It’s 2017 and the story has been health. Everyone wants to live a healthier lifestyle and they’re increasing their exercise activities and changing their diets in an effort to live this healthier lifestyle. A study conducted by Mintel showed that U.S. consumers are actively taking steps to improve their overall health. “More than half say they eat a healthy diet (52 percent) and exercise regularly (53 percent)”. And corporations are onboard as well. By implementing healthy initiatives and supporting employee work-life balance needs, business leaders are realizing that a healthy employee is a productive employee. With that in mind, there are things as an operator that you can do to help your host locations utilize the MicroMarkets full potential as a supplemental resource for their existing or budding healthy initiatives. Are you telling the healthy eating story to your locations?
What's the Story?
Food is such a strong cultural bond in societies, and the same will hold true within a corporation. For locations just beginning to implement healthy initiatives, show them how healthy foods in a MicroMarket can aid in fostering a strong company culture and can become an integral part of their internal healthy campaigns. One idea is to offer incentives for purchasing healthy snacks and drinks, either through market benefits, i.e. purchase 10 select healthy items and get a percentage off of the next order or company benefits, i.e. discounted gym memberships, gifted step trackers. By using incentives, healthy eating through the MicroMarket can become a game with real rewards for success.
Communicate
Another thing to consider when telling the healthy eating story to your locations is to talk with them to find out their definition of healthy. All companies do not have the same needs and expectations. Meet with them and present them with options for different items that can be stocked and would count towards any healthy eating plans. Fresh foods like fruit, salad, and low-carb sandwiches are important for lunchtime.
However, for snacks, consider items that are:
- High in protein like beef jerky, protein shakes and bars
- Low-fat like low-fat yogurt
- Fresh veggies and fruits
- Low-calorie like popcorn (SkinnyPop is a great option)
Another thing to keep in mind is to provide options for those with food allergies. Offering healthy gluten-free, lactose and dairy-free alternatives is a nice touch.
The biggest takeaway is: find out what they want and deliver!
Increase Visibility
As with all products in your market, the healthy options need to be diverse, appropriate for the location and rotated regularly. But most importantly, make sure the healthy products are visible.
Things to consider:
- Play around with the merchandising to determine the best location.
- Mark healthy items, especially those that will directly play into the company’s healthy initiatives benefits plan with a special sticker to indicate that they are healthy options.
- Add signage – both digital and print – to highlight the healthy snacks.
- Send out emails and/or push notifications (for mobile users), highlighting new products or offering discounts.
The Takeaway
The important thing is to make sure that your customers see you as a resource and a partner in their own healthy initiatives. Can you connect them with local dieticians or personal trainers? Can you hold a tasting for new, healthy snacks? Have fun with it and think about the things that would grab your attention. Chances are they will work for your customers as well. It may seem like a lot, but taking the time to develop a healthy MicroMarket plan can go a long way in cementing customer relationships and turning today’s business into lifelong partners.
