Turning Food Trucks into Mobile Taste Testing Kitchens

Challenge: A hot honey brand was struggling to gain visibility in an increasingly competitive market dominated by established brands. With little brand recognition, the challenge was to introduce the product to new consumers and drive retail purchases without the expense of a large-scale advertising campaign.

SOLUTION

Partner with highly rated food truck vendors to introduce the brand into consumers' dining experiences.

INSIGHT

Even when consumers are satisfied with their meals, the limited selection of condiments like ketchup and mustard don't always satisfy their desire to elevate the flavor of their food.

HOW IT WORKS

For food trucks, limited space, operational constraints, and the need for fast service often restrict menu variety.

Offering customizable sauces and toppings allows vendors to provide greater flavor variety without expanding their menus or slowing service.

Complementing existing menu items with hot honey offer consumers a new flavor experience, and it require no refrigerated storage under appropriate conditions which is a valuable advantage for space-constrained food trucks.

Our research identified pizza as the leading food pairing for hot honey, followed by chicken, sandwiches, cornbread, and more. Based on these findings, we targeted food trucks specializing in these menu items, particularly those operating near breweries and corporate office parks in middle- to upper-middle-income neighborhoods.

Participating vendors received branded squeeze bottles of the brands hot honey and they were prominently displayed them within customers' view. Branded window decals on the ordering and/or pickup windows reinforced brand visibility without overshadowing the food truck's existing identity. The decals also identified nearby stores that carried the product.

To extend this connection, the hot honey branded store shelf talkers featured QR codes that directed shoppers to participating food trucks. This allowed consumers to locate and track vendors serving the hot honey and sample the product before committing to a full-sized bottle.

Because some food trucks already use GPS-based location tracking to inform customers of their whereabouts, the strategy leveraged this existing practice to help consumers find participating vendors as they moved between locations.

By turning food trucks into mobile sampling destinations, the brand could reach consumers when they were already enjoying foods that hot honey could enhance.

HOW WE'D MEASURE SUCCESS

• Percent increase in brand recognition through pre- and post-campaign surveys and track engagement with campaign QR codes.

• Track hot honey servings distributed at participating food trucks using vendor-reported sampling counts and weekly product usage.

• Compare product sales at participating stores before, during, and after the campaign, where retailer data is available.

THE TAKEAWAY

Instead of spending heavily to persuade consumers to try an unfamiliar product, we brought the product to the food consumers already loved.

*This is a hypothetical strategy exercise, not client work. The recommendations have not been implemented or tested.

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