Jeff Handrich has been a VP of Foodservice Sales and Marketing for fortune 25 food companies and small food companies. He can be reached at 262-242-3211.

One challenge for many in the food industry has been to transfer the principles of retail consumer packaged brand marketing to foodservice, i.e. restaurant, hotel and institutional customers. Many food and beverage companies have not yet found the formula for brand differentiation. Here is a strategy.

It is the goal of every marketer to manage a line of products which is taking volume share from the competition, performing at the upper end of profitability targets, and is consistently reinventing the category with new items which solve operator and patron issues before the rest of competitive set. Undoubtedly an enviable position, but how does one achieve this type of leadership?

Start with the lowest common denominator, or in simplest terms, the items that make up your business. Follow the distribution chain back to the point where operators are taking your items out of their packages and using them in menu applications. What point of difference do your items provide versus others in the marketplace? Are your items easy to use? Do they yield better than others? What are visual differences? Do your items taste better than the competition? Ask operators why they purchase the items they do. What is lacking in their current purchases? What impression do your items make on patrons who pay money in order to consume them? The goal of any operator is to manage a business that is making money. To accomplish this, operators need loyal patrons who frequent the establishment because they receive a unique eating experience. Many variables such as atmosphere, wait staff, price, location, etc. come into play, however if the food and/or beverage offerings are substandard or just simply ordinary, the business will not be optimized. This then becomes the starting point. You must determine how your items help the operator win. It is in this environment that the solutions to building a leading product line reside. Once you have the insights, move to other segments within the Food service channel in order to find similarities and differences. Formulations, packaging, communication materials, etc., may need to be modified for each priority segment.

Once you have verified a clear point of difference versus the competitive set, the goal becomes to communicate this difference. It the responsibility of the marketer to provide simple and effective selling information to the sales force. The product lines which have the best chance of winning for an operator will be the ones that receive sales force attention. Do not assume the sales person has the same insights that you have regarding how your lines of items compete in the marketplace. You must provide the blueprints on how to position and sell your items in a sales call. If your selling materials provide this, your line of business will begin gaining momentum each time it is presented!

The underlying dynamic in all of this is that you have a cross functional team of associates that understand this process like you do. By having Research and Development, Operations, Engineering, Quality, etc., all working on priorities set by your marketing team, you will have your line of business moving in the right direction!

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