FOOD + BEVERAGE – Experience, passion and specialist knowledge to naviate the vast and varied food and beverage landscape.
The food we eat, how we get it and what it means to us is changing almost as fast as the media landscape. From the latest nutritional research and food and beverage trends to product innovations and health and wellness breakthroughs, consumers are immersed in a sea of data and information about the food and beverages they consume.
Consumers have become more empowered as a result of that information stream, making choices and “voting” with their pocketbooks to purchase food and beverage products they know and trust, or have heard good “buzz” about from friends and neighbors.
To compete and differentiate their products in a crowded food and beverage space, companies and product manufacturers need a communications partner who understands today’s consumers: who they are, what they like and how to reach them. It also requires a partner with deep expertise in the digital communications arena, given its profound impact on how consumers find information, receive peer input and socialize.
Our food and beverage teams have the experience, passion and specialist knowledge to navigate the vast food and beverage, consumer packaged goods (CPG), and quick service restaurant (QSR) landscapes to help our clients build relationships with the consumer, cultivate brand loyalty among “allies” and tell their stories effectively – both online and offline.
Our experience spans a wide range of activities, including:
• Brand Development: Brand identity + conceptualization; research, positioning + key message creation; product design; visual storytelling analysis and development.
• Media Relations: strategic media counsel; media relations program development and execution; media monitoring + training; targeted paid media planning and placement.
• Digital, Social and Mobile: Content strategy + development; social media community management; monitoring + measurement: blogger engagement; SEO; production and design, including websites + apps; paid promotion, including social advertising, search + contextual + influencer advertising.
• Word of Mouth Programs: Ambassador programs, influencer identification and marketing, product seeding, viral campaign development, analytics review.
• Experiential: Media+consumer even production/management; mobile marketing programs; product launches; strategic guerilla + street marketing
• Visual Storytelling: Full-scale video strategy + production + post-production; infographics.
In addition, we are also experienced in negotiating the reputational challenges faced by many CPG companies and QSR chains, as public health advocates have elevated the public discussion surrounding diabetes and obesity. We have the skills, experience and contacts to help engage key stakeholders in a constructive dialogue and help infor m public perceptions through outreach and communications with academics, nutritionists, government health bodies and special interest groups.
As a result, our team is well positioned to support the full spectrum of client needs in this space.
Food and Beverage:
The food and beverages industry is all companies involved in processing raw food materials, packaging, and distributing them. This includes fresh, prepared foods as well as packaged foods, and alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. Any product meant for human consumption, aside from pharmaceuticals, passes through this industry.
Industry Composition
Deriving from the agriculture industry in our definition, the food and beverage industry is divided into two major segments. Those two segments are production and distribution of edible goods. Production includes the processing of meats and cheeses and the creating of soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, packaged foods, and other modified foods. The production segment of this industry excludes foods that were directly produced via farming and other for ms of agriculture, as those are encompassed by our definition of the agriculture industry. Distribution involves transporting the finished food product into the hands of consumers.
The industry is much more focused on technology and mechanical manipulation of raw foods to create more value-added food products than the agricultural industry. Under our definition of these industries, grocery stores are excluded as they are considered a retail store by our definition. Distribution includes companies that ship food to retail outlets, restaurants, or directly to consumers.
Trends
Due to the recent economic meltdown, consumers are looking to save as much money as possible. One major way that consumers are doing so is by purchasing more generic foods and making their own meals, not going out to eat. This is causing food processing companies to become more innovative to decrease the cost of goods sold, attract more customers, and increase profit margins.
The large amount of obesity in the world has a major effect on the food and beverage industry. There has been an increase in demand for health foods and more infor mative nutritional labeling. Both of these trends have caused companies to release lower calorie foods and to better control how their brand is viewed. Companies want to be viewed as a healthy brand and are promoting activities, such as youth sports, that show this healthy image. There also is mention of a tax on foods known to lead to obesity in order to curb consumers’ usage of them.
Company Clients and Industry Leaders
Nestlé (Switzerland), PepsiCo (United States), Coca-Cola (United States), Wilmar International (Singapore), Sysco (United States)
