More importantly, what financial condition will your business be in in a year’s time?

Let’s face it, the outlook is extremely uncertain.

The reality is that only the star food businesses will make 2012 a great year. Sadly, most businesses will just hope for the best and will not perform to their potential.

For a start, who your customers are and what they want to buy is changing dramatically.
Your greatest challenge is understanding why buying behaviour is changing, and what you can do about.

I believe you are sitting on a Golden Opportunity for your business, but how can you make it happen for you?
There’s only 17 days to go until the New Year, so what’s your plan? Do you want to be one of those Star Businesses?

These next few days could be the most important days for your business so far. My concern is that many businesses are missing out on what I call ‘The 2012 Golden Opportunity’. So…

Here’s your FREE Gift…

A FREE scheduled 30 minute, personal one-to-one telephone or Skype call with me, Rob Ward.
What will we discuss in that call?

> Ways you can find and retain more of your ideal customers.
> How you can develop new products and services.
> Ways you can avoid making unnecessary and expensive mistakes.
> Exciting new 2012 trends in the food market.

We will be focused on making sure your business is less vulnerable to the impending financial crisis and able to start the New Year with the best chance of making 2012 a brilliant financial success.

The journalists call me ‘The Food Marketing Expert’ – I think that’s just nonsense – all I’m interested in is helping food businesses grow and be more profitable.
That’s it!

Book your call with me now, and let’s get your business ready to make 2012 your best ever year.

(here’s the link to book your FREE call with Rob)

Best wishes and here’s to a prosperous New Year.

Rob

P.S. – Sorry, but this invitation will only be available for 12 hours from now, or the first 100 places – whatever comes first (yes, I am human!)

(here’s the link, again, to book your FREE call with Rob)

P.P.S. – Here are a few words people that I’ve worked with have used to describe me:

‘…original and innovative…’
‘great enthusiast, very motivating…’
‘thorough knowledge of the food market…’
‘practical and problem solving focused, you get work done with Rob…’

(last time – here’s the link again, to book your FREE call with Rob)

I look forward to hearing from you…

Rob

Rob Ward

Founder: Food Marketing Network & www.MyFoodTrader.com

You are welcome to call me directly on skype: ‘robwardskype’ or our office Tel 0845643260
International calls: 0044845643260 ]]> http://www.foodmarketingnetwork.com/golden-business-opportunity-for-2012/feed/ 0 http://www.foodmarketingnetwork.com/trade-secret-revealed/ http://www.foodmarketingnetwork.com/trade-secret-revealed/#comments Tue, 11 Oct 2011 13:55:50 +0000 robward http://www.foodmarketingnetwork.com/?p=1428 “At last, a fairer way for food businesses to buy & sell products & services…”

The secret can’t be held back any longer – BIG company bully boys

can’t STOP you finding out about this revolutionary NEW service.

…It’s time that the 10,000’s of frustrated small to medium sized food businesses had a simple and affordable solution to finding their ideal businesses to trade with. Case studies…

Natalie Walker Green Fields Farm Shop Award winning Farm Shop and Deli in Shropshire, prides itself on being the best at sourcing local and national speciality food. “MyFoodTrader.com …is a great way for us to source products either within a set distance of our shop or from a specific location…”

Clare Downs Monkhouse Marketing Marketing, Packaging, Media, Print & Design Agency. “Clients include regional and national food businesses ranging from food producers, farm shops, deli’s and national trade associations. MyFoodTrader.com … is a straight forward and affordable way to find new clients”

Jane Shepard 4u2 Foods Ltd An innovative new snack bar product focused on the ‘mums to be’ and ‘new mums’ market. “We were looking to buy raisins for a new product that we are launching – thanks to MyFoodTrader.com … we were matched with a cost busting supplier from California.” “… surprisingly simple to discover new suppliers that would normally be impossible to find…”

Your FREE matching service is ready NOW, including £50 FREE credit for you to use in your advertising account. Start matching NOW! MyFoodTrader.com UK: 0845 643 20 60 International: +44 845 643 20 60 Skype: robwardskype rob@myfoodtrader.com

1. Empower employees to make a difference. When I asked one source why Apple employees always seem so empowered, he replied, “It sounds corny, but it’s Steve’s reality distortion field. He says they can make a difference, and in a cult-like way, they believe it.” Changing the world is grandiose and far-fetched. But for Jobs and company, “make a dent in the universe” is somehow an entirely realistic goal.

