Q. How can you tell commercial and non-commercial foodservice operators apart?

A. Don’t bother trying.

That might sound like a bad joke, but it’s actually the strategy for too many foodservice marketing campaigns.

Faced with the daunting challenge of segmenting decision makers, the fallback reaction seems to be to lump non-commercial foodservice operators in with their counterparts. That’s not surprising because commercial foodservice is the industry’s largest and most recognizable segment.

But non-commercial operators are a force in their own right. And marketers cannot afford to neglect these decision makers or ignore their distinct differences.

Which brings us to an even more challenging question:

Q. How can you connect with non-commercial foodservice operators on their terms?

A. Understand their buyer’s journey.

The buyer’s journey of foodservice decision makers is the subject of a new industry research study conducted with operators nationwide. The “Media Consumption Behaviors and the Decision-Making Journey of Foodservice Operators” Study was developed by Boomm Marketing & Communications to help foodservice marketing professionals make better-informed choices when creating communications strategies. The research was conducted by leading foodservice research firm Product Evaluations.

In order to the make the research study truly actionable to foodservice marketers, the findings were aligned to a decision-making path that follows the sales funnel. Using this structure, marketers can pinpoint which sources had the most influence at different purchase decision stages.

Non-commercial operators do a deeper dive

Foodservice operators have more information channels than ever to guide their decisions. The explosion of sources ranges from online and social media to trade shows and broadcast media.

As the study revealed, non-commercial foodservice operators do a deeper dive than their commercial counterparts when seeking information for a purchase decision.

As the graphic below shows, they employ the most diverse range of sources of any segment. Non-commercial operators also use even more overall sources than commercial foodservice operators, who rely on 11 sources to help guide their decisions.

New white paper tells the full story

To learn more about non-commercial foodservice operators and their purchase decisions, email Gary Mattes to request the new white paper on “Non-Commercial Operators: The Information Seekers.” It’s must reading for foodservice marketers who want to reach this highly important and valuable marketing segment.