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3D Adds ‘Startling Realism, Dazzling Depth, Excitement’ to On-line Food Shows |
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Superior Anhausner Boosts Value to Partners by Offering Flexibility of Digital and Face-to-Face Venues
NEW YORK – If you grew up in the 50s, you remember the bombastic descriptions of how three-dimensional movies added – to coin a word – a new dimension to patrons’ movie watching enjoyment. Today, in order to expand on the nascent innovation of on-line food shows, Superior Anhausner Foods, a progressive-minded distributorship in Los Angeles, has added “startling realism, dazzling depth, excitement” to its second cyber food show.
 | | Now in dazzling 3D. On-line food shows, as offered by Superior Anhausner Foods, offer not only product depth but also visual depth. |
Superior Anhausner, founded in 1989, has been one of a few first distributorships that have boldly gone into cyberspace to create a new commercial venue for its vendors and operators. Last fall it organized its first food show through InXpo, Chicago, and in the wake of the positive reactions, the company, a member of the Pocahontas Foods USA unit of Progressive Group Alliance, decided to repeat the pioneering setting.
Tony Antoci, president, and Danny O’Malley, vice president, sales and marketing, said with some 70% of its 1,000 active customers placing orders at the maiden show, they were confident that another cybershow would be equally successful.
“We broke new ground last year by introducing the industry to a foodservice trade show on-line,” observed O’Malley. “Now we know what works and what doesn’t.”
O’Malley said this year’s two-week show, which concluded Sunday, July 20, attracted 82% of its customers and the 45 vendors’ volume was up 20%. He said 50,000 cases were sold during the round-the-clock show, he said.
The addition of the 3D experience, which is in line with people’s general technological expectations, O’Malley believes, was beneficial because it provided a feeling of involvement.
“Instead of seeing a booth that appeared flat, the visitor saw a dimension, a perspective, like it has depth. It looks more like a building rather than a flat piece of paper,” O’Malley said in a recent interview with ID. “It’s an expectation of people to have a step up from a flat image to something more realistic. When you look at a 3D image rather than a flat, 2D one, it’s more realistic.”
On the vendor side, O’Malley said he insisted that manufacturers provide comprehensive product information, including photographs and links to their websites and product pages so that customers can effortlessly access as much needed information as they liked. Additionally, the cybershow gave visitors the opportunity to e-mail vendors and brokers with questions or requests for samples. The distributor’s sales staff was kept informed of these requests with simultaneous cc’s.
Despite the lack of the obvious and compulsory taste, touch, feel and smell features needed to arouse buyers’ interest in food products, O’Malley pointed out that for a branded distributorship like Superior Anhausner the absence has not unfavorable. Since attending operators already are familiar with the branded products in retail environments, they are comfortable with pictures and descriptions and understand what the products represent, he said. It would be more difficult to market private-label products in an on-line show because operators aren’t as acquainted with them as they are with national labels.
Despite overall vendor support for cybershows, O’Malley said during post-show discussions he learned that manufacturers nonetheless pined for face-to-face contact with customers.
“They appreciated the show because it was a relief not having to spend days preparing for a traditional food show, setting up and breaking down. But they still wanted to get in front of a customer,” he recalled.
| “When you look at a 3D image rather than a flat, 2D one, it’s more realistic.” |
O’Malley sought to find a practical balance between the ease of a cybershow and the desired personal interaction of a traditional food show. Inasmuch as technology still isn’t capable of providing both via the Internet, O’Malley decided to offer his marketplace two five-hour mini-shows, one in the spring and the other in the fall, as well as the on-line version. Furthermore, smaller vendors appreciated the lower costs involved with participating in a mini-show, he noted.
“I took the time to listen to manufacturers and discuss what they wanted to see. Based on their comments, I learned that they were tired of doing traditional shows. In southern California, where there are major distributors with numerous shows per year each, vendors are expected to attend all of the shows,” he said, adding that the frequency and expectations became overwhelming.
O’Malley said manufacturers understand what distributors are trying to accomplish with food shows and the value of bringing manufacturers and customers together in one place, where all of the participants have the opportunity to interact. While that’s a “huge advantage” for manufacturers and brokers, O’Malley said, the challenge for organizers and exhibitors is that the shows last one or two days but the gist is done in a few hours.
“I thought about how I could make food shows attractive not only to customers but also to vendors and brokers that are paying to attend. That’s when I said let’s put together a mini show that’s not only mini and intimate in size, but in time as well – 10 A.M. to 3 P.M. When it’s finished, everyone moves on and they appreciate the fact that it’s over in one day. The spring mini-show offered a tremendous value to the customers that came to the show and were able to spend time with vendors and brokers that felt that we were not abusing their time,” O’Malley elaborated.
Plans are to continue this flexible scenario, with the spring show giving operators the opportunity to gear up for the year, the on-line venue providing a setting without the energy and cost of a traditional show, and the fall mini-show focusing on holiday caterers and special events. So far, some two dozen of his key vendors have opted to participate in all three events while others have indicated that they will choose at least one of his programs.
With comments and questions, contact The Editor. |
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Beverage World
