After the pandemic hits, the Food & Beverage (F&B) industry is the hardest hit on top of the tourism industry. For any restaurants, coffee shops and bars, some are seeking to close temporarily, others are finding ideas to adapt. The globally seated diner has decreased by 89% compared to last year and it’s never happened before. This is quite devastating for a lot of smaller industries.
On the other side, there’s a rise in certain keywords on Google Trends such as 285% increased words like ‘take outs’ or ‘delivery.’ So it’s not people shutting off their desire to support the Food & Beverage industry, it’s just they are looking for options that are convenient for them.
Companies like Gojek and Grab had an increased up to 6% new F&B outlets signing up with them immediately. There were initiatives from some brands like Alibaba & Instagram that were giving incentive for small businesses. In social media, up to 17,5 million usage of the hashtag ‘#supportlocal’ is very prevalent among consumers as well as stores themselves.
So there’s an increase in digital presence for most F&B outlets and F&B related industries, from suppliers, to the grocers, and restaurants. It’s become a seamless connection between anything related to the supply food chain. You have to go online or there’s no way to gain revenue and awareness.
What are the things that matter at this time if people were to go digital in the F&B world?
We invite you to ask yourself these 3 questions.
1.How well do you know your audience?
Do you understand what they like and don’t like? And more importantly, if they have bought from you, what would drive them to come back and be that returning customer for a long term run? Right now in terms of crisis, you need to understand what drives their final decisions. Especially during this time, the decision might have changed. Tap into their lifestyles and routines to build a personal intimate relationship with your audience.
2.Are you discoverable and active online?
If you’re not, then you completely miss out. Right now it’s important to be digital, to be listed on Google, have your social media set up, to have your location optimized, updated operation hours & phone number on your listing, step by step guide to order, and so on. You need to figure out a way to be extremely connected to your customer right now, because if you’re not, your competitors are probably doing it on behalf of you.
3. Can you provide efficiency?
We live in a time where efficiency is everything, not just you providing hygiene to your team members or staff, but also in terms of your order systems, automated, contactless and seamless systems for now. So people have more convenience when they are subscribing to your brand. This is between ordering, dining. So business might think that it’s not for them or it’s too far-fetched, but actually it’s very achievable these days. A lot of programs and software out there are providing solutions.
3 Content Theme Ideas to Promote F&B in the New Normal
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Policies
With the uncertainty that has hit the globe, people are a lot less convinced that brands have got their policies in place for issues such as cleanliness, safety and social distancing. Thus showcasing content that assures guests that you are taking this seriously will bring more trust towards your brand!
While some brands are very straight forward with the way they explain their policies, other interesting ways include using influencers, your staff, infographics and even videos!
Example: Contactless Protocol System Introduced: Brewery Digital Menu
A Californian based beer garden brand, Temescal Brewing designed a contactless system called, beer-o-matic ordering system on Instagram and their website. They created a fun, IGTV step by step guide on how to showcase their new standard procedure for guests to know what to expect when ordering or visiting.
When people see a digital setup like this they’d say it’s complex. Whether or not you have a website, nowadays it actually doesn’t really matter because you can use your social media channel to get them to scan a QR code and take them to a necessary page you want them to go, or it’s as simple as adding your menu to your Instagram story highlight. This protocol that they use has managed to encourage people to trust their brand as a whole.
If your audience is a little bit more old-school, perhaps it requires more educating and instructions. If they are younger, they would definitely go to your Instagram and Google to see your menu.
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Product / Service
Naturally, you still have to showcase your food and drinks to your audience. If your establishment does not have a likelihood of receiving guests anytime soon, the content can be positioned towards destination dining/delivery themes that ignite the desire to consume from home.
First, we invite you to think of your food and drinks – what makes it desirable or memorable? Ask yourself, what sort of emotions should one get a sense of when they experience it? What kind of visuals, sounds or expressions should one have? This gives you an idea on the creative direction of your content and tells a story to your audience. But how?
Example: Home delivery initiative: Community focused boxes of fresh produce & locally crafted goods
The Bali based co-working space brand, Kinship studio, had the initiative to collaborate with a cafe brand, Baked, to offer a new product offering called BOXED. It’s a community focused box of fresh produce and locally crafted goods that offer weekly pre-orders that are pre-purchased. The brand offers a step by step guide on what to expect every with a gateway time of 1 week to place orders, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness through a small operation model.
View this post on Instagram
As this should be part of your weekly content strategy, we suggest it to be on your social media channels. Remember to not just showcase the product but have a narrative on what makes it special plus the convenience for anyone to order or visit.
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Collaborations
Content doesn’t always have to come from you or be about you. Believe it or not, you are allowed to work with other brands that are in line with your brand values. This strategy matters because taps into your audience buyer’s persona and their interests which not only makes you a brand that stands out – but also a brand that listens to what your audience needs!
As you can see the example below by The Vegetable Co, a Malaysian brand that produce nutritious vegetables with Controlled Environment Agriculture. They had a cross collaboration with influencer celebrity to co-creates & endorses new recipe with the vegetables that they produce.
Remember to stick to your brand identity as it’s the key to stand out within the sea of contents out there, and to go an extra mile on delivering contents! If you need help in elevating your brand digitally, we’re here for you. You can either check out our free worksheet to strengthen your brand identity here, listen to #WeAreWavemakers podcasts, or connect with us!
You can watch the live session here.
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