Field Marketing Within the Food and Drink Industry

Are you a supplier within the food and drink sector? You should realize that your success could depend on how you market the products you sell to prospective or potential customers or consumers. You do not need to be a full-time and seasoned expert in marketing. Your core skills in product development and manufacturing would be particularly important and useful. You could begin looking outside or beyond your very own business or company to be able to effectively field market within the industry.

If you are not that confident about your own level of field marketing capability within the food and drink industry, you should not worry in any way. There are currently several field marketing agencies that are operating to offer and provide the specific type of service that you and your business requires. You could use such to optimize your own opportunity for success. Do you plan to take such a service? Here are the most important factors that you truly should take a closer look at especially when selecting a company that would deliver your success. Take note of each of the following.

Capability and experience in multiples, wholesale, impulse, and cash/carry sectors. This feature would surely enable you to take the opportunity to broaden the range of your own products' influence to the widest possible extent.

Track record in putting up or setting standards through becoming a results-driven group or organization. This could be in terms of sales turnover and market share growth. When doing so, do not miss to look very carefully at your business' current clients as well as their success stories.

Extent on how to utilize full-time sales specialists. Most agencies are using their part-time personnel for this purpose. In general, the service providers should intend to manage your company's brands to comply with agreed upon development strategies so that maximum exposure could be ensured. Thus, sales potentials of your food and drink products would be possibly achieved. This could require full-time attention and focus on the side of the service provider or agency.

The agency should use effective information systems, offline or online. This could ensure that your food and drink business would be kept up to accelerate on rate of sales, effectiveness of marketing/promotional tasks, stock controls, and latest market trends. Thus, this could be a core differentiation factor, especially with the rising availability of Internet systems and the emerging mobile technologies.

Typical services that you should expect from the field marketing service provider for your food and drink business are as follows: assurance that your food and drink goods are consistently stocked across all key stores; monitoring of sales rates, capacity, and shelf space for optimum stock levels; conversion of available warehouse inventories into shelf stocks; monitoring of stores that could carry out agreed upon or target sales promotional programs; presentation of new products and marketing initiatives throughout important regional decision makers; provision of target support for brand activities; and creation and implementation of sales tactics and opportunities for your food and drink brands.

Beverly Manago is a freelance writer focused on the real estate industry. She is also a consultant for My Real Estate Virtual Tour, a web 2.0 marketing tool that lets real estate agents create stunning virtual tours and single property sites easily, with a free version available for listing presentations. She also contributes to the VirtualTour there.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Beverly_Manago

Barcelona Festivals

Choosing when to visit Barcelona can be a difficult choice to make if you have an open diary. So why not consider combining a visit to the Catalan Capital with a festival - new or traditional, it's always a great way to spruce up a short break. Here are a few of the best to look out for through the year.

Despite being a Catholic country by large, Barcelona doesn't really celebrate Easter week as you might expect. Sure, it's a public holiday and all, but nothing compared to the celebrations in the South of Spain with the Virgin processions in Andalusia and around. In fact, the only real procession worth visiting to watch in Barcelona is the Corpus Christi parade, which involves some of the ceremonial giants the city has become famous for.

It's worth bearing in mind that there are some great local festivals within the city in it's diverse and varied neighbourhoods. July and August see the Raval and Gothic Quarter celebrate their local festivals with human castles, open air concerts and parades through the streets with firecrackers and other fun activities. Perhaps the best "local" festival in that of the Gracia neighbourhood - the small town feel and narrow streets of this Barcelona "barrio" lends a unique feel and the streets are dressed and decorated to the maximum and the plaças fill with groups drinking and enjoying the week-long festival till dawn.

Perhaps the first major festival is the Midsummer madness associated with "Sant Joan" or Saint John on the 23rd June. Officially the start of the summer, this is also the shortest night of the year. The 24th June is a public holiday as the locals and tourists enjoy "la berbena" or all-night party on the streets, in the bars and clubs and typically on the beaches of Barceloneta and the Olympic Villages beaches as the revellers watch the sunrise. Also in June is the fantastic Alternative electronic Music festival called Sonar.

In it's 16th year, the International Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art fills the city in the second/third week of June, as university students worldwide, flock for an end-of-exam-beginning-of-the-summer escape and are never disappointed by both the Day and night events. A number of other summer music festivals are a great reason to visit Barcelona, including the recent Primavera Sound and Summercase alternative music festivals as well as Barcelona Summer Week (new to 2009) and the Circuit Gay and Lesbian dance festival in early August, too.

