Foodservice Rewards

Third Quarter Metrics

2007-11-12T15:51:00.000-06:00

Q3 Highlights from the six KPI's we measure include:

* A record number of new operator enrollments last quarter
* More than 50% enter 10 reward codes within 30 days

"Value in Manufacturer Programs"

2007-10-10T13:08:00.001-05:00

Hi Tiger! You’ve probably seen this, but just in case, check out page 18 of the October issue of the IFMA magazine. There’s a chart that shows what operators find to be useful from manufacturers and your type of program is at the top.

Good PR for you! Hope to see you in Palm Springs.

Patty Duffey
Sr. Vice President, Marketing Development
UniPro Foodservice

Launching a new product? Email works

2007-10-05T20:59:00.000-05:00

Here's a great example of Schwan's Foodservice maximizing click-thoughs by augmenting eExtra Points newsletter promotions with a solo-email and an impactful landing page.

September website traffic

2007-10-01T18:00:00.000-05:00

Web stat reports for September - highlights:

937,228 page views
108,311 visits
55,548 unique visitors

General Mills new, improved foodservice site

2007-10-01T17:38:00.001-05:00

General Mills' new foodservice website is a beauty; we particularly like their promotions page.

Sponsors, don't miss the opportunity to update your site with a Foodservice Rewards page or promotion (remember, we'll fund a 500 point enrollment code to help your operators join the program.)

"It's like winning the lottery!"

2007-09-25T08:49:00.000-05:00

We have enjoyed participating in the Foodservice Rewards program because we have been able to get some nice items for our department that we normally would not have purchased. We also enjoy entering the codes. When bonus points appear, it is almost like winning the lottery!

Thank you Foodservice Rewards!!!

Rich Burlingame
Director of Food Services
Great River Health Systems, West Burlington IA

48 appointments at the UniPro show

2007-09-20T20:10:00.000-05:00

Our third year exhibiting at the UniPro show and 48 distributor appointments (boy, does Big Mike ever speak their language!) with multiple new houses joining online while at the show.

Reminder: You can always view the most up-to-date list of distributor houses participating in the DSR incentive by searching the Google FSR Distributor Map.

There was lots of interest from new and existing distributors in co-branded mailings to their customers. In the future, this will become a regular opportunity for sponsors and a significant value-add for DSR's as each mailing is personalized with his/her contact information.

In addition, credit has to go to all of our sponsors as each proudly displayed Foodservice Rewards floor mats at the show, making a big impact and all-important repeat impressions.

I don't order as much as the "big guys"

2007-09-19T12:23:00.000-05:00

Foodservice Rewards is a really great program! I am the cafeteria manager for a small private school and I don’t order as much as the “big guys” but most all of the foods that I use in my cafeteria have those great bright yellow Reward Code labels on them.

I am trying to build up enough points to purchase either a dishwasher or a convection oven for our kitchen or maybe a big screen TV for our school! Whichever I decide on, I am having fun collecting the points and entering them into our account!

Karen McAlhaney
School Cafeteria Manager
Jefferson Davis Academy

International expansion continues

2007-09-18T15:54:00.000-05:00

Many of you will remember Patrick Moloughney of Proctor & Gamble (center, flanked by Alan Gray and Nicole Thinnes of our UK office) from his days as our Sponsor contact.

In his new role, he's been tasked with identifying initiatives within P&G Professional producing the highest ROI and sharing them globally - and last week we presented program results to his colleagues in Geneva.

His assement: "I'm thrilled the meeting went as well as it did given some of the initial skepticism from my counterparts going into it. I could not have asked for a better presentation by your team or active engagement by my counterparts during the meeting. There was clear excitement in the room and an overall desire to move this forward ASAP!"

We also received an equally enthusiastic response from Kraft Foodservice about a program roll out in Germany. This is due in large part to support from Rolf Schmidt, CEO of International Business Development for CHD-Expert, (pictured right with Indra Bammann, Assistant European Business Development) whose firm enjoys a long-standing relationship there. In Europe, CHD-Expert is the foodservice database market leader producing insights through operator surveys, telemarketing and data cleansing.

If you have not yet discovered CHD's foodservice list sourcing and analysis services, I suggest you contact Paul Hagege, General Manager, in the USA at (312) 506-3851 to schedule a meeting.

