The guest of today wants to be surprised. How do you do that?
It no longer matters what a guest thinks about a business or brand. Instead, what matters is how it makes the guest feel. Product and price play to the rational, experience goes to the heart. It is becoming increasingly difficult to meet expectations, because guests don’t always know what they’re expecting. This is a time of opportunity, because the element of surprise matters more.
People want to learn
Value is being redefined. The Internet has made everything transparent. Entrepreneurs need to focus on empathy, craft, and education. People want to learn from the chef. This has to be communicated both directly and indirectly. If the picture you paint in this way is perfect, the price doesn’t matter.
Make the difference
Staff and employees are also becoming more important. They are the ones that can make the difference. This will impact the required knowledge, training, and hiring process of staff in the future.
Fewer additives
On restaurant menus, amongst caterers and even in care facilities, we are finding an increasing amount of local products. The big multinationals are also going in hard on enhancing the sustainability of their products and using fewer additives. Supermarkets are seeing a serious increase in the sale of organic products. A growing group of consumers most of them well educated is willing to pay more for food that has been grown and bred honestly and with taste in mind. Consumers are buying grocery subscriptions and farmers are beginning to see the potential of marketing. In the United States we are seeing the rise of the ‘farmeteer’, the farmer and marketeer in one.
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Picture: Henk-Jan Winkeldermaat