2. Value what’s important, not minutiae. According to one associate, “It’s a really fun place to work with loose rules. Employees mostly come and go as they please as long as they accomplish, not 100 percent of their goals, but 110 percent.” Freedom and flexibility, just get the job done. What a concept. I attended one meeting where an Apple manager showed up barefoot. Nobody cared or even noticed

3. Love and cherish the innovators. According to a BNETreport, the way Apple “reliably churns out the industrial equivalents of da Vinci paintings … stems from the meticulous care and feeding provided to a specific group: the creatives.Apple’s segmented, stratified organizational structure – which coddles its most valuable, productive employees – is one of the company’s most formidable assets.”

4. Do everything important internally. It’s a throwback to the old days of vertically-integrated computer companies, but it’s a good thing that Apple never bought into the whole disaggregation thing. Everything important is under one roof: industrial design, operating system, hardware design, even the sales channel. Apple manages to do that by focusing on far fewer products than conventional consumer electronics companies.

5. Get marketing. Marketing is the one great weakness of the technology industry. For some reason, high-tech CEOs don’t get it, understand it, or value it as they should. Apple spends a great deal of effort divining the next big thing – figuring out what people want – even when they don’t know it themselves. They don’t use focus groups or research. They’re their own focus group.

6. Control the message. Few companies truly get communications and PR the way Apple does. A big part of its formula for creating a buzz like no other company is its famous secretiveness. Considering the sheer number of people, companies, and news outlets that would give anything for a tip, virtually nothing leaks until Apple’s ready to spill it – the occasional iPhone prototype left on a bar-stool notwithstanding.

7. Little things make a big difference. According to theConfessions of an Apple Store Employee, “During the iPhone 4 launch, they brought us food – and good food! Somebody told me that the 5th Avenue store in New York had a masseuse during one launch, and that another store had a kiddie pool full of goldfish as, like, a Zen thing.” And one of my sources says the main cafeteria is serious gourmet quality.

8. Don’t make people do things, make them better at doing things. In an interview, Steve Jobs revealed, “My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better. My job is to … take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better, coming up with more aggressive visions of how it could be.” Apple employees I’ve known are either operating at the top of their game, or think they are. Either way, it works.

9. When you find something that works, keep doing it. The way Apple operates today is not some grand design by Jobs or his management team. They found their way one step at a time. The difference is that, the way Apple’s organized, it can rapidly adapt to a new idea or process that works. After decades of single-digit market share, the iPod / iTunes breakthrough provided a winning formula that Apple’s replicated with the iPhone and iPad.

10. Think different. Apple doesn’t do anything according to anyone else’s timetable. Its product launches and company events – like today’s iPad 2 announcement – happen when it suits Apple. It even shuns the venerable Consumer Electronics Show. Apple follows the beat of its own drum. How things should be done or are done elsewhere don’t count. Apple finds its own way. As Jobs said in a Stanford Universitycommencement speech, “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

1. Consumers want fewer choices? Contrary to long-standing grocery store dogma, TJ’s stores are smaller and the choices are fewer but consumers are happier. On average, TJ’s sells less than one tenth the number of SKUs, but achieves twice the revenue per square foot versus Whole Foods. I mean, who needs 40 varieties of peanut butter to choose from, anyway?

2. Economies of scale: Low prices for high-quality products.Amazingly, TJ’s offers high-quality products at rock bottom prices. How does it do that? Scale. Since it carries fewer products, its volumes are higher, giving it bargaining power when negotiating with its coveted suppliers. Everybody wins. It’s nothing new in business operations, but it’s very new in the grocery business.

