Our new Service Packages for restaurants

TSO Creative has worked with some of the best food, beverage & hospitality based businesses around, but we are now excited to launch our new service packages for the restaurant business.

We know that the economy has hit some of us hard especially in the restaurant business, but we are now seeing restaurants pulling through these difficult times and coming out on top.  A good restaurant owner or manager knows the importance of marketing and as we leave 2012 behind, now is the time to take care of some of those marketing projects that were put on hold.

Our new service packages cover the essential areas for a restaurant to create a new look, and relaunch for 2013 with a bang.  Here are some details of our packages below.  Make sure to give us a call to discuss your project requirements at 631.952.5320 x 118 or email info@tso-creative.com

Service Packages

1) Brand Development

Includes: Logo concepts with artwork optimization for digital and print use, postcard layout and business card design

Starting at $450

2) Menu Design

Includes: The creative write up of plate descriptions and design layout of your menu ready for print

Starting at $275

3) Social Media Setup

Includes: Custom designed banners for Twitter & Facebook, account activation,  1/2 day training for up to 3 people and our 'Guide to Social Media for Businesses.' *Ask about our monthly social media management retainers

Starting at $325

4) Website design

Includes: Custom designed website that is google searchable, setup of domain, email and website hosting if needed, and our 'Guide to Using Your New Website'

Starting at $725

5) Photography

Includes: Onsite light & concept consultation,  a half day photography session including staging,  post-shoot editing, and a final CD of hi-res photos ready for all promotional needs.

Starting at $250

6) Videography

Includes: Initial brainstorming consultation,  visual story board, full day of video taking and photography, and a final edited video lasting up to 2 minutes ready for upload

Starting at $850

Make sure to visit our online pinterest portfolio for some creative inspiration. Contact us today for your no obligation initial consultation to discuss your project needs. Visit our website for more information and to see our work. We look forward to speaking with you!

Abergavenny Food Festival 2012

This year's Abergavenny Food Festival was a big success.  With an amazing selection of chef demos, speakers and food based companies from around Britain and beyond, it was a weekend to remember.

Take a look at all our photos on The Abergavenny Food Festival Album 

Here are TSO's standouts for the weekend:

Best Demo

The Fabulous Baker Brothers

Brothers Tom and Henry are now filming their 2nd season of their successful show, and it is clear why.  Their personalities and humor just radiate off the stage throughout the demonstration.  The crowd participation with kneading the bread, singing of Unchained Melodies and a special way of measuring out flour made the demo beyond entertaining and these two a certain household name in the culinary world for many years to come.

Best Stand
hada del cafe
Martina truly is the Coffee Fairy, and her enthusiasm for all things wonderful shows in everything she does.  Her company was founded in 2007 from delicious coffee beans harvested in northern Nicaragua, but it is the inspiration behind the coffee that makes her story special. She raises money for better education and improving the community in the towns she works with.

The coffe doesn't fail on any level, winning Great Taste Awards in 2009 and now being carried in Harvey Nichols.  We wish her much success now and in the years to come!

Best Talk

The Food of Spain
Claudia Roden with Michael Jacobs

Claudia Roden talks to the Andalucian-based travel writer Michael Jacobs about her five year immersion in the regional cuisines of Spain which has produced yet another extraordinary volume in her chronicle of the food and peoples of the Mediterranean basin. Claudia Roden fascinating story fuses together food traditions with cultural heritage and history.  

Creating enticing food packaging copy

Effective packaging is the key to making your product stand out on the shelf. If your packaging competitive and the message is not presented in an effective way, sales are likely to go nowhere.

Package copy should be used to light up the product and let customers know what they will be missing out on if they don't buy it then and there. Customers want to know what the product is, how it works, and how they will either benefit from it or how the purchase will be beneficial. The package copy should create a sense of excitement for impulsive purchases and then justify the purchase through key facts.

Images, colours, graphics are all very important in terms of initially attracting customers to your product but it is vital for the copy to engage with them to keep them interested. In this way packaging can be seen as a great creative platform for writing, giving a chance to engage and entertain the audience. Copy should be relevant to your product as well as on target to the right audience with the right message; it should include a short and concise description of the product as well as its functional benefits.

However, it has also been argued that including a poem or short story, something that does not directly relate to your product, can cause an emotional connection between the shopper and your product. Research suggests that a positive emotional reaction to a package is more likely to result in a desire to engage with it. 