Paul recently opened their U.S. office through a partnership with Technomic and in a matter of nine months has built an operator database from 50 public and proprietary sources that is more robust than NPD's. We'll be working with them to append their supplemental data to the FSR database and generate "most likely customer" models for sponsors and to expand FSR's membership.

SMA Incentive program going gangbusters!

2007-09-17T06:29:00.000-05:00

The pilot phase of the Sales and Marketing Agency Incentive has come to a close with positive results: Your brokered sales forces signed up hundreds of key account operators earning bonus Foodservice Rewards points funded by BI.

Here's a presentation for use with Sales and Marketing Agencies or internal salespeople. Program Benefits include:

1) Identifying target accounts (your brokers know who they are)
2) Tracking activities to compare agency to agency effectiveness
3) Communicating product features and benefits to salespeople
4) Rewarding specific selling behaviors effectively

A big thank you to Advance, Bunge and Splenda for testing the program. Pricing and implementation details can be found here.

Add rewards to your website

2007-09-16T05:22:00.000-05:00

BI deliberately named the Foodservice Rewards program descriptively so that you can "make it your own" simply by preceding it with your band name.

Notice how even Colloquy, a leading loyalty publication, appears to believe the program is proprietary to Perdue? That's the right way to leverage the program with your operator audiences :-)

The high cost of restaurant employee turnover

2007-09-06T18:10:00.000-05:00

The constant employee churn in the food industry comes with a price: It costs $20,000 every time a restaurant loses a manager and $2,400 to replace hourly employees, according to People Report, a Dallas-based research firm that tracks restaurant employment trends.

As a Foodservice Rewards manufacturer, you help reduce employee turn over and increase employee motivation: That's more valuable to operators than another temporary discount.

Dear Abbey

2007-09-04T17:55:00.000-05:00

A huge THANK YOU from the whole Foodservice Rewards team to Abbey Dryden who has been instrumental in the program's success at Procter & Gamble.

From clever scavenger hunt promotions to new contests delivering instant gratification, she's added creativity and innovation at every turn.

Boy, are we going to miss you: Best wishes on maternity leave :-)

DSR Incentive Program Progress

2007-09-04T16:08:00.000-05:00

August highlights include… 127 New DSRs, 390 New Operators signed up by DSRs, and 3 New Sysco Houses.

Bye, bye, Pete - you'll be missed

2007-09-04T14:40:00.000-05:00

Pete, please see your BI contract. Section 4.1.22 specifically states that personnel who are highly supportive of FSR and are great drinking partners are not allowed to rotate to another role within their company or leave their place of employment. Our attorneys will be calling your attorneys to immediately rectify this situation.

Seriously, Pete. You will be missed! Best of luck with your own business. Keep in touch and let us know how the business is going.

-----Original Message-----
From: peter_leavitt@barberfoods.com [mailto:peter_leavitt@barberfoods.com]
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 7:21 AM
To: Neupauer, John

I have given my notice to Barber, and am opening up my own specialty food store in Falmouth, Maine (where I live).....

my last official day is Aug 31, but will be actively transitioning everything to Stacy before then!

Thanks,

Pete Leavitt
FS Marketing Manager
Barber Foods

Operators generating positive PR with FSR

2007-09-04T11:29:00.000-05:00

Foodservice Rewards has been a GREAT success for us and local charities. We donate merchandise to them which they can use in fund raising auctions. It is a definite WIN-WIN situation!

Robert E. Williams Jr.
President
Lizard’s Thicket Restaurants
Columbia SC

The largest (and smartest) poultry company

2007-08-31T13:55:00.000-05:00

We're excited to announce a major protein addition to the Foodservice Rewards coalition: Pilgrim's Pride.

With it's December, 2006 purchase of rival Gold Kist, the combined company became the world's leading chicken producer and the third-largest U.S. meat company by revenue.

We're thrilled to welcome their foodservice portfolio, which will appear on the website and labeled in-market by the end of this year, thanks to the hard work of Bill Stelle who worked tirelessly to forge the partnership.

USFS' future - predictions

2007-08-30T13:52:00.000-05:00

"Putting manufacturer brands in the back of the book"
"Reducing commissions on manufacturer brands to their DSR's"
"Marketing their brands as the same as..."

