Further reinforcing my previous post regarding the continually increasing popularity of social media networks and their undeniable wealth as an imperative marketing tool, is a new report from Phil Lempert and AC Nielsen. According to Phil Lempert of AC Nielsen’s “Facts, Figures, & The Future”, “two-thirds (66.8%) of the global online population visit ‘member communities’ [...]

I was reading through the headlines on USA Today (Tuesday) and happened to run across an article which caught my attention. I believe that this article highlights why we continue to utilize the likes of Facebook, Twitter, etc. as additional marketing tools for gourmet and specialty food products.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-03-31-facebook-twitter-status-marketing_N.htm?csp=usat.me

I just read a great article on CNN about starting your own business during a recession: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/26/bregman.economy.entrepreneur/index.html
My favorite line in the whole article is the last sentence: “In other words, start a business in your kitchen with your sisters.”
We’ve certainly seen an increase in the number of people contacting us about starting a new food [...]

It’s funny how things come full-circle. I have recently taken on a project as the “interim” Chief Operating Officer for GourmetFoodMall.com - the place where I got my start in the industry to open a new Tampa operations office and turn around sales (and implement some new ideas I have had for while now). I have already [...]

We have a new startup client whose main focus is to sell their gourmet food product to club stores (primarily Costco, Sam’s Club, etc). They have two things going for them: 1. Their product is a comfort food, which tends to sell better during economic hardships, and 2. During economic hardships, consumers tend to buy [...]

I just found a very interesting bit of information from the the “Today’s Specialty Food Consumer 2008 Report” by Mintel, The Food Institute, and NASFT. It says:
“Consumers between the ages of 25 and 34 spend the highest percentage [...]

I just read a very interesting article in Advertising Age (from last month) stating that larger food companies have increased marketing/advertising spending recently by over 10% on average .  In the same article, it mentions that other large consumer packaged goods companies in different segments have slashed ad spending significantly due to rising commodity costs, [...]

This sounds really exciting, from our business-acquaintance Jeff Davis / Food Fete - a new press event (like Food Fete) but for the cocktail industry.
http://foodfetecocktails.wordpress.com/

This is a great post from one of our client’s blogs:
http://demeterspantry.com/blog/?p=54
I had hoped to write these thoughts up yesterday, but coming back from the show, we all had about a thousand e-mails in our inboxes. (OK, a slight exaggeration, some of us only had about five hundred).  I thought I’d take a [...]

So it seems that everyone these days has a blog, or has at least thought about setting up their own blog. However, for some reason, so many of the gourmet and specialty food companies I encounter DON”T have a blog, which really amazes me considering the many benefits of doing so. Blogging is nothing new, [...]