A simple path to showing up differently in foodservice
Innovation doesn’t always mean inventing something entirely new. Sometimes, it simply means replacing the familiar with something more useful, relevant, or effective.
Look across your foodservice marketing mix for the things you’ve defaulted to doing the same way over and over again. The same trade show. The same sell sheet. The same sample shipment. The same ad campaign.
Then ask a simple question: What could we substitute?
Here are a few places to start.
Rethink Your Content
- Substitute stock photos and ai imagery with custom photography that demonstrates your products’ unique function in the kitchen.
- Substitute another blog post with video content or a podcast that lets your culinary and product expertise come through differently.
- Substitute basic product brochures with content-rich culinary guides that tell the back-of-house story and provide value to the operator beyond product specs.
Rethink Sales Enablement
- Substitute simple product sample shipments with guided sampling experiences including recipe ideas, culinary tips and tricks, and video content.
- Substitute live demos with virtual, self-guided cutting kits to achieve better scale across your sales team.
- Substitute PPT decks with custom website landing pages that motivate high-value operator prospects.
Rethink Demand Generation
- Substitute another broad-sweeping ad campaign with high-touch account-based experiences.
- Substitute an operator-only demand generation strategy with programs that engage and activate your distributor partners, too.
- Substitute sample request calls-to-action in ads with rebate programs and other financially motivated offers to incentivize operators.
- Substitute expensive trade show booths and exhibitor fees with geotargeted ad campaigns and alternative experiences around the show.
Innovation doesn’t require replacing your entire marketing plan. Pick one thing you’ve been doing on autopilot and substitute a better approach.
