PROMOTING LOCAL FOOD BRANDS THROUGH THE HERITAGE FOOD TRUCK
The Heritage food truck is both a kitchen-on-wheels and a powerful advertising billboard that can be rented by the day, or in some cases, for longer periods of time. Because of our commitment to locally-produced food and local farm produce, it is reserved for emerging or established local food products and brands (farms, restaurants, foodservice companies, distributors, retailers) wishing to test and promote their products in locations such as farmers markets, farms, retailer parking lots, public events, festivals, or corporate parking lots.
The Heritage food truck tests and promotes your products and brand in four ways:
- It acts as a flashy visual display that attracts the eyes of visitors through its modern, colorful and bucolic wrap. We can add customized overlays superposing your logos and signs on our truck. The truck is often surrounded by a crowd of people that alerts visitors to the availability of free samples. The truck can be surrounded by specific banner displays or video screens that promote your brand and reference where to buy it (including inside the store when the truck is located on the parking lot of a retailer).
- We cook and offer samples of your food to visitors by utilizing the truck’s versatile kitchen. Your products come alive when prospective customers can taste how your fresh local pasta and tomato sauce becomes a hot spaghetti marinara, your varied produce becomes an exquisite gazpacho, your peaches a succulent cobbler, or your beef a delightful bourbon tip steak.
- The truck can act as a true test kitchen that offers various presentations of your food and collects feedback data from prospective customers in reaction to the various options you create. We can help you develop the survey tools and help you analyze the results.
- We can design food community events that engage your customers more deeply with your brand (e.g., for CSA members of your farm or customers of your retail store). We have for example invited people to bring in their recipes, prepare them in our commissary and truck and had visitors vote for the best one. We have invited people to test their palate by guessing at the sweetness, acidity and salt contest of tomatoes, then allowed them to compare their estimates against the scientifically measured characteristics of that same tomato. We have created a “smack down” contest between two food trucks offering two different recipes made from the cheese of a local brand.
WHOM WE WORK WITH
For larger local food brands, the Heritage food truck works with brand advertising and marketing managers, product managers, as well as the advertising and marketing agencies that design the campaign for their corporate clients. We are often one component of a larger promotional campaign that involves a variety of media (on-line, local newspapers or radio, etc.). Our role is typically well-defined inside the campaign by a set of specification we are asked to meet.
For smaller food brands, we typically work with the owners of the business and are typically asked to become more involved with the design of the testing and promotion effort. This can include the identification of potential locations for the event, the preparation of some of the display support material, the development of survey tools and data collection method, the development of insights from the data, etc.
COST OF TEST AND PROMOTION EVENT
For each event, we develop an estimate for you that includes up to five components:
- The cost of the truck for the day. This cost is currently set at $4,500 per day, plus a mileage charge that is a function of the distance between our Malden base and the event’s location ($4 per mile).
- Mandatory manpower cost. Because of insurance and regulation, we need to have at least one Heritage person driving the truck to the location, supervising the event and returning the truck at the end of the day. We charge $60 per hour for this person. This person is also available to you as a cook for food preparation (although you may prefer having your own staff because of their familiarity with your recipes).
- You are welcome to prepare your own food on the truck, as well as in our Stock Pot Malden commissary if you need to prep the food before cooking it on the truck on the day of the event. Prep can take place the day before or early on the day of the event. We charge $60 per hour for the use of our commissary (up to 2 people prepping).
- Alternatively, we can provide the cooking and service staff that prepares the food and hands it out. We charge $50 per hour for hours spent on the truck and $80 per hour for hours spent in the commissary kitchen (includes personnel and kitchen rental cost). We develop for you an estimate of the time required by your event.
- We can also provide the market research staff that will prepare your survey, administer it and analyze the data. Because each event is different in its market research requirements, we develop a custom estimate based on your needs for each event.
Thinking about organizing a promotional event with our food truck? Fill the request form below and we will get back to you.