should be near the top of your marketing budget food pyramid (and all over your sales funnel). And with a hyper targeted media mix that efficiently scales your spend, you’ll be able to A/B test creative and CTAs, launch a landing page, and learn audience behaviors, demands, and sentiment that could further fuel optimization and campaign refinement. (Sounds delicious.)
Secret menu bonus key:
feed some hungry eyes.
(AKA: nobody puts your brand in a corner)
File this under no duh: you’re going to want your product to look as amazing as it tastes. So, make sure it appears as irresistibly cheesy, crunchy, saucy, chocolate-y (insert quick snack break here) and deliciously cravable as modern technology will allow.
(This is a great, self-serving opportunity to show a food and bev sizzle reel via Favorite Brother—our award-winning in-house content production studio and your ace in the hole for custom, national-quality branded content.)
Pro tip: make a snack run before watching this, just to be safe.
It’s time to rev up your food and bev brand
(bad rhyme, but you get it).
It’s true, rising above the blah blah in the food and bev world can seem like a “bite off more than you can chew” situation. However, nailing the keys above is a great start. And, full disclosure, this was just an appetizer. So, if you enjoyed it, let’s talk …over food and drinks, of course.