Technomic recently published the 2011/2012 Foodservice Industry Projections. As you might expect, foodservice industry “real growth” is projected to remain anemic. Nominal growth appears to be driven by menu price inflation.
So what does this mean to foodservice manufacturers who need to grow?
At a recent IFMA Forecast and Outlook Seminar, Technomic presented two key ideas to compete in the current environment – share growth and competitive differentiation.
How can Foodservice Rewards help?
Use Foodservice Rewards to differentiate from competition. In aggregate, Foodservice Rewards members redeem about 400,000 codes per week. Members look for the yellow Foodservice Rewards label and would like to earn points on additional products (click link to our social community to read what members say… New Products in Foodservice Rewards). Foodservice Rewards provides a way to differentiate from competitors that aren’t part of the program, especially distributor label products.
Leverage Foodservice Rewards redemption data to profile “best customers” and grow share through targeted acquisition. Foodservice Rewards Sponsors gain visibility to operator purchasing behavior via code redemptions that are reported weekly. Sponsors have insight to the recency, frequency, and monetary value of purchases by operator –the building blocks of customer valuation. With this approach, Sponsors can profile their “best customers” and target more “like customers” from the thousands of Foodservice Rewards members that haven’t yet redeemed from them –and are likely buying from a competitor.
Time for a new approach? Maybe it’s time review new ideas to drive growth during challenging times.