Millennials Drive Branding: The WHY Is As Important As The WHAT You Do

In a National Restaurant Association article on how restaurants should market themselves to millennials, author Jeff Fromm makes the point about the fact that this key demographic group doesn’t just want to buy your brand, they want to be a part of it. “They’re looking for ways to participate.  And they want to understand why you do what you do not just what you want to sell.” We think many of the same concepts apply for hospitality tabletop companies and the products they bring to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Restaurants, like millennial consumers, define themselves by the brands they choose. More and more, the “why” of what products tabletop companies produce is as equally important  as the “what” they produce to today’s restaurateur.

For instance….
Quality

Fromm talks about how “key basics” such as great food, money for value, etc. are simply the price of admission for doing business with millennials. We would say that those same “key basics” apply when attempting to bring tabletop products to the hospitality industry. Product quality, ability to deliver in a timely manner, and good value are “basics” in most any industry – the hospitality tabletop segment is no different – and are not truly differentiators. Restaurateurs have come to expect these basics in the tabletop products they choose. Tabletop companies who fall short on these basics are not serious competitors in the hospitality tabletop game.

Uniqueness

Millenials seek unique flavor experiences according to Fromm, and we agree. A quick trip to any supermarket will confirm that. But, the same applies to tabletop as a participant in that helping to showcase and deliver that unique flavorful, often – but not always – ethnic experience. Tabletop products such as cast iron, terra cotta, colored-glaze dinnerware that reinforce a particular culinary experience are more popular than ever. The overall dining experience continues to be important to the millennial customer and tabletop products that contribute to that overall experience will continue to realize higher levels of success. Like the foods they serve, restaurateurs more and more seek truly unique tabletop products to enhance the dining experience of their particular dining guests.

Authenticity and Transparency

The truth in how and where products are made is just as important to tabletop products as it is to the food products that restaurants serve. We continue to see tabletop companies that produce their own products in their own factories finding favor versus those who simply source from a variety of factories that have cheaper costs of production. Increasingly, millennials care about not only what materials go into making their tabletop products, but how, where – and why – they are made. Tabletop products that are perceived as authentic and transparent to the dining experience will only grow in popularity with today’s forward thinking restaurant decision makers.

As millennials continue to evolve into a more participatory level of brand and product involvement, tabletop companies must realize that this concept applies not only to the foods millennials choose to eat. This trend extends into all areas of where this key demographic chooses to do its consumer spending. We see it in the foods they choose to eat….the wines they choose to drink….and the tabletop products they use to consume them.

So, yes….tabletop matters.

You can read Jeff Fromm’s very interesting article by going here: 
https://www.restaurant.org/Manage-My-Restaurant/Marketing-Sales/Promotion/Millennials-are-changing-the-definition-of-brand-v