Marketing Spoonful

Sometimes innovation is all about the old stuff

When I was a kid I used to watch my dad mix concentrated weedkiller chemical with water in a big metal spray can. He would put a spring-loaded pump down into the can and screw it on. He would pump the pump about 20 times and turn the handle to ...

Sophomoric ads aside, Linkhaus makes a tremendous hot dog

It takes a special person to say the word "wiener" with a straight face. Linkhaus, a new hot dog eatery in Wichita, Kansas, uses the term shamelessly to describe its "well endowed" dogs. The place is really down to earth. It's definitely a guys type of place. You can catch ESPN ...

Food companies can learn a lot from small town grocery stores

I had the pleasure of attending the Rural Grocery Store Summit in Manhattan, Kansas, this week. I met a lot of great people who are doing their best to preserve an important part of the struggling rural environment. I learned that over the past five years, nearly half the rural grocery ...

Everything old is new at The Avenue Grill in Nebraska City

One of the coolest things in food marketing is when you can take something old and put a new twist on it. Some of the most enduring brands do this successfully: Coca-Cola, Uncle Ben's, Quaker Oats, Doritos. I had the privilege of meeting Jim from The Avenue Grill in Nebraska City ...

One man’s Slurpee is another woman’s Icy Drink (if she’s from Oklahoma)

I'm not sure how often this occurs, but it's an interesting phenomenon that what we would call brand standards for franchises are sometimes blatantly ignored. Signage is a tough one to get over on, but you and I both know there are a lot of unapproved coupons and brochures floating ...

Food marketing pro’s mission is to create the right image to go along with a profitable strategy

Creating a new brand identity for yourself is easy. Creating a new brand image? Not so much. That's because of an important, yet subtle difference between identity and image: Identity is WHO you are. Image is HOW you are perceived. To state it another way, your brand identity is HOW you want to ...

CiCi’s aims to please

After posting a client's account of going to CiCi's Pizza and tripling the toppings on his pizza by robbing from two other slices, I got a nice comment from an official at the company. You can read it below. It was very cordial and essentially pointed out that CiCi's provides ...

When ‘one piece isn’t enough’ isn’t a good thing

I heard a really funny story the other day. I was teaching a course on the basics of starting up a business to a class of about 10 people. Now, when I teach this class, I like to use the example of starting a pizza restaurant to illustrate how to ...

Everybody’s getting in on the energy and sports drink act

Remember, just a few short years ago when there was one small spot on the convenience store refrigerator shelf for a lonely little energy drink called Red Bull? Now there are several coolers filled with every kind of energy drink one can imagine. Funny thing, though. When I was at Big ...

Cause-Centered Beer Ads Draw Positive Attention

Beer ad featuring wheat shock and beer bottle romance: Check. Beer ad featuring guy talking to dog after telling girlfriend his beer is more important than her: Check. Beer ad by major company featuring small business during the Big Game: Check. Miller High Life is planning to purchase air time during the Big Game ...