Kulture Konnect Blog

So, you've made the leap into the food truck business and you have your brand-spanking-new-shiny food truck and you are ready to hit the road and sell your amazing food to the public. According to IBIS World data, the food truck industry had 870 million dollars in revenue in 2016. So, kudos to you for making the leap!

As successful as it has become, it is also very stressful. Trucks break down, regulations get tougher and people are unpredictable. This is why you must have some solid marketing strategies to pull out when the going gets tough. Below, you will find 5 marketing strategies that can get you through a pinch for your food truck start up. The common thread through all of these is basic... Be Creative.

There was one point several years ago the Kulture Konnect Blog went dark for a few months. This is a classic example of "Do as I say and not as I do!"... Please, don't ever let your blog go dark for three long months as we have done. Of course, there are a bazillion reasons why we put a tragic halt to our content marketing machine like getting too busy to manage the content, prioritizing our client work over our own marketing, scrambling to get everything done before the holidays, etc. As they say though, hindsight is 20/20 and looking back today, those excuses seem to be small potatoes. After looking at our website analytics (comparing/contrasting, before and after), we learned some lessons the hard way and we want to share these lessons with all of you in the hopes of inspiring you to keep chugging along the content marketing train. Here is what we noticed when looking at our metrics over our dark period.

photo courtesy of Arlene Garcia

Look around right now.  

Just stop and take a look at your desk or your chair or the cup you are drinking out of.  Someone designed that; someone with a focused desire to reach out to you through a structured idea.  They made that thing you are looking at right now.  Does it inspire you or make you feel flat?  Does it brighten your day or darken it? Have you really thought about why you chose that dress or those glasses or that phone? 

Designers have their prints on everything we see and touch.

Conventional wisdom may have told you that writing is a good habit. In today’s digital world, however, and especially in case of restaurant businesses, this statement holds true to a greater extent. Blogging is one of the most efficient ways to improve your search engine ranking.

One of the biggest challenges most restaurant owners and managers face is deciding on what to write on. The possibilities are endless. Here’s a look at 5 great blog post ideas that help improve a restaurant’s marketing:

If you're a restaurant owner, then it's safe to assume that you understand that marketing is essential for the success and growth of your business. Many restaurants, especially restaurant chains turn to advertising agencies for their expertise and specialized knowledge since they may not have their own marketing department, and so, may need the expertise an agency can provide. Agencies will also make sure to focus on your ROI and aim high to get the results you are looking for. 

I know what you might be thinking, "but an agency is too expensive! Is it really worth the money? What if I just build up my own marketing department?"

Here’s 8 reasons why an advertising agency can provide value to your restaurant marketing and how an agency will help you boost your ROI.

On average, restaurants need to change their menus twice a year to keep patrons coming back. "Diners prioritize delicious food when choosing a restaurant to visit, followed by quality of service." (Source) Contrary to restauranteur's general belief, 58% of diners choose where they will dine based on the quality of food, while only 22% of diners choose where they will dine based on the quality of service.  This goes to show how important your menu is and how it must showcase the wonderful dishes.

Below, I have outlined 8 simple tips for your next menu launch:  

1. Make Your Menu a Money-Making Machine 

Strategize your menu. Do you know which menu items are your stars, dogs and workhorses? Your menu should be designed to highlight your most lucrative items and drive guests to order meals that will get them coming back for more. For more indepth details on designing your menu, check out our free menu design guide.

A little over a year ago, fate introduced us to a nonprofit that was called Santa's Elves at the time. They were going through a rebrand and a name change when our paths crossed and their mission intrigued us. Based out of Denver, Colorado, the KidsGiving365 mission since 2010 has been to inspire life-long giving in children of all ages. What sets them apart from organizations such as Angel Tree, Make a Wish Foundation or Toys for Tots is that their primary focus is on kids giving directly to kids. Toys are not dropped off into a barrel, never to be seen again. These toys are given directly from one family to the other. With their family matching program and recreation center meeting locations, the giving families and the receiving families get the rare opportunity of meeting each other and really experience the joy of giving and receiving.

In the 12 years of business... we have designed quite a few different menus in our time. Lots of clients come to us with ideas from the past that are no longer useful in today's restaurant consumer economy! Consumers these days have less patience, less time and they need immediate satisfaction. It's a tough crowd out there!

In the interest of education, we have outlined the below some of the most common restaurant menu design MYTHS! Please folks, do not try these at home!

The restaurant industry is one of the most competitive industries I have ever known. With a measly estimated 2470 head chef positions opening up each year (according to this Culinary Career infographic), aspiring chef's really need to do all in their power to begin to get training under their belt. Even just starting a restaurant has bleak prospects with 59% of start-up restaurants closing after just 3 years. In an effort to give students an opportunity to get their foot in the door, the California Restaurant Association Foundation started multiple educational programs to, in their words, "promote the health and prosperity of the foodservice industry by investing in our youth and our workforce."

Thinking about a rebrand? Here are some things to look out for while looking for your perfect brand partner. The most important factor when looking for that perfect partner? Trust. It’s everything when it comes to hiring a marketing firm to do a rebrand. Why is trust such an important factor? Because you’re handing over the business you spent hours on end building from the ground up. So, now you want to hand it over to a complete stranger and see all your hardwork go to waste?