Marketing Spoonful

We’ve all done it: Hitting Taco Bell, Burger King, McDonald’s or Denny’s after a night out studying, dancing or…whatever. There’s just something about those flavors that hits the spot in the late or wee hours.
Now, Doritos is taking advantage of our cravings for savory and spicy snacks by combining bags of fun you can eat [...]

Tags: Doritos, fast food, food marketing, food marketing blog, Frito Lay, marketing to teens, Ruffles, snacks

While Domino’s and Papa John’s fight it out over low prices, speedy delivery and better ingredients, Pizza Hut is on its way to re-establishing itself as the dominant player in the pizza industry. And it’s doing it with its advertising.
Pizza Hut has done a good job on the product component of its strategy in the [...]

Tags: Domino's, food advertising, food marketing blog, Papa John's, Pizza Hut

Last week, I had the pleasure of sitting in front of a panel of three esteemed restaurant industry experts.
One is a restaurant designer, one is a former Chili’s franchisee and steakhouse owner, and the other is a consultant to independent restaurant owners.
The good news is that each of these experts is very hopeful about the [...]

Tags: Chili's, food marketing, food marketing blog, restaurant marketing, value proposition

With the acquisition of American Idol and country recording sensation Carrie Underwood as brand spokesperson, Olay has taken its advertising to a new level: the level of identification.
It will be interesting to see how the brand changes in the coming months in terms of the identity its handlers desire and the image it takes on [...]

Tags: Carrie Underwood, food marketing blog, identification, Olay, product spokesperson

When I was a kid I used to watch my dad mix concentrated weedkiller chemical with water in a big metal spray can. He would put a spring-loaded pump down into the can and screw it on. He would pump the pump about 20 times and turn the handle to lock it in place. Then [...]

Tags: chemicals, food marketing blog, Innovation, Monsanto, Roundup

It takes a special person to say the word “wiener” with a straight face. Linkhaus, a new hot dog eatery in Wichita, Kansas, uses the term shamelessly to describe its “well endowed” dogs.
The place is really down to earth. It’s definitely a guys type of place. You can catch ESPN and other sports channels on [...]

Tags: food marketing blog, hot dog, Linkhaus

I had the pleasure of attending the Rural Grocery Store Summit in Manhattan, Kansas, this week. I met a lot of great people who are doing their best to preserve an important part of the struggling rural environment.
I learned that over the past five years, nearly half the rural grocery stores in Kansas have gone [...]

Tags: community engagement, customer engagement, food marketing blog, rural grocery store

One of the coolest things in food marketing is when you can take something old and put a new twist on it. Some of the most enduring brands do this successfully: Coca-Cola, Uncle Ben’s, Quaker Oats, Doritos.
I had the privilege of meeting Jim from The Avenue Grill in Nebraska City on a recent trip to [...]

I’m not sure how often this occurs, but it’s an interesting phenomenon that what we would call brand standards for franchises are sometimes blatantly ignored. Signage is a tough one to get over on, but you and I both know there are a lot of unapproved coupons and brochures floating around out there.
But tonight, I [...]

Tags: 7-Eleven, brand standards, food marketing, food marketing blog, franchise, ICEE, Icy Drink, Merchandising, Slurpee

Creating a new brand identity for yourself is easy. Creating a new brand image? Not so much.
That’s because of an important, yet subtle difference between identity and image:
Identity is WHO you are. Image is HOW you are perceived.
To state it another way, your brand identity is HOW you want to be perceived, while your image [...]

Tags: Branding, Dippin' Dots, food marketing blog, Hormel, Hyundai, identity, image, Kia, Lexus, marketing strategy, Tyson