Seasonal Food Marketing Strength

Every food brand is vying for an increased share of the seasonal sales. From Sainsbury’s to M&S, Aldi to Waitrose & Partners, brand names serving all markets must maximise the reach and engagement of food PR and marketing campaigns so the wisest utilise the experience and talents of food PR specialists including Ceres PR.

PR and marketing channels are flooded with communications aiming to reaffirm loyalty, illustrate how the brand feels about its consumers and how they should perceive a brand and its ethics, quality and viability. Distribution and frequency across channels is organised to optimise the return on investment.

Although year on year the amount of spending online has increased steadily it is vital for food brands to remember the value of traditional marketing alongside digital channels. Not every consumer likes the online experience, feels confident with it or trusts that the image on screen matches the item they’ll receive. For them, offline media is perfect. Flyers, newspaper inserts and stands within stores are their domain; neglecting it is like willingly sending business to rivals.

Good Food PR

The BBC Good Food magazine blind tested 166 traditional Christmas food products across 11 household name brands to establish the best buys for 2018, as published in their October issue. Their results create invaluable positive food PR. M&S won 5 categories, Morrisons won 3. As the magazine pointed out, these two brands are at opposite ends of the price spectrum. Quality needn’t cost a fortune.

You may argue that BBC’s Good Food Magazine team knows how to cook each raw product for maximum enjoyment, moisture and taste benefits but an endorsement from their tasters is highly influential. Food marketing specialists can use the experts’ results and any other recommendations positively during campaigns.

The tasters ham joint winner was Waitrose & Partners juniper smoked spiral crackling ham. (Bone in-joint.) Booths were highly commended.

M&S were victorious with their Pembrokeshire bronze free range turkey. Aldi and Lidl were highly commended in this category.

M&S’s sirloin steak won in the alternative meat category with Lidl and Asda highly commended.

Emotional Response

At the base of food marketing activities is emotion. A brand must do more than relate facts to prosper; it must engage, inspire, form a lasting mutually beneficial relationship and encourage consumers to spread the word about them.

Brand storytelling is an extremely rewarding tool because whilst using a narrative to engage and emotionally connect with the consumer, it issues the sales message without actively being seen to sell. Emotions are responsible for sales; logic is employed later to justify the expenditure.

McDonald’s current food marketing uses a tale about people not leaving carrots for Santa’s reindeers, with Santa then popping in to a conveniently open restaurant to buy carrots.  Consumers feel sorry for them and are rewarded with a jubilant “feel good” factor which they remember.

Aldi’s food marketing uses the adventures of Kevin the carrot to sell raw and pre-cooked products; KFC has opted for a humorous wild west style turkey versus chicken approach.

Harness the power of professional food marketing for a stronger 2019.