'Clean' designs are now key as the customers do not want to be oversold.  They want their information clear and simple without all the fluff.  

In summary there are four main points for effective packaging;

1. the packaging must be seen,
2. it must engage shoppers,
3. communicate key messages/point of difference,
4. and most importantly close the sale

7 Tips in Food Marketing

Though many of the marketing practices are the same for other industries, it is clear that passion and an understanding of the industry is key. The more you dig into this industry you soon realize how vast and diversified the businesses are involved within it.  The food marketing process begins as early as sourcing the ingredients and doesn't stop until the consumer experience is tracked and measured.  It's all the in between activities that separate a good marketing launch from a great one, and here are my 7 tips for new food manufacturers and consumer brands to get you started.

 1. The average consumer is knowledgable and wants to know what ingredients are part of your final product.  Stay true to sourcing from growers with good reputation of quality and work standards.  Build up your relationship with your suppliers to negotiate on price which can make you more competitive at market or increase your profit margins.  It's a win win.

2. Conduct focus groups throughout your R&D and know your market.  Your focus groups need to be an accurate reflection of your target marketing, not just your buddies.  Focus groups will help you identify issues with your ingredients, potential competition oversights, mastering the recipe, determining pricing points, and real insight to the final packaging prior to going onto the store shelves.

3. Be true to your product with the right type of branding.  The identity of your product has to be easily understandable to potential consumers. The retail food shelves and online are both highly competitive and your product must stand out.  Go out and scan your competition and see how your branding can pop out from the rest.

4. Get your 6 essential communication tools in place at minimum to start - website - packaging - twitter - facebook - blog - product overview presentation or video.  Make sure that anything visually or written that is released to the public is a true reflection of your brand.  You only have 1 chance to make a lasting impression and not to confuse your potential consumers and buyers.

5. Be witty with your marketing budget and activities.  Don't go head on with the big names by advertising in the same magazines, think outside the box to make your brand standout.  Red Bull took the population by storm in 1997 with their direct marketing tactics with crazy looking cars, but it sure got our attention and at first didn't threaten the big names of Coke and Pepsi.  Now selling 4.5 billion cans a year, they are free to compete head on all they want. 

6. Ramp up your PR.  Everyone has a story to tell, whether your product is revolutionary or not, focus on a twist that can captivate an audience and share it with the world.  Your product will never succeed if you are waiting for people to come to you.  Share the press release with local papers, bloggers and work your way up to the larger publications as you grow.

7. Maintaining quality in your product output and customer service during growth periods is key for your reputation.  Many new companies that secure their first big account or large order tend to slip on quality as they rush to keep up the fulfillment process.  Never forget that the quality must be consistent and customer service must remain the focus, as it is more difficult to find a new customer then to keep an existing one.  A loyal customer base is the key to longevity.

Nice to meet you!

If you don't know me personally, been to one of my talks or not a client of mine, you may not know what I am about.  I'm a Business & Marketing Consultant, working in various roles over the past 10 years in marketing, advertising and design.  I specialise in startups, new product launches, hospitality and all things food.

Clients I work with are 5-star hotels, food distributors, brands in Whole Foods, many department stores and consumer goods around the world.  I work with companies to create routes to market and communication plans, ultimately taking them from concept to reality. Not all my clients are in the food industry, but it seems a growing number are.  It must be my passion for all things food that just draw them in!

I call two places home at the moment, New York and the UK, but I love to travel and doubt I will settle in one place for very long without packing up to visit somewhere new.  I just came back from eating my way through Florence and Tuscany.  Italians definitely know how to live and eat!  The highlight of the trip had to be a beautiful bottle of Chianti from a wine tour we did earlier in the day, popped right open on the street listening to the spontaneous orchestra playing at midnight in piazza. If only every Tuesday night was like that!

I created this blog and dedicate it to all the aspiring food entrepreneurs and businesses out there.  Food based businesses are a significant growing number of the startups, and food businesses face their own set of challenges.  I want to share with you all what I have learned, and what I continue to learn working with hospitality and food based businesses both in the US and in the UK.  Manuervering through all the distributors and who is right to sell your product, understanding retail buyers needs, packaging and labelling requirements, health & safety, coordinating insightful focus groups and much more.

Feel free to send me your questions and topic requests. Cheers!