3. The death of branding? Not at Trader Joe’s. 80 percent of Trader Joe’s stock bears the company’s brand. Customers trust the brand, which is one of the ways the company gets away with having fewer choices.Secrecy. Some think TJ’s secretiveness comes from Germany’sAlbrecht family which owns the chain, but that’s not the case. TJ’s is secretive because it doesn’t want anyone to know who’s making its products. It’s a competitive advantage. And in many cases, suppliers feel the same way, since they cut TJ’s a better deal on the same product than they do other customers.

4. Take care of employees. Store managers can make in the low six figures while full-time employees start out at about half that; not bad for retail. Plus TJ’s contributes 15.4% of employee’s salary to tax-deferred retirement accounts. No wonder the employees always seem so happy.

5. An in-store experience that hails to an earlier, happier time. Every employee knows the whole store and, instead of telling you where an item is, will literally guide you there. They’ll offer you a basket or a cart if they think you need one and even tell you what they think of a product you’re about to buy.

6. Don’t follow trends, start them. TJ’s was offering healthy foods before most consumers even knew what organic meant. They had the largest offering of California wines before anyone – and I mean anyone – thought they were worth a damn. Same goes for microbrewed beers. If you want to see what grocery stores will be selling tomorrow, go to TJ’s today.

7. Know your customer and put your stores where they are. TJ’s isn’t all things to all people; it knows its customer and it maintains a laser-like focus on predicting and meeting their ever-changing needs. That includes knowing where to locate stores by paying attention to demographics like education and food and cooking magazine subscriptions

8. Keep logistics simple. Fewer items means simplified distribution, stocking, everything. And TJ’s always seeks to cut out the middleman by buying directly from manufacturers and shipping directly to its distribution centers. It even sells fresh produce by unit instead of weight to simplify the checkout process.

9. If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Founder Joe Coulombe sold the 43 year-old chain to Theo Albrecht in 1979, but the Albrechts stay completely out of the business, only visiting once a year to check out the family “investment.” Trader Joe’s has always run itself. Moreover, TJ’s is entirely self funded with no debt.

Industry observers wonder if Trader Joe’s can maintain its mom and pop image as it continues to expand. The obvious analogy is Starbucks, which sacrificed its specialty coffee image in favor of expansion. While it’s natural to think of this in terms of maintaining a balance, I think the bigger issue will be TJ’s ability to maintain its value proposition – its differentiation – as existing competitors seek to be more Trader Joe’s-like and new competitors enter the market. To me, that’s the challenge.

My sort of big, broad takeaway on the TJ’s story is this: Even in seemingly mature markets, innovation will always occur because “one thing leads to another.” In other words, one thing changes – like the internet, mass customization, or the advent of foodies – and that leaves gaping holes of opportunity for the business leaders of tomorrow to jump through.

It’s a salutary lesson to all businesses (particularly small ones) despite owning a Trade Mark, having the finances to defend their name in court is another challenge altogether.

With court fees averaging around £250,000 ($350,000), owning a Trademark, could be too costly experience for the defendant.

Here’s the Article:
Organic co loses Woolworths court stoush

An independent organic food supplier has lost its bid to halt an advertising campaign by supermarket giant Woolworths starring celebrity cook Margaret Fulton.

The supplier claimed Woolworths had infringed on its trademark by using the words ‘Honest to Goodness’ in its advertising push, launched two weeks ago with television commercials, recipe cards and a website featuring Fulton.

Organic Marketing Australia, which trades as Honest to Goodness, applied in the Federal Court to stop Woolworths using the phrase until the matter was resolved.

The boutique wholesaler and retailer, started by Matt Ward and his wife Karen nine years ago, said it has used the trademark since 2003.

But on Friday Justice Anna Katzmann refused the interlocutory injunction.

She urged the parties to consider mediation, rather than taking the dispute to trial.

Woolworths, which is fighting the case, said it was pleased with Justice Katzmann’s decision.

“We remain strongly of the view `honest to goodness’ is a commonly-used term which Woolworths and other parties should be free to use,” Woolworths spokeswoman Clare Buchanan told reporters outside court.

“But we continue to be open to discussion with the applicant to resolve this issue.”

She said the campaign so far had been very successful.

In her reasons, Justice Katzmann said the damage to a small business may have a greater impact than the same amount of damage to a large enterprise.

