Food Distribution Marketing 101
The story of how food makes it from the farm to your fork is long and winding. Primitive food distribution was relegated specifically by area and often to family, with any food gathered or farmed remaining in very tight communities. With the development of agriculture and farming, civilization began to produce more food than the family tended the farm needed. That freed workers up to other pursuits, including what became early food distribution.
As our world has become increasingly interconnected the food supply chain has increased in complexity and scale. With so many different food products, services, meals, and more available, how do you draw attention to specific food items? You might have heard about product marketing, but food distribution marketing is much more specific. Before we look at how to spread the word on a specific food product, let’s get down to the basics first.
What is Food Distribution?
Food distribution is the path that every part of every meal takes from farm to table. The system is composed of a variety of companies, organizations, and programs that collect food from producers, store it in warehouses, and then distribute food to the manufacturers, grocery stores, restaurants, and more.
Importance of Food Distribution Companies
Food distribution companies provide a wide selection of items for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If agriculture is the brain of a country’s survival, then food distribution companies are the nervous system. These companies, often called distributors, act as a connecting link between the producer and the customer. A large part of the food production value chain is distribution.
Nutrition has always been and has become an important aspect of food. Unfortunately, the preponderance of food deserts has complicated food distribution supply chains. For example, in the U.S., it’s estimated that around 17.7% of the population live in low-income areas with limited access to food, let alone nutritious meals. In spite of these obstacles, supply chain companies help to provide quality nutrition. When it comes to food distribution, the very aspect of ‘distribution’ is complicated by socio-economic factors. Fortunately, good marketing can help spread awareness of how to find exactly what consumers want.
Why Does Food Distribution Need Marketing?
Food distribution marketing is the same as any other product marketing. As with product marketing, food marketing emphasizes the elements of an item that the marketers want to emphasize. This provides opportunities to engage and educate the public with healthy and delicious meals. Statistical evidence supports that people want health-conscious meals, and food distribution marketing can help your target audience realize that goal. Remember that no matter how good your product may be, it will likely underperform if no one knows it exists.
Understanding the psychology of the consumer is important when considering food marketing. You need to think from the perspective of your target demographic. Put yourselves in the consumer’s shoes. Ask yourself what product would you generally buy when you see ads.
You should know what type of people you are targeting when it comes to food distribution marketing. Let’s say for example that your product is sugarless tea powder. In this case, your target audience should be:
- Diabetic patients
- Those looking for a healthy meal
- People who like tea
Identifying the ideal target audience is the easy part. Finding the right audience can prove somewhat more challenging.
Finding the Right Target Audience
Let’s take the previous example of sugarless tea powder. As we noted, there is a need to target people who are diabetic, health-conscious, and who like tea. Fortunately, social media has made locating your ideal demographic that much easier. By releasing content such as a post or a blog link, you can use the SEO tools unique to each platform to locate interested parties.
For example, you might utilize loaded key phrases for your topic that will draw interested parties. As to the example above, you might use:
- benefits of using sugarless tea powder
- why sugar can be harmful to health
- alternatives to the traditional tea
By posting this content as paid advertising on Facebook or Instagram, you can use sites like Wordstream to gather insights that help you identify potential candidates for your marketing and the success of your campaign. In particular, Twitter is an excellent place to use keywords, which you can search through hashtags later. The more you utilize social media, the more you can potentially grow your base.
Increasing Sales
Finding the right audience doesn’t end there. Customer retention is critical to the continued success of your brand. One method to help hold the long-term attention of your customers is the use of an exit-intent popup. Otherwise known as a website exit popup, an exit-intent popup is a prompt that you’ve probably seen in several websites that ask you to join a mailing list, confirm your exit from the site, or so much more. An exit-intent popup helps in retaining customers by giving them a second chance to examine the item in your food distribution marketing. Website exit-intent popups are known to increase conversion rates by 53%. Generally, when it comes to food marketing, exit-intent popups are excellent tools to grab attention.
Conclusion: Food Distribution Marketing
Well-targeted marketing is integral to the overall continuity of your brand. By building rapport, you can not only grow your food brand, but you can educate the public on the options available. In doing so, you have the potential to affect positive change in decreasing food deserts and fighting the obesity epidemic. The food distribution marketing segment is complex, but with a little leg work, you can navigate that to make a difference. Knowing the psychology of consumers can help you determine your ideal audience, so make sure to do your research.
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