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    How To Sell A Food Product (Especially to Grocery Stores)

    Wild-Groves-Products_group

    This is Dewey, he sells high end olives and olive oil from his brand Wild Groves Olives:

    Dewey Wild Groves Olives

    Dewey wants to sell even MORE olive oil. But how does he do that?

    Well since ME AND YOU are his trusted advisors, together we need to help Dewey sell lots of olives.

    Let's take stock of what Dewey currently sells:

    Dewey's top sellers are a line of high end olives oils:

    These are used by foodies, restaurants, and gourmet chefs. They're on the expensive end, but taste super unique and delicious.

    dewey-wild-groves-olive-oil-bottles

     

    He also sells a line of high end mustards and olives:

    These are awesome (I tasted them all)!

    Wild-Groves-Products_mustard

     

    He also sells a line of high end vinegars:

    My favorite one of these vinegars is the "Sex on the Beach" flavor:

    Wild-Groves-Products-Vinegar

    The way this is done is by getting his product into grocery store chains.

    Let's dig into some stats (and please say "You're Welcome" to Dewey for opening up about this info by visiting him at WildGroves.com).

     

    These products sell "OK" online:

    Dewey already sells about 20% of his product directly from his website, but the big kahuna of sales is still grocery store chains. 

    Checkout this stat:

    80% of Dewey's sales come from orders placed by large grocery store chains!

    That's because the orders from grocery store chains are FAR LARGER than anything small consumers will ever buy.

     

    Single Online Buyers ($16 to $120 orders):

    olive-oil-small-orders

    Example: Dewey got 5 orders on Tuesday that equaled $150 in gross sales.

    Mom & Pop Stores ($100 - $500 Orders):

    olive-oil-food-orders-medium

    Example: On the same Tuesday Dewey got 2 small mom & pop stores that ordered for a total of $600. We Olive Fresno bought $200 worth of oils, and Olive This Olive That bought $400 worth of olive oils.

    Grocery Store Chains ($10,000 - $50,000 Orders)!

    lots-of-olive-oil-orders

    Example: This week Nugget Market (which is a grocery store chain) bought $10,000 worth of merchandise from Dewey! They bought 1,056 bottles of balsamic vinegar and 1,056 bottles of olive oil (all of them were the large 500 ML bottles).

    Naturally you can see how selling to these larger grocery store chains would be very well worth Dewey's time! The small and medium sized orders add up to only a few hundred dollars of gross sales per day, but a single grocery store chain order will be $10,000+ of merchandise!!

    This is why trying to get a food product into a large grocery store is one of the most profitable endeavors a food company can do!

     

    Getting A Product into Grocery Stores:

    The first thing you need to understand is that a grocery store is a business.

    They exist to sell products and make money.  So let's work this backwards and see how we can help THEM.

     

    Method 1.) Show them how much they can make with your product:

    Generally the margin on olive oil is roughly 50%.

    Normal olive oil costs $5 per bottle. This means $2.50 of profit per bottle.

    Dewey's olive oil is $22 per bottle.  This means $11 of profit per bottle 🤑 !! 🤑 !! 🤑 !!

    This means they only need to sell 1 bottle of Dewey's olive oil to make the same profit as 4+ bottles of normal olive oil.

    However selling a $22 bottle of olive oil won't work in every grocery store, especially budget stores. However it works well in higher end gourmet stores.

    Let's put it in a slide like this:

    food-marketing-grocery-store-pitch-10

     

     

    Method 2.)  Tell  Show People Different Uses for Your Product:

    I have a bunch of Wild Groves product, and I told Dewey I wasn't really using the vinegar that much.  He asked if I'd tried putting his vinegar in my morning smoothies.

    I was like, "GROSS!!!!"

    He told me to put 1 tablespoon of the Sex On The Beach vinegar in my next smoothie.

    Then I was like, "Oh snap this is pretty damn great!"

    A few months later I bought 3 more bottles of different flavored vinegars from Wild Groves to put in my smoothies. Every time I put this vinegar in my smoothies I always think:

    "Vinegar in smoothies....who would've thought!?"

    Most consumers wouldn't know to put these in their smoothies, so that's why it's important for the business owner (Dewey) to SHOW clients that this works.

    Showing different and novel uses of a product isn't a brand new idea, it's been around for years. In fact one of my favorite ads is this old Campbell's Soup ad that shows you can drink beef broth directly as a beverage, not just a soup:

    Old Campbell's soup drink beverage ad

    Ya ya ya, while some people might revolt at the thought of drinking straight beef broth, this campaign effectively changed the consumers mind about what you could do with a simple can of beef broth.

