Question

Topic: Strategy

Branding Of Wholesaler To The Restaurant Owners

Posted by Anonymous on 1/11/2014 at 3:10 AM ET 125 Points
I've a friend who runs a business of rice wholesaling. He started it 3 years ago. His targets were small restaurant owners who have rice items (e.g. fried rice, biryani etc.) on their menu. He successfully entered the market and developed his customer base. But now he is stuck. He is finding it very difficult to take business to another level. He wants to leverage the performance. Here, in India, this type of business works more on relationships. If some rice vendor is supplying restaurant owner from last 5 years then it's difficult to break into and win that customer. On the other hand, there is trend to go for brand. Few restaurant owners will give importance to only brand. And very few will respond to price factor.

There is no homogeneity in buying behaviour of restaurant owner. The market is highly scattered and unorganized. He doesn't want to enter in consumer market. It highly difficult to tap the market. My friend want to do some marketing activity that will generate enquiries and help him to increase his credibility of his brand in front of restaurant owners. What can be done to generate more enquiries? What channels are generally used by such food wholesalers to tap restaurant owners?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by saul.dobney on 1/12/2014 at 9:41 AM Member
    He can add products to existing customers (eg spices other products). He can look to buy out or partner with other suppliers (for instance using the argument of reducing distribution costs, increasing buying power). He can try to keep in with staff - so if they move jobs, they take him as a recommendation to the new employer. He can look at running events or using hospitality for buyers (eg restaurant owners get invited to cricket etc...). He can support the restaurants - eg with his brand on menu boards, branded serving bowls etc. He can look to maximise service quality - what is it restaurant owners want - not just price, but delivery that is prompt and attentive - can he make it easier to order, or offer auto-ordering (if he has a good idea of run rates)?
  • Posted by Moriarty on 1/13/2014 at 4:56 AM Accepted
    I am with Puru Gupta. You are in a commodity market - and the way out in ALL cases is to add some quality of service that makes you both distinct AND makes your higher prices cheaper for a certain sector of the market. This may mean you are serving only a few very good customers - my point is to see them grow because of your input, and ride the wave as they do so.

    "There is no homogeneity in buying behaviour of restaurant owner" - because there is homogeneity, you do have to dig to find it though. Because these things are not transparent. My point is that you will not find the answers by looking at your sales, but turning the question around and looking at who's buying. This is also the key to forming a strategy to take his business to the next level - which always needs some degree of re-organization in the business itself. Doing this to meet the needs of your customers means having a sound foundation.
  • Posted on 1/14/2014 at 2:05 AM Author
    Hi,
    Thank you to all for replying. After reading your comments, I can ask my friend to plan a research to find out what matters to restaurant owners while buying rice. Are there any emotional factors involved? Also, I can talk with his existing customers to find out reason to purchase from him. Accordingly, I can suggest him steps to make his brand more appealing to his customers. But I want to ask, what marketing, advertising channels can we use to reach such diverse audience? Can Internet marketing work in this segment? As far as I know, these restaurant guys are mostly 'SHETTY's (South Indians) and are not that much busy on internet. I am trying to find out if there is any magazine for this industry. I would appreciate if someone could suggest me marketing channels, promotional activities to reach these guys. Also, what activities can be done to increase credibility of the brand? Response appreciated in advance...
  • Posted by saul.dobney on 1/14/2014 at 4:43 AM Accepted
    Face-to-face may be the best approach since you'll need to win the restaurants over that you're a good business to deal with and since you'll need to make deliveries, focusing on small geographic areas would make servicing the businesses easier. You could get business lists and addresses and try a mailshot or even leafleting, but face-to-face will be more effective as my guess would be that most of them would be too busy to be trying to find new suppliers and face-to-face you can offer deals for new customers, product trials, show catalogues and explain why you're better and you'd get to see how they want their business supported.
  • Posted on 1/14/2014 at 5:06 AM Author
    Thanks Saul,
    Those were great inputs. My friend has team of salesmen for these face to face approach.
    What he wants is to generate enquiries from these restaurant owners. How can we make commodity product a brand in front of these individuals. Also, as Puru said, Chef recommendations really matters in this market. Though they are not decision makers, they are decision influencers. What marketing activities can we plan that his product gets visible amongst most of these restaurant owners. Geographically, he's planning to target only one city. All these promotional activities should be support to his sales team. If restaurant owner already knows about the brand before salesman approaches him, salesman will have better chances of conversion. Normal advertising won't work in his case as it's niche market. One of the activity we thought was to make good desk calenders and gift them to owners. If calender is good and has any interesting then it's not thrown. So, that calender will be in front of him for a year. Assuming not every owner will be keeping it, yet it'll be good visibility compared to cost. At least they'll know the brand name. Can we have similar type of ideas?
  • Posted on 1/20/2014 at 5:04 AM Author
    Thank you everyone for the response!
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