Just three of the insights in this Strategic White Paper from The Hale Group - making it imperative that you know who your existing customers are, how much they are buying and how often, plus have the promotional levers Foodservice Rewards provides to retain them.

How many media types are you testing?

2007-08-30T12:56:00.000-05:00

In a world of fragmented media (specialty publications, blogs, YouTube, more...) are you reaching your audience regularly? Maybe it's time to test an educational series like Nestle's podcast.

"I love giving them presents..."

2007-08-29T10:34:00.001-05:00

Having a tough time reaching Local Leverage Operators? Here's just one example of how these highly valuable customers feel about Foodservice Rewards:

"Just want to say thanks for this program! As a small business owner I can not afford to reward my employees beyond a competitive wage rate and discounts on food. The Foodservice Rewards program allows me to gift my great staff with quality merchandise. I work with some truly great people and yes, I tell them that, but a wrapped package is much more fun - I love giving them presents for a job well done! Thank you for helping me do that, Foodservice Rewards."

Sincerely,

Shannon Schaefer, Owner
Valentino's

Basic American Foods Broker Feedback

2007-08-19T13:31:00.001-05:00

A quick note of thanks to Jim Hostetler and Hans Kohte of Basic American Foods for inviting me to participate in their recent division meeting and gather feedback from their brokers and salespeople.

1) Many brokers requested that we make a list of operators redeeming reward codes available to them. As I understand it, these reports can be as simple as excel spreadsheets that include the cities and states covered by that broker or as sophisticated as plotting target accounts on a Google map accessible by your brokers. Brokers are given a special login so that they don't have access to any other functionality.

2) Often, manufacturers/brokers have a "key account" or "top 100" list where they'd like brokers to focus. Why not have us design and mail Manufacturer/Broker co-branded postcards with enrollment or bonus codes to key accounts in each broker's market?

3) There was considerable interest in Scanners. Each Broker had 2-3 key accounts (usually C&U or Healthcare) for whom scanners would be a great closing tool as they attempt to sell in your product lines.

One broker told me his account had a full-time intern entering codes. Another broker had gone to OfficeMax and purchased scanners for his accounts. A third collects codes from a key account and has someone at the broker's office enter them as a "value added" service. Why not design a promotion with scanners as the reward?

4) Finally, there were multiple requests for FSR floor mats for local food shows. We'll pursue bulk pricing and create a corresponding fact sheet. Mats are popular because you can always find booth space for them and the bright yellow reward code is instantly recognizable by operators.

Best New Reward Product or Solution

2007-08-18T21:55:00.001-05:00

We're extremely proud of our UK colleagues who earned that country's highest accolade in the incentive and motivation industry, the 2007 Best New Reward Product or Solution. BI's team was recognized at a gala dinner and awards ceremony at the Royal Kensington Hotel in London.

Fear of labeling? "Move past that!"

2007-08-18T21:50:00.000-05:00

"The process that has been set up for ordering the Reward Code Labels has made it extremely easy to do. The labels are easy to handle, store and very easy to apply to products. If the labeling process is keeping anyone from becoming a Sponsor in Foodservice Rewards, move past that! It’s easy from the get go!"

Patsy Cobb, Supply Chain Specialist 4
Schwan's Global Supply Chain, Inc.
Purchasing Department

Should your supply chain managers have questions about the labeling process, here are several helpful fact sheets: Labeling Scenarios, Label Specifications, Roll Sizes and Order Processing.

In addition, these fact sheets describe available Label Applicator Consulting and common Manual Label Applicator Models.

Mailed-in codes: Still less than 5% of total

2007-08-18T21:24:00.000-05:00

Did you know that fewer than five percent of all codes are mailed in? (95% are entered online.)Even that small percentage, however, keeps our Eden Valley process team busy scanning more than 50,000 codes per month.

During a visit to the BI fulfillment and telemarketing facility, we routinely saw packages containing 200 to 900 codes being submitted with the new pre-populated mailing labels operators print directly from their Foodservice Rewards accounts.

Q2 2007 Key Performance Indicators

2007-08-17T21:36:00.001-05:00

The second quarter metrics for 2007 show positive growth in multiple-product and multi-manufacturer purchases: More than 35% of operators now buy from over five sponsors, a 10% gain from last year.