    So for our presentation, let's make a little slide showcasing this novel use of Wild Groves vinegars:

    food-marketing-grocery-store-pitch-6.png

     

    Method 3.) Show off your star customers (chefs):

    When I first heard that Dewey's olive oils were $22/bottle I asked who in their right mind would buy such an expensive oil.

    He said primarily it was high end chefs who appreciate and understand the value of a damn good olive oil.

    So let's make a slide to show that!

    food-marketing-grocery-store-pitch-b-8.p

     

    Method 4.) Demonstrate all of this in a nice little package:

    We made some good points above on how to get a product into a grocery store, HOWEVER, it's all talk unless we actually DEMONSTRATE IT!

    The next time Dewey is trying to pitch to a large grocery store chain, instead of going in without a plan, he can go in with this handy "marketing packet" that will showcase to large grocery store chains why they should buy Wild Groves products over the competition.

    The Brochure Layout:

    • Intro to Wild Groves
    • Show that Wild Groves is most awarded olive oil in California.
    • Show that Wild Groves is most bought olive oil in California.
    • Show different uses 1
    • Show different uses 2
    • Show different uses 3
    • Show testimonials
    • Show how store makes more money with Wild Groves.
    • How to order and contact info.

    Here's what the whole brochure and presentation looks like in order:

    Now armed with a deck like Dewey can get his olive oil into more grocery store chains.

    It's actually surprising the number of people who try to sell to grocery store chains, but don't have any "reason" for the chain to buy their products.

    Sincerely,

    Neville Medhora - Olive Oil & Vinegar Buyer

     

    P.S. I was putting 2 tablespoons of Dewey's Sex On The Beach Vinegar in my smoothies everyday, and when my bottle ran out, I realized how crappy my smoothies tasted without them :(

    So I ordered a bunch more...

    wild-groves-olive-oil-neville-order.jpgMuch oil. Many vinegar. Very flavor.

    ...and now my smoothies taste awesome! My favorites are the Sex On The Beach vinegar and the Peach vinegar.

     

    P.P.S. What are some other ways we could get Dewey more giant grocery store chain orders? Have any experience with this?

    I'll be sending two free shirts, of any style, to anywhere in the world, FOR FREE, to the top two commenters!

    shirts-prizes.png


    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments



    Guest Neville Medhora

    Posted

    Hey Bart, almost every product owner would looooveee to have a store spend time to promote their product, but it rarely works like that.

    The store is incentivized to sell products that sell themselves.

    Dewey already does some in-person store tastings and does well at it, but it's definitely a difficult and time consuming process.

    Link to comment
    Guest Dewey

    Posted

    Hi Allen,

    I had not thought about that avenue with the health food store angle, great idea! You are so right, even with everyday cooking, I've found customers need ideas on how to use the products you are selling (which we need to do a better job of), even with something as basic as olive oil. If we could attach the health aspect to our balsamic vinegar, like the apple cider vinegar, this could open a whole new door for marketing our products.

    End-Caps, yes, big potential there visually and making yourself easy to find. Usually high rent spaces, and requires running a special or paying to be there, but can be justified with sales and brand building.

    Newsletter and emails, yes, we need to work more on.

    Link to comment
    Guest Dewey

    Posted

    Good question Joel. Yes, I've done both, and I've had success exactly as you say, where I've gotten into one store with that store manager, started selling and showed success, then been able to get into other stores in that same chain of grocery stores.
    Link to comment
    Guest Dewey

    Posted

    That is one of our biggest challenges because we are usually at the tip-end of the price scale for olive oil, landing us in the "specialty products" realm. We make an awesome product, that's 100% authentic, but go up against products that many times do not meet standards, in the case of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. UC Davis reported a few years back that nearly 70% of the EVOO sold on the shelf was in fact not, many oils didn't meet the standards because it was old or poor quality, and many were adulterated with other oils, which unfortunately happens a lot out there with mostly imports. Companies will blend in refined oils, soybean oil, canola oil, etc. and still call it "Extra Virgin Olive Oil." Very frustrating. They can get away with it because America doesn't have a good way of "policing" this issue. All that said, our product costs more, and the customer doesn't understand why one bottle of EVOO is $8, and ours is $22 or sometimes more.
    Link to comment
    Guest Dewey

    Posted

    Great ideas Quantella! I'll check those sites out. Costco would be the ultimate dream. I've talked to a few people there in the past, and they've said we'd be a good 4th quarter item. Now that you mention it, I'll have to try and get in front of them again.
    Link to comment
    Guest Rezbi

    Posted

    I don't know about anyone else, but I like the taste of oily ingredients in my coffee. Butter, olive oils, and even coconut oil.

