The Proof is in the Pudding

When Sweepstakes entrant Executive Chef Charles Rosenau of Konocti Harbor Inn and Spa won 250,000 Foodservice Rewards points, a Mediterranean cruise or $3,000 cash, he chose points - another example of how the program takes the focus off price and engages the "right brain" instead.

Chef has been at Konocti for 9 years, after spending 5 years at The Sunriver Lodge in Oregon as Executive Sous Chef. He received his culinary training "on the streets" starting in foodservice as a bus boy at age 13. His Nestle broker is Food Sales West and his distributor is Ritz Foods. According to our records, he is currently purchasing 7 Nestle brands!

FSR Marketing Update - July '05

All future FSR Marketing Updates will be posted and archived here. View July's update now. Feel free to leave a COMMENT or contact me directly if you have questions or content you’d like to add. Thank you, Charlie

Team Wins Innovation Award

Shameless self-promotion: The Coalition Marketing Team earned the prestigious Innovation Award at BI's Annual Sales & Creative Conference. When one is competing with dozens of business units in a Baldrige National Quality Award winning company, it's a big deal :-)

FSR Makes Top-10 Web Sites

In a recent Food Management magazine study, Foodservice Rewards was rated the 8th most frequented web site by operators. View the top 20 web sites and more at the survey.

KK Fine Foods: Newest UK Sponsor

Welcome, KK Fine Foods! Read about the third UK Sponsor of Foodservice Rewards at this article in England's NRN equivalent, The Publican.

7% redemption

Every now and then I hear the objection: "It's too hard to collect reward codes - operators won't take the time." However, operators submit three times as many reward codes as they do rebates (6.9% vs. 2%) and are now claiming over 1/2 a million cases a month - via the web!

Still, we could do better. That's why we are testing an enhanced mail-in option for group feeders - it's Rick Francis at Bunge's idea, following the Netflix model: Just as each DVD is sent to you with a postage paid return envelope, we'll process operator's mailed-in codes and immediately send them another post-paid collection envelope.

Serve It Up in K-12

Frito-Lay's Serve-It-Up program provides an interesting twist on K-12 loyalty programs by awarding points for menu placements. Is this functionality FSR sponsors would like to see?


We could host a mail-in form and process entries (just like mail-in reward codes) and use the discretionary deposit feature to award points for menu, signage, advertisement, equipment or other placements that can be verified through a photo or print submission. Give us your feedback!

1,500 1,974 hospitals participating

1/2 2/3rds through the campaign to enroll additional acute care hospitals with a focus on cash operations and greater than 500 beds, we're achieving a 2.5% 3.9% response rate to direct mail and a 30% open rate to e-mail solicitations like this one - bringing the results of this campaign to over 150 new enrollees, and total hospitals enrolled to over 1,500 1,974 (which is 25% 34% of all hospitals in the USA). Telemarketing to the non-responders begins next week.

A picture is worth 1,000 words

Thanks to Patti Pacella & Bob Komar for their interest in FSR as a value-added benefit to UniPro's 300+ distributor members. We'll launch the DSR incentive and operator loyalty program at their member conference in Dallas October 17th-19th.

DSR enrollment strategy

Meet Brad Young, Nestle's Division Business Manager for Sales Development and Trade Spend. He's helping spearhead the DSR incentive announced last sponsor meeting in which:


- DSR's receive their own Foodservice Rewards accounts
- Receive kits containing personalized enrollment brochures
- Earn 250 points from participating sponsors for each newly enrolled operator
- Earn a % override from participating sponsors on reward codes entered by their customers

Timing for roll-out is mid-October and the DSR incentive will be open to all US and Canadian distributors. Additional details to follow as development progresses.