The revolution will be digested

10 Things Independence Day Can Teach Us About Food Marketing:

1. Don’t pull an England and upset a key supply chain partner, disrupting the flow of goods your consumers want.
2. Fireworks are proof that people will spend money they don’t really “have” for an experience they really, really want.
3. There are plenty of opportunities for food safety disasters (warm potato salad or undercooked ground beef come to mind).
4. Everybody has a favorite dish that they make and/or consume in large quantities. Their emotional attachment to these dishes is at least as strong as their gastronomic affinity for them.
5. If it is possible for a single day to spawn entire industries, then there is plenty of value left for us to create and extract from the market.
6. When Independence Day was first celebrated, candidates for public office did not campaign for votes, whereas today, the presidential race, alone, is a billion-dollar industry. It’s a good reminder of how times change and marketing opportunities emerge.
7. Diets are flexible.
8. A unifying vision is a powerful thing.
9. Never underestimate the determination of people who want to live a certain way. You won’t change their way of thinking. You can only hope to profit from it.
10. The day celebrating our nation’s freedom is appreciated differently by different people. For some, it’s all about drinking beer and charring meat. For others, it’s about family. For still others, it’s a day to remember how fortunate we are to be free. As marketers, we must respect everyone’s values, for it’s only then that we can reach them with a credible message.