    Different flavoured olive oils might be a good one for coffee shops. They can sell them as healthy - omega 3 - coffees.

    Link to comment
    Guest Neville Medhora

    Posted

    Interesting thought Rezbi. People already put MCT oil in their coffee which is kinda just the liquid part of coconut oil, so I can definitely envision a day where people are putting interesting flavored olive oils in coffee!
    Link to comment
    Guest Neville Medhora

    Posted

    Oh wow, I can't believe you've already had talks with them. You should DEFINITELY follow up with that :-)
    Link to comment
    Guest Neville Medhora

    Posted

    I think there needs to be a reality TV show called OLIVE OIL WARS :P
    Link to comment
    Guest Mar-Lisa Kemp

    Posted

    That’s a great idea. At first when I read your cooment I thought. Yuck! But when you labeled the coffee as healthy Omega3 coffee I looked at it in a totally healthier light. Hmmm, interesting. Thanks
    Link to comment
    Guest Neville Medhora

    Posted

    Oh cool, this idea already seems to be working :)
    Link to comment
    Guest Rezbi

    Posted

    I was using butter and even ghee. That tastes nice but then I thought, why not olive oil? It's nice and healthy. Especially if you get the right oil for the coffee.
    Link to comment
    Guest Neville Medhora

    Posted

    Hey Jonathan, you won a shirt, sending you an email now :)
    Link to comment
    Guest Neville Medhora

    Posted

    Hey Niel, you won a shirt! Sending you an email now :)
    Link to comment
    Guest Niel Reichl

    Posted

    Woooohooooo!!!!!

    I'm trying to figure out if I'm still a medium when the shirt arrives! bahaha!!!!

     

    Thanks Nev!!!

    Oh and Dewey too!!!

    I think it would be awesomer if this idea becomes a reality. What do you guys think? :)

    Link to comment
    Guest Getting to Product Market Fit (A Visual Guide) :: Kopywriting Kourse

    Posted

    […] The t-shirt winners from last weeks post were Niel Reichl and Jonathan Drake! Congrats you two for your comments, shirts are on the […]
    Link to comment
    Guest Robert Goluba

    Posted

    Love the brand and products. I see a few ways to spark sales:

    1. Tell your story. The sales copy is great but its heavy on testimonials and recipes which are way overdone by CPG food marketers and therefore often ignored by consumers. I'd sprinkle in some process (ie. cold-filtered) and growing region benefits that help justify the price. Most importantly, tell the story about why the first generation choose to make Wild Groves a premium line while all the others were cutting corners. Was your grandfather a stickler for quality? Did they struggle at first while everyone else imported cheap olive oil? How have you carried on that tradition? Get them to buy into you and your company because of your story and they'll stay even after finding another recipe for a cheaper product.

    2. Customer activation. This is very labor and cost intensive, but your products are well suited for in-store demos. Tell your story and let customers experience for themselves. It'll lower the barriers to buying a high ticket grocery item. I'd also recommend floor standing displays with great graphics with a full assortment of Wild Groves or smaller counter displays so any retail store with your target consumer can try it. Don't limit yourself to traditional food stores. Think Bass Pro, Bevmo, the BMW dealer, a high end hair salon, etc. Once they see how well it sells, how much THEIR customers like it and how much they can make, you can sell them more. Direct.

    3. Subscription with Home Delivery. You have so many great products, you could regularly introduce more of them and make money by sending out a small kit with unique oils, vinegars, mustards, etc. 6 times a year. You could have a kit with the latest harvest, the oldest vinegars, seasonal flavors, etc. and auto ship them every other month for a set fee. PLUS, you can also sell those kits in store, including non-grocery stores, if they are popular. Think Blue Apron and Hello Fresh.

    I need to buy me some Wild Groves vinegar!

    Link to comment
    How much would you charge a client in the food and beverage biz for you to create a package like this for them to send to distributors themselves?
    Link to comment
    Guest Patrick

    Posted

    Is there any advice regarding food expiration dates? Will grocery stores demand that you have a lab test done showing proof of a sell by date?

     

    Thank you for any help regarding this.

    Link to comment



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