Marketing Spoonful

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

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

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

Increasingly, we’re seeing advertisers tapping into the core elements of health and beauty that stand for true happiness to consumers.
We saw Dove do it by encouraging women to unlock the power of their inner beauty. Now Danone is using celebrity spokeswomen to demonstrate a lovely connection between taste enjoyment, nutrition, digestive health, beauty and happiness.
It’s [...]

Tags: activia, beauty, food marketing blog, health, jamie lee curtis, martine mccutcheon

Well, it seems as if someone was listening. When I posted a call for a new all out food brand battle, I was hoping someone would answer with something original. Little did I know when I wrote What the world needs now is a new food brand war that Sonic would be the one to draw [...]

Tags: attack ads, battle of the brands, Burger King, burger wars, food marketing blog, Sonic

It’s nice to actually watch and listen to a band for a change during halftime of the Big Game. Usually I have to endure all the falderol and garbage that goes with the over-hyped football championship game.
The Who sound as good as ever. And how cool is it to hear half of South Florida scream: [...]

Tags: 1985 bears, big game, Bud Light, Coca-Cola, Coke, Doritos, food marketing blog, gary patterson, Hyundai, Marketing, Miller High Life, patterson burk, super bowl, wendell

If you’re not sure what to do next to make your food product line more competitive, consider adding a tier.
It might make sense to add a lower tier. It might make more sense to add a higher tier. Which way you move depends largely on the gap in the market, consumers’ willingness to pay and [...]

Tags: brand extension, Crisco, Ernest and Julio Gallo, Mercedes, product line extension, product tiers, Yellow Tail