Datassential found that just 25% of restaurant operators who order online ‘always’ or ‘often’ search by brand, with many operators complaining that sites make it difficult to locate the specific brands they want. This opens the door to preferred brands being ignored when it matters most – at the time of purchase.
Another hurdle for manufacturers is brand inconsistency on distributor ordering sites, the report shows. Datassential advises that the industry needs to work towards uniform presentation of brand names and product descriptions on these sites. If abbreviations are used, they should be done in a way that is intuitive, easy to remember and promoted aggressively.
Datassential’s Maeve Webster, said: “Branded manufacturers must ensure that operators can easily locate their products on ordering sites, and also make every effort to keep DSRs as up-to-date as possible on their new products.
“Better collaboration between manufacturers and distributors would be the best long-term solution, but where that isn’t or won’t be possible, it’s critical that manufacturers provide operators with specific instructions on how to search for their brands.”
The report is designed to help manufacturing companies and distributors maximise their product sales potential. Webster added: “While marketers often know what operators want, what’s been missing is an understanding of how operators purchase those products.”
Source: Datassential
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