Food & Beverage are two of the most important ingredients in a civilized society. With the world getting busier by the day, it has become difficult to find time to indulge in a leisurely meal or a good movie. As a result, people tend to eat fast food on the run. This has led to an increase in obesity and health problems. Besides leading to a decrease in physical activity, food & Beverage consumption have also shown a consistent and strong relationship to a variety of serious diseases such as diabetes, stroke, heart attack, cancer, and Alzheimer’s.
A beverage is a liquid designed for personal consumption. Other names for it are: water, beverage of choice (FoW), medicinal beverage, and beverage of choice (FOB). Medical and health services professionals in the hospitality industry refer to it as a medical beverage. Common categories of beverages include juice, milk, plain drinking water, coffee and hot chocolate.
The Food & Beverage Association of America (Federation of Hospitality Owners) recommends that service operators provide nutrition counseling for their customers. Nutrition counseling can be provided either at the point of purchase or through written nutrition literature provided in the restaurant. According to the FBA, many service operators fail to meet this recommendation by either failing to provide patrons with enough information or by inappropriately providing information that is not scientifically accurate or reliable. Service operators who fail to meet this recommendations may be subject to fines by the Federation of Hospitality Owners. Examples of food & beverage services that may be fined include fast food restaurants, hotel waitresses, and fast food delivery services.
According to the FBA, service operators who fail to provide enough food & beverage information to guests may also be subject to fines. Some of these types of situations occur regularly in the hospitality industry. For example, some hotels serve alcoholic beverages in rooms, bars, and guest patios. Customers sometimes make assumptions about what they can or cannot consume based on where they are drinking their beverages. If an alcoholic beverage is served in a room or bar that does not have food & beverage available, the customer may incorrectly assume that all alcohol products are prohibited in the room or bar.
Many changes have been made in the food & beverage industry since the organization of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that processed food products should include essential nutrients in order to contribute to good health. WHO called for a radical change in how the industry conducts business by developing a global standard, the Global Code of Conduct for Drinking Water and Food Quality, or the GCD. One way that the food & beverage industry has responded to this announcement is to develop ecommerce solutions that incorporate quality standards. eCommerce websites typically offer a variety of beverage options such as water, soup, juices, wine, teas, honey, chocolate, and cookies.
A new digital food & beverage trend is developing around the idea of creating consumer websites on which customers can interact with professionals to create and share recipes and interact with others who are in the business of creating recipes. This practice has the potential to become an important new development in the ecommerce industry. Many online merchants have begun experimenting with ecommerce websites that allow customers to share and organize recipes and place their comments and feedback on a central location that other cooks can visit and access for information.
In the past several years the food & beverage industry has seen a rapid growth and expansion, especially online. Although this growth has been fueled primarily by internet advertising, the development of a new digital marketing focus and the implementation of ecommerce tools that take full advantage of social media, blogs, and online discussion boards may also contribute to the overall growth of this industry. The creation of a well-thought out digital marketing plan and implementation of the latest technology by the merchant service provider can create a significant difference in the success of any business in this changing and constantly evolving landscape.
It is important for the traditional food & beverage service provider to evolve and stay ahead of the trends that emerge in this new digital marketing environment. These changes are creating opportunities that were not available just a few short years ago. The traditional restaurant business is feeling the impact of these changes as customers are becoming more demanding and some of these demands are pushing the barometer on what customers expect from their dining experience. When a business owner adopts an ecommerce strategy that takes advantage of all the latest technological trends in digital marketing, they are taking advantage of a powerful marketing tool that can greatly increase revenue and brand recognition.