Thursday, July 22, 2010

Create Apps Specifically for iPad to Market Premium Food

The premium food marketers that are approaching programming for iPad apps differently than iPhone apps are achieving a ‘Wow!’ factor.

 

Kraft Foods recently unveiled “Big Fork, Little Fork,” an iPad app that is targeting young parents and kids with information on healthy eating.

 

The iPad provides a wider canvas, which will include how-to videos, educational games and basic skills for kids in the kitchen, as well as recipes.

 

Kraft, with Meredith, has created content specifically for this platform.

 

– Advertising Age

 

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By utilizing the larger screen space and incorporating video, iPad app developers are using the tool to its full potential to engage users.

 

“IPad lends itself to brand content if content makes sense for that brand,” said Derek Handley co-founder and CEO of Hyperfactory. “It’s different from business as usual. It’s the intersection of new-content development, product development and designing the user interface and how the consumer interacts.”

 

Have you marketed an app specifically for iPad? If so, what were your top priorities or concerns in using the new platform?

 

 

 

 

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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Gift Cards go Social to Market Premium Food

If gift cards are part of your premium food marketing arsenal, there is a great new tool that will allow you to bring them into the social media world.

The National Retail Federation estimates that U.S. consumers spent more than $20 billion on gift cards during the 2009 holiday season. By making your premium food gift cards available for purchase where consumers spend an increasingly large amount of their time – on social media sites and their cell phones – you will help boost your marketing potential and make your brand more accessible.

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Friendgiftr provides consumers the ability to purchase and send gift cards from a variety of merchants directly from the Web site, from social media sites such as Facebook or, coming soon, from a smart phone.

 

“Simply put, Friendgiftr lets you shop pretty much anywhere through the world’s first ever virtual network of linked commercial applications.”

 

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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Premium Food Consumer Shopping Trends: Mobile Marketing

Great news for premium food marketers; a recent intelligence report from Compete Web analytics showed phones such as the iPod and Android are not just trendy products, but also have a dramatic effect on shopping!

 

mobile-marketing

According to a report from Web analytics firm Compete: 

 

  • 40% of iPhone and Android users look-up prices online while out shopping
  • 39% read consumer reviews before making a purchase
  • Nearly four in 10 (37%) smartphone owners have bought something not phone-related over their devices in the last six months

·         8% of those surveyed who tried to purchase a product on their mobile device could not do so, mainly because the site wouldn’t load.

What can marketers learn from this information?

It’s imperative for premium food Web sites to be mobile friendly. Unresponsive sites can ruin marketing efforts, while engaging mobile sites build brand loyalty. Moreover, food marketing campaigns that focus on action can utilize mobile phones ability to look up information regardless of location.

Engagement with products builds loyalty.  Make information about premium food accessible across all media platforms so opportunities don’t slip away.

 

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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

2010 Predictions Series for Marketing Premium Food

I have developed three posts dedicated to trends. I’ve been combing through my favorite resources for trend predictions and have picked a few I thought would resonate with food marketers. Part 1:  Mobile Marketing, Part 2: Flavor Trends, and Part 3: Consumer Behavior. I hope you find these useful. Do you have any predictions to share?

Part 1

2010 Predictions for Mobile Marketing of Premium Food

Nearly 40 years ago, The Who’s Pete Townsend sang about “Goin’ Mobile.” In the New Year, premium food marketers need to be singing the same song…or risk being left behind. 

Remember when Pizza Hut’s app for iPhone/iTouch helped the chain reach over $1 million in sales in 3 months? According to Millennial Media, 100 million unique users will tap into the U.S. mobile Web in 2010. Premium food marketers need to learn their customers’ mobile habits. And fast.

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Here are some of the top mobile marketing trends related to premium food marketing as predicted by Mobile Marketer:

Augmented Reality

Using the GPS, the camera and even the compass, your smartphone can sense what you are pointing at and show relevant data for that place, such as reviews for a restaurant or virtual signposts to direct you to a place.

 

Geo-fencing

A geo-fence is a virtual field around any location that is used to trigger a mobile marketing message to a user when they enter or exit the area. Expect to see retailers take advantage of this capability in a variety of ways, from sending personalized messaging to consumers leaving a sporting event or concert, to blanketing a place like a beach or skateboard park on a Saturday.

 

Mobile commerce and retail will grow
According to Deloitte’s 24th Annual Holiday Survey, of the mobile shoppers identified in their survey: 55 percent said they will use their mobile device to find store locations, 45 percent to research prices, 40 percent to find product information, 32 percent to find discounts and coupons and 25 percent to make purchases. Mobile-driven retail activity and commerce will continue to increase with retailers leveraging new mobile-specific technologies to convert browsers into buyers.

 

Linking CRM databases into mobile marketing
Marketers generally are recognizing the uniquely personal relationships that consumers have with their mobile phones. For retail marketers, combining this with the CRM data that they are collecting about their customers – like past purchases and categories of interest – offers the opportunity to deliver personalized messages when a user is near one of their stores.

 

 

There are many other Smartphone predictions in this article.

 

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Friday, December 4, 2009

Is It Time to Use Mobile Marketing for Premium Food?

When do you predict your premium food business will include mobile media marketing? It might be sooner than you think.

 

The explosion in smartphone adaptation continues, along with faster networks and new features, means that mobile marketing campaigns will become a staple of advertising budgets.

 

Forrester Research recently reported the proportion of adult U.S. subscribers owning smartphones jumped to 17 percent last year from 11 percent  in 2008 and 7 percent in 2007 (http://bit.ly/5dZCle). Moreover, a new report published by Quantcast shows the mobile Web grew 110 percent in the U.S. and 148 percent worldwide in 2009. (http://bit.ly/Vhg9p)

 

There is no denying mobile phone advertising strategies in the United States are still in their infancy, but the current signs point to creative and engaging strategies to come. For example:

 

  1. Location based mobile ads send a text message to phones in a certain area—whether it’s near a Starbucks or local mom n’ pop restaurant—to offer special deals such as “50 cents off your next cup of coffee” or “free dessert with meal purchase” to attract customers.( http://bit.ly/7ubnLK)
  2. Mobile Coupons – Wendy’s and 7-eleven are running opt-in coupon campaigns, sending barcodes to smartphones offering free drinks and food discounts.(Wendys: http://bit.ly/8vzN2N , 7-eleven – http://bit.ly/8vzN2N)
  3. Real Time Billboard Interaction – Nike ID (http://bit.ly/IYA25) erected a large, interactive billboard in Times Square. Passers-by could use their cell phones to text in their own custom design. After one minute, their session would time out, and the users received an image of the actual shoe they just designed, which they could set as the wallpaper of their smartphone. They also received a special code and URL, so that they could purchase their new design. (http://bit.ly/4wttwP)

Growth in smartphone and mobile Web adaptation will generate a fertile creative frontier for marketers to pursue.

 

The results so far are mixed. According to B.R. Guest restaurants, location based mobile marketing efforts yielded a 5% response rate or better on most days during the campaign’s run. The challenge is that some Mobile coupons require special software to be installed and eat up bandwidth, which cause frustration and heightened data charges on phone plans.

 

http://bit.ly/nkrgc

The possibilities of advertising through smartphones are certainly exciting, especially for premium food. With opt in campaigns offering coupons and location-based advertisements, marketers can enhance campaigns to reach target audiences and build awareness.

 

If you are a premium food or beverage marketer, are you planning to use mobile marketing in 2010?

 

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