Marketing Spoonful

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

After posting a client’s account of going to CiCi’s Pizza and tripling the toppings on his pizza by robbing from two other slices, I got a nice comment from an official at the company. You can read it below. It was very cordial and essentially pointed out that CiCi’s provides ample toppings and invited me [...]

Tags: CiCi's, food marketing blog, pizza

I heard a really funny story the other day. I was teaching a course on the basics of starting up a business to a class of about 10 people. Now, when I teach this class, I like to use the example of starting a pizza restaurant to illustrate how to locate, price, create a product, [...]

Tags: buffet, CiCi's, Domino's, food marketing blog, getting your money's worth, Papa John's, pizza, Pizza Hut, value

Remember, just a few short years ago when there was one small spot on the convenience store refrigerator shelf for a lonely little energy drink called Red Bull? Now there are several coolers filled with every kind of energy drink one can imagine.
Funny thing, though. When I was at Big Lots tonight (part of a [...]

Tags: AMP, Crayola, Crayon, Crayon Sports Drink, energy drink, food marketing blog, G2, Gatorade, Hansen's Natural, Red Bull, sports drink

Beer ad featuring wheat shock and beer bottle romance: Check.
Beer ad featuring guy talking to dog after telling girlfriend his beer is more important than her: Check.
Beer ad by major company featuring small business during the Big Game: Check.
Miller High Life is planning to purchase air time during the Big Game and give it to select [...]

Tags: beer ad, beer commercial, Bud, cause marketing, Miller High Life, small business marketing