Asia’s street food, California’s vegan craze, New York’s brunch culture—the foodservice industry is changing at a rapid pace. This can be an exhilarating time for restaurant operators and those looking to expand their business through franchising, but it can also be a confusing one. The challenge is staying abreast of new trends and differentiating between the flavor of the month and trends that will hold their ground in the long-term. Without knowledge of what those are, potential franchise operators may miss valuable market opportunities and cause future losses. This guide is tailored to address those challenges and offer insight into the data-driven trend research that can help entrepreneurs target and capitalize on the right markets.
Analyzing Food & Beverage Trends for Success
Evidently, food trends come and go, but some have managed to remain current over the years, and franchisors should be able to recognize and tap into them. To be able to understand and discern those trends requires relentless market intelligence and data mining. Gather market insights into consumer preferences, learn to observe local cuisines and examine current expansion plans of companies normally proves beneficial for strategic planning.
Demographics:
While consumer demographics vary from region to region, establishment location is a major factor in customer preferences. More often than not, customer demographics overlap with socioeconomic and cultural considerations, so it is essential to take those into account, as well. From generational demographics to marital status, income groups to seniority levels, these demographic categories contain valuable insights into customer preferences.
Influencers:
The modern day influencer can have an influence on food and beverage trends. Social media celebrities, chefs and food bloggers are just some of the influencers that can have a major impact on the foodservice industry. Social trends, confectionary products and exotic flavors are just some of the trends that have been driven by social influencers. Therefore, it is beneficial for franchisors to keep their pulse on the latest food trends stirred up by these influencers.
Geography:
Recognizing regional tastes is key for successful expansion in the foodservice industry. Trends tend to vary across regions and countries, so it is advantageous for franchisors to gain understanding of the local preferences.
Digital:
Consumers today prefer convenience and digital technology is allowing them just that. Payment systems, online ordering and delivery services are becoming the norm within the foodservice industry, so understanding the latest developments in the digital sector is also essential.
Data Solutions: Target the Right Markets
As previously mentioned, successful expansion of a restaurant franchise involves location-specific data to optimize business growth, build more market credibility, improve operational efficiency and increase sales. To accomplish this, rely on expansive market intelligence and digital data solutions from reliable research and analysis providers, such as Brizo.
menu Analysis & Insights
Brizo’s comprehensive dataset provides up-to-date insight on the right menu and recipe items and can help you generate visualized and analyzed reports, compare data and explore trends. This data-driven approach can help locate space for growth while simultaneously showing where a company may need to reduce their presence.
Restaurant Tech Coverage & Prospecting
The data experts at Brizo also have industry-specific restaurant tech coverage and sales prospecting solutions so you can target the right markets with the right solutions. With this industry coverage, you are able to identify restaurant tech that is missing in a particular geographic area where your franchise could find success.
Data-Powered Marketing & Sales
Brizo also offers an extensive marketing toolset that provides unique data fields specific to the foodservice industry. This valuable data can be used to attract, convert and close leads with targeted and specific campaigns. You can also identify potential partnerships and collaborations, as well as explore new expansion opportunities.
Conclusion
Whether you’re an experienced restaurateur looking to expand, or a startup in the franchising world, the changing foodservice landscape can be an intimidating one. Barbering through up-to-date market information can be difficult, but with the right research and analysis partner, you can start to identify the trends that will make an individualized impact on your franchising business. By leveraging Brizo’s expertise and data solutions, you can gain industry insights that can take your franchising operations to the next level.
