Small food businesses can't use conventional product launch techniques…they are too expensive and are becoming less effective as more consumer use social media to solve their meal preparation challenges.
The Foodpreneur consulting helps Fun to Eat Fruit use Mommy Bloggers to grow their business. Moms use social media to solve their meal preparation challenges.
I frequently advise my Foodpreneur clients to consider using Mommy Bloggers for launching new products and creating brand awareness. Mommy bloggers are influencers, they have followers that seek out opinions on a variety of products and services that families need. Food is a favorite subject for Mommy Bloggers… meal preparation is always a challenge when you balance time, budget and meal options that everyone likes. Food is visual… social media is critical to your visual marketing efforts … hey we eat with our eyes!
Mom's Are Challenged Daily on Preparing School Lunches For Kids
My client, food entrepreneur David Salzman started Fun to Eat Fruit. Fun to Eat Fruit™ applies safe-to-eat custom images and personalized messages on fruits helping moms and dad get kids to eat healthier. They make it Fun to Eat Fruit as a healthy snack for kids!
I have been working with David on marketing plans that are focused on social media to raise awareness of his product so moms and dads can see how Fun to Eat Fruit solves the problem of getting kids to eat more fruit. If you are a parent, how often do the lunch boxes come home with fruit that is not eaten. Fun to Eat Fruit is in selected school lunch programs and solves the problem they have, namely fruit that is partially consumed and thrown in the trash.
Mommy Bloggers
David sent me an email the other day and said "check out mamabelly.com"! I was pleased to see our work targeting mommy bloggers to endorse Fun to Eat Fruit is working!
MamaBelly is a blog that has a mission of "lunches with love". The founder, Nina says "I am a Military Wife and Mom of four wonderful children. I started making bento-style lunches when my youngest son started Preschool and I discovered that he was quite a picky eater. Packing a variety of healthy foods in a fun and entertaining way worked and I have been doing it ever since."
Facebook Leads to a Raving Review
So I asked David to tell me how MamaBelly found Fun to Eat Fruit.
"Nina, of Lunches with Love, found us on Facebook. She writes a blog, Mamabelly.com, and requested samples of our fruit for a feature, review and an upcoming giveaway. In our initial contact, she wrote, 'I just found you on Facebook and absolutely love the idea of fresh fruit with fun messages. I am a mom, military wife, command ombudsman and blogger and would love to feature your fruit!!'"
David said "We're thrilled to work with Nina."
Mommy Bloggers are a Crowdsourcing Asset
Conventional product launch techniques are just too expensive for early stage foodpreneurs. Major brands like McDonalds use mommy bloggers to launch their products and engage those moms for future new products to be developed. Fun to Eat Fruit is truly innovative and solves the healthy snacking problem for moms.
I recommended that David search for Mommy as well as Daddy blogs, find the blogs that seem to fit the Fun to Eat Fruit brand. Once he indentifies the "right" blogs, get the samples and a few talking points. If he indentifies only 50 mommy blogs and each of those bloggers has a following of 500 people, that is 25,000 people. But wait, each of those people has circles of friends and Twitter follower and…. OK, I think you get the point.
May of you reading this think that the only issue to get your product in distribution is to have a great tasting product. Wrong! Why? Well for starters how do customers know how your product tastes without buying it or trying it a demo in the store. So mommy bloggers are trusted sources and if they love your product, you have moved a potential customer from thinking about your product to feeling good about it and doing… which is buying it!
Let's Follow The Progress of Fun to Eat Fruit
And maybe you can learn some tips on getting your product off the shelf and on to the consumers plate!
