The second P
is for position, because where you place your products will influence how
much is sold.
• Retail marketers use the expression “eye level is buy
level”, that is, foods that
pare at eye level to the customer will sell more than if they have to look
up or down to find them. How easy is it to see your healthy choices?
• Position water bottles as the most prominent drink.
• Fill the fridge with drinks in the proportion you would
like them to sell. For
example, 50% of the shelf space may have water, 25% have fruit juice and the
last 25% may have soft drinks and sports drinks. The water will be the
easiest to see, while the soft drinks can be in the bottom shelves.
• If you have hot soup or foods, can the aroma waft out to
the customer?
People who smell hot food are more likely to buy it. Check that the
healthiest hot options are well displayed and advertised.
• Vending machines can just as easily be stocked with
healthier food and drinks.
As a first step, try to position the healthiest options at eye level.
*Note: If you have a contract with a beverage company check the contract for
clauses about the position or volume of different products in the fridge.
Price
One of the biggest influences on whether someone
will buy a food or drink is the cost. That’s why our third
P is Price.
• Price the healthy food and drinks competitively. Make
sure that the healthy food
and drinks are affordable compared to the unhealthier options. This may mean
a bit less profit on those foods, but if you have the other three Ps in
place then you should be turning over a lot of product and thereby
increasing profit.
• If you go to a major sporting, music or cultural event
you will have noticed that
drinks and snack foods are quite expensive. If you keep the red colour-coded
foods at a similar price to the big events in town, while keeping the
healthier food and drinks at a reasonable price, you will help swing food
and drink sales towards healthier choices.
• As we have mentioned previously, consider having good
value combination deals
such as a) soup and a salad; b) toasted sandwich and a fruit juice; c) a
wrap and a choc milk; d) low fat fruit muffin with a cup of tea/coffee.
Customers will see the value and be inclined to buy the combination rather
than separately.
Products
Now we have reached the fourth and final
P. Your products need to suit the event,
the athletes and spectators, and the weather.
• Hot soup will be a winner in cold weather and fruit
salad will go down a treat
in the summer.
• In summer, keep the fruit in the fridge, as this will
keep it cold and fresh, or
freeze cut up fruit, e.g. grapes or orange quarters.
• All your products will need to be fresh and enticing. If
you think you might have
leftover food near the end of the event, and you know it won’t keep, put it
out on special. One association gave two people an order pad and got them to
go to the spectators and spruik the food at a 25% discount. It worked
because people like
a bargain and they love food being brought out to them.
• You can use the Public Announcement (PA) system to tell
spectators what great
foods you have at the food service and let them know of any specials you
have.
• For snacks, offer a range of fruit muffins, reduced fat
cakes, raisin or fruit toast,
pikelets, and slices. These snack foods do not need to be large serving
sizes. For morning tea a small muffin weighing approximately 80g is
sufficient to accompany tea or coffee.
So now you know the 4
Ps of marketing. Promote your canteen
and its healthy choices, position the healthy choices so they are easy to
see, make them affordable, and make them suitable for the clients and the
weather.
Let’s now take a look at some venues that have made
their food service successful —
