Coaching for personal growth, change and development
By Harry Balzer, NPD Vice President
The element of surprise cannot be under-rated in love or in war or in the food industry. In the food business, as in other industries, examining the areas that run counter to popular perception and raise eyebrows can be the first step in identifying business opportunities and existing niches that have not been fully mined for potential riches.
Based on the latest findings at NPD Foodworld, following are my top Food Surprises of 2004: NPD Food World
Yum Brands Inc. which owns the Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, Long John Silver’s and A&W chains is offering free, four-week memberships at Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. clubs in January to people bent on indulging without bulging.
The timing of the promotion coincides with the ritual of making a New Year’s resolution to lose weight. It also comes as many fast-food chains work to blunt the negative publicity received in recent years from obesity-related lawsuits and the documentary film “Super Size Me.”
One health expert viewed the health club offer as a smart public relations stunt.
“The fast-food industry in most people’s minds is equated with being fat and sick,” said John McDougall, an advisory board member with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. “What this does is provide good PR because it associates these restaurants with exercise and the concept of good health.”
From L.A. Times
New polling data suggests anger at U.S. foreign policy may be translating into avoidance of U.S. brands in some countries. “The world’s love affair with America isn’t exactly over, but it has stopped being a blind and unquestioning kind of love,” said Simon Anholt, author of “Brand America.” Business for Diplomatic Action, a coalition of public relations and advertising executives, has recruited companies such as PepsiCo and McDonald’s to join an effort to help improve America’s image abroad.
Financial Times London
From Tim Manners
Immaculate Sushi. Lunch or dinner there will cost you $350, and you don’t get to pick what to eat.
A meal at the 26-seat Masa is a three-hour affair, with all items selected and served in a “sequence … and rhythm” determined by Masayoshi Takayama, its chef and owner. The chef:customer ratio typically is 1:2. If you are seated “in one of the 10 seats at the hinkoki wood bar, sanded so frequently that you catch its faint scent,” you watch your sushi being prepared by black-robed, short-haired (or shaven headed) chefs “from just inches away.” As Frank Bruni relays it: “A chef makes your sushi a piece at a time, reaching for a pristine slab of fluke or Spanish mackerel and using a bone-handled knife to carve a sliver. He presses wasabi or maybe shiso flakes onto a bed of warm rice, lays the fish atop it and then anoints this jewel with soy sauce, yuzu or sudachi, a limelike Japanese fruit.” The effect is “an immediacy and intimacy unlike anything at more conventional restaurants or for that matter at other upscale sushi bars …”
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Paddi Lund… he’s a dentist in Brisbane that shocked the dental world by firing his clients… he then halved his client base and doubled his profits and works half the time You see, dentists have the second highest suicide rate of any profession. And one day paddi was going to work depressed as hell, and got to thinking… What do I hate about my business. The answer was most of his clients, the sterile environment… the whole drill, fill and bill process.
So he broke his clients into A, B and C clients. “A” clients loved what he did, paid on time and told their friends. C clients always complained, turned up late and bitched about his fees. So he wrote to all the C clients and told them to find another dentist. He then LOCKED his doors and put a sign up saying… if you’re a client, ring the bell we’ll let you in. If you’re not a client there’s a dentist up the road.
He then took an axe to his business and put in an oven and a cappucino machine.
Now here’s the best bit… The only way you could become a client of Paddis was someone had to REFER you. IN fact the referral bit was a condition of doing business with him. Before he would work on you he’d say… I’m going to give you the best dental treatment and in return I have one condition that you must meet… you have to refer at least 3 people to my business.
Paddi realised that getting A customers to refer their friends would simply generate more A customers… people have friends that tend to be like themselves… good payers etc etc.
He then had a Guarantee… the FREE PRIZE!… NO PAIN!… What do people fear most about dentists? Pain… by working with less clients and in a more relaxed environment he was able to take his time and that meant better pain control.
So, consumers want to eat fruits and vegetables, but they arent getting them away from home. This sales opportunity should be of particular interest to the quick-service segment, since two-thirds of consumers report they eat at a quick-serve restaurant at least once every two weeks, yet only 18 percent of them regularly consume a fruit or vegetable there.
Why? While restaurants fruit and vegetable offerings have improved over the past year, evidence suggests there is plenty of opportunity to expand the average menu, including quick-service. Fruit menu mentions increased 18 percent between 2002 and 2003, while vegetable menu mentions were up 5 percent, according to Food Beat Inc.s study of the top 200 chains menus. However, more than 50 of the 200 chains didnt mention fruit at all, and 41 percent of fruit menu mentions were desserts. While menu mentions of vegetables were seven times higher than fruit mentions in the survey, the majority of this growth comes from the explosion in entre salads.
With the proven success of salads in quick-service, savy marketers are already working on the next items to satisfy the customers continuing desire for healthy eating options.
Full article in QSR
A monster turkey big enough to feed a small village has been sold for £1,700 at auction in Aberdeenshire.
The 74lb bird will take more than 24 hours to cook and provide Christmas dinners for more than 100 people.
Nonalcoholic drinks, paired with a tasting menu at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, blend flavors like prickly pear and kaffir lime leaves; barley and black cardamom; huckleberry and sesame; and cauliflower and turmeric root.
Now there’s a way for people who are limiting or avoiding alcohol finally to feel like grown-ups at the table: the nonalcoholic beverage pairing. [Read more…] about Juice for Caviar, Soda for Foie Gras