“On the evidence before me, however, the damage to Woolworths far outweighs any damage to the applicant’s business that the continuation of the campaign may cause in the period until final judgment,” she said.

©2011AAP
Keywords: woolworths, Honest to Goodness, Margaret Fulton
Comments:

Simple, free tool that makes recording a food businesses reputation the real deal.

A breakthrough for businesses that are proud of their reputation (disaster for those that aren’t). The Reputation Badge TM independently records customer comments about your business. You have the right to reply and all comments are emailed to you before approval, so that you can check they are genuine.

You can ‘pin’ your Reputation Badge anywhere online, your own website, email broadcasts even in your Facebook site.

Adds weight to your SEO ranking and is a brilliant way for you to promote genuine appreciation about your business to your prospective customers.

Here’s ours at the Food Marketing Network:

>>>WATCH SHORT VIDEO HERE TO EXPLAIN MORE<<<

Get yours for FREE at www.MyFoodTrader.com and start to protect and build your reputation NOW.

]]> http://www.foodmarketingnetwork.com/reputation-badge-innovation-tool-to-revolutionise-marketing-for-food-businesses/feed/ 0 http://www.foodmarketingnetwork.com/is-food-inflation-unnecessary/ http://www.foodmarketingnetwork.com/is-food-inflation-unnecessary/#comments Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:29:41 +0000 robward http://www.foodmarketingnetwork.com/?p=1379 Food inflation is predicted to continue rising around the world.

This is not news, but the possibility that this rise is unnecessary, is.

Is it necessary?

For instance, only 8% of the fuel used to transport our food is used to ship the food, 82% is used to move the trucks around (Ref. 2). Combine this with imbalances in the supply system which often leaves healthy food to waste in our fields and factories.

‘This waste has to stop,’ claims Rob Ward, food campaigner and entrepreneur who has invented a novel system to help food business overcome wasted resources.

Highlighting a key example of inefficiency that exists in the supply from producer to consumer. Add to this is an increasing drop in worker productivity as a result of information overload.

The world’s digital data is doubling every 18 months (487 Billion Gigabytes of new data in the next 18 months, Ref. 3). This is causing 62% of office workers to admit that it’s difficult to maintain their focus on the task in hand, getting distracted by the constant flow of emails and other information.

Alarmingly, 73% admit to disregarding or deleting business emails without fully reading them (Ref.1). ‘Information overload is getting out of control,’ claims Rob Ward, ‘and it’s starting to reduce our productivity.’

Information overload is officially reducing productivity in business and the food market is no exception.

Too much time is given away to constant interruptions, dealing with the wrong suppliers and trying to find new customers. ‘Finding out who is the ideal business to trade with is getting harder,’ claims Rob Ward. He believes this is wasting time and money and making our food cost more than it should.

This why he believes a solution is urgently necessary. An antidote is needed to counteract these challenging issues for the food industry.

Rob Ward has created a system that helps small and large food businesses by matching the ideal businesses together, making their supply system and work scheduling more efficient.

‘We have built the worlds first online dating site, for food businesses,’ he explains. They have created the same style of online system as the familiar dating, relationship finding websites, which has then been combined with a trading format, similar to eBay.

This is a completely new trading platform for food business to connect and trade together. Its purpose is to match food businesses on their relevance and reputation. This service intends to reduce wasted time and spare capacity to make the food industry more efficient.

How do you know who is the best to trade with?

His plan is to create a process that records businesses reputation, using their innovative Reputation Badge system, businesses can publish their records of their customer feed back in all their communications. It is regarded as very difficult to clearly define the truth behind testimonial claims companies make, this system provides an independent record that represents a real scenario of what other businesses think about them.

This international online business, called MyFoodTrader is the brain child of Rob Ward, originally a farmer and farm shop owner from Shropshire, UK.

‘Over 5,000 businesses have registered from more than 62 countries around the world,’ claims Rob Ward, ‘and that’s only in the first few weeks. We expect this to jump rapidly into the tens of thousands very quickly.’

MyFoodTrader.com could be a breakthrough for small businesses, often not able to compete with mass advertising budgets of big businesses – but often these smaller businesses have excellent reputations.

