Lifting the Lid on The Out of home Opportunity
The out of home market, foodservice, eating out, away from home, catering, HORECA – whatever you call it, it’s a growing market that has long been the poor cousin to retail.
This comes down to a number of reasons, one, retail, although highly competitive and hard on margins, is a bigger market and realistically the number of trade buyers you need to convince to make your brand a success can fit into one room (although you probably wouldn’t want them to be). Then, once you understand your consumer, it’s all about reaching them wherever they may be, with a strong (ideally emotionally engaging) message and then prompting them to purchase with effective shopper marketing during their retail journey. Whereas with the out of home market, although margins can be healthier, it is a complex and fragmented beast, which, when viewed by the untrained eye, can be rather daunting. First there’s the route to market listings that need to be secured through the national big hitters as well as the myriad of regional wholesalers, then there’s the challenge of communicating to thousands upon thousands of buyers with vastly different agendas, both independent and group and ensuring that messaging is tailored to them and their particular needs. You might manage to get listed at head office in a huge organisation, but if it’s an undisciplined multiple (not working off a centrally developed menu) pulling those sales through is quite another challenge. Whilst the independents can be fickle creatures opting for whatever is on promotion at the time. Sounds fun doesn’t it! (And that’s just the start).
So why bother? Why not just ignore it? Well, as the out of home market accounts for over a third of consumer spending on food (38.8p in the pound), is valued at £85.3bn and growing at 2.8%*, I think you’ll agree that although it might be a tricky nut to crack it’s well worth it! However, when it comes to convincing the board and colleagues who may not appreciate the out of home opportunity there is nothing quite like facts and stats (and of course the accompanying ‘so whats?’) to give credence to your argument for budget, resource and focus on the out of home market. That’s why we’ve created our ‘Out of Home Facts in a Flash’ infographic – lifting the lid on the out of home opportunity in an easy to digest format which is available to download here. We hope it helps you fight the foodservice corner and of course you know where to come when you decide to go for it!
*M&C Allegra Eating Out Report 2015