Now, these businesses can be found simply and easily using this new system. ‘What I have created is a simple system that is focused on helping food businesses that have the best reputation to win business,’ Rob Ward says.

Whether he is right or not, the case is clear, food inflation is a problem for all of us, the more food businesses can do to help reduce this growth the better for all of us.

References:

Ref 1: LexisNexis International Productivity Survey Ref 2: Inefficient supply chain report: Noelhodson.com ‘foodtubes project’ Ref 3: Infoniac.com Digital Data growth report

MyFoodTrader.com

WRITER BACK GROUND:

Rob Ward, Originally a Farmer and Farm Shop business owner – has worked for over 20 years in food production, distribution and retailing. He now works internationally with food businesses to help grow their businesses.

Following an international tour (sponsored by HSBC Bank) he discovered a great deal about local, regional and specialty food markets across the world. During that tour, what struck him was there were far more similarities than differences in food businesses around the world.

From this experience, he then went onto create an international network of food businesses, call Food Marketing Network. This network shares ideas and experiences together to help make sure good ideas are know about.

The purpose of MyFoodTrader.com is to provide a local and international trading platform for food businesses to connect and trade together.

Creating a completely original system, based on a combination of dating software and online trading, MyFoodTrader.com matches food businesses together based on relevance and reputation.

He has considerable experience working in media and is available for more information:

Please contact: rob@foodmarketingnetwork.com

MyFoodTrader.com UK Tel: 08456432060 Skype: ‘robwardskype’ International Tel: 00448456432060

key words:

food producer, food business, food retailer, food buyer, food supply chain, food marketing, food trading, farm business, restaurant business, food distribution

Following North America’s lead, UK is about introduce new laws (1st March 2011) that will heavily fine businesses for making misleading marketing claims, online. [Europe and other leading, consumer economies, are guaranteed to follow.]

These new powers, which have been live in the US for over a year, will focus marketeers’ minds on what they can (and can’t) say about their products and services. Already, we have seen dramatic changes to how food businesses in US, now use testimonials in their marketing.

We know that testimonials provide essential evidence to support credibility. Now, testimonials have to indicate an average result from buying a product or service, not the BEST.

Your Reputation?

How can you possibly work out what is average? When is a testimonial misleading? Is it worth the risk?

Incase you didn’t know, there’s is a new (and FREE) way for food businesses to independently monitor their reputation with their customers.

www.MyFoodTrader.com

Launching on 14th February (yes, Valentine’s Day) it will be the first of its kind, revolutionising how food businesses can celebrate their reputation. The system builds a live profile that constantly records what your customers think about you. Using a ‘Reputation Page’, you can build an independent profile about your business. Giving you impartial, and therefore enhanced credibility, with your existing and future customers.

You can also have a live link to your web site through a ‘Web Widget’. This tool constantly provides a live feed directly onto your web site, so that you can use it to demonstrate genuine customers appreciation.

[By the way, customers comments have to be approved by you before they go live.]

This Reputation Page will also be great for your SEO with Google, considerably supporting your existing web sites internet ranking.

Don’t forget this Reputation Page is totally FREE…

Good luck and may your reputation count, for good -

Rob

P.S. – what are you waiting for, register NOW www.MyFoodTrader.com

P.P.S. – If you think this free service might be useful – Please forward this message to other food businesses…

speak soon,

Rob Ward – Founder of www.MyFoodTrader.com & www.FoodMarketingNetwork.com

“UK’s Leading trade magazine…”

“Website offers to pair up perfect trading partners…”

Looking for the perfect partner? Somebody who can cater for your needs and give you just what you want? Scarred by a previous relationship that turned sour?

"Perfect Match, is Good for Business..."

If this is you, then look no further than www.MyFoodTrader.com - a new website modelled on dating software that will ‘match’ the specific requirements of food and drink buyers, sellers, growers, packaging suppliers and logistics companies that register.

Matching will commence on St Valentine’s Day, the official launch date, although companies are already signing up…

(read FULL article and discover a the latest food industry news)

Written by Richard Ford, Fresh Food Reporter – The Grocer