Steering away from music, in July and August, the "Grec" festival delights audiences in the replica Greek amphitheatre up on Montjüic Mountain. Dance, Circus, Mime, real theatre and plays are the order of the day here, with each year having a particular theme at its core - diverse themes such as women, countries such as Italy, etc. This is a great night out if you love open air theatre.

September sees the end of the summer, and the week long festival of "La Merce" - one of Barcelona's patron saint's, Our Lady of Mercy, celebrates her feast day on the 24th September. The whole city unites in a celebration of the city and it's culture and history - similar to that shown on Saint Georges' day (Sant Jordi) in April - Catalonia's patron saint. La Merce has a carnival-type feel to it, with open air concerts, street theatre and dancing, and traditional processions, such as the famed "correfoc" or fire run, where runners plow through the streets of the Gothic quarter with pyrotechnics, fire-breathing dragons and sparklers galore. This is certainly not for the faint hearted, and new UE regulations on the handling of fireworks may have the correfoc's days numbered - so get to Barcelona for La Merce week while you can!

Finally, and simply in chronological order, is the enchantment of the "Reis" - the days surrounding the Epiphany after Christmas. Unlike other countries and cities, whilst still a public holiday, Christmas day is no big deal in Barcelona. The giving of gifts is saved for the arrival of the 3 Kings (true to tradition in the Biblical story). The 3 "reis magos" arrive on a boat to the Barcelona docks and are paraded around the city streets until late evening, throwing out thousands of sweets to the crowded streets of children and their parents. Paper Kings hats, flags and the anticipation of opening presents and gifts fills the January air with a magical and family feel that won't disappoint.

David Brydon has been living in Barcelona for 9 years and writes about Apartments for rent in Barcelona and regularly contributes to this great Barcelona Guide.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Brydon

Improve Restaurant Sales and Brand Recognition at Food Festivals

Summer food festivals have been a fixture in American culture for years. From the Taste of Chicago to the Alabama Crawfish Festival in Faundale, AL, food festivals large and small have kept growing and expanding, even through recent economic turbulence.

Tens of thousands of restaurants participate in these festivals across the country. Participation often means closing down their establishment and spending a significant amount of money setting up and serving food at the festival. But the general attitude is that the cost and loss of revenue is definitely worth it.

That's because you simply cannot beat the exposure and customer engagement any restaurant gets at a food festival. Potential customers are much more likely to experiment with new types of cuisine and new restaurant brand names in the festive atmosphere, making a local food festival an important avenue to gaining new customers for young establishments. For the more experienced restaurants at a festival, reinforcing your brand in the community is a priceless commodity, and nothing communicates stability than customers seeing you year after year at the local food festival.

Restaurants in large metropolitan areas should choose the food festivals they attend more carefully than those in smaller communities. Obviously, they'll have more choices, and a big city restaurant should look for the festival that is most likely to cater to the type of person you want in your restaurant. In small cities and rural areas, it's much less about market segmentation and a lot more about making an appearance. Just showing up at the local food festival communicates your involvement in the community.

In an age when it seems like all marketing gurus talk about is engaging customers through social media on the internet, food festivals provide a unique opportunity to engage customers face-to-face in a positive and friendly atmosphere. Don't expect to make any money at your local food festival. But do expect to recognize the same smiling faces you see there in your restaurant in the months afterwards.

Gregory Scott McGuire is a regular contributor to The Back Burner Blog, a resource of restaurant news and trends written by the employees of Tundra Specialties, a company specializing in restaurant equipment, supplies, and equipment parts.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gregory_Scott_McGuire

Biketoberfest Biker Festival in Daytona Beach Attracts Harley Fans Worldwide

I love it when the fall comes to Florida and things start to cool down. Everyone is ready to get outdoors and enjoy all the fairs and festivals that occur this time of year. One of my favorite such events is Biketoberfest. Every year in October Daytona Beach becomes, once again, a Mecca for motorcycle enthusiast. Biketoberfest is shorter than Bike week, it's held over a long weekend, and it's just as fun and interesting. I've lived in Florida for over 20 years now and have been to Biketoberfest several times; last year was the first time however that we stay over. We booked our room early so it was very reasonably priced I think that's key; get room early number one so there are rooms available but two so you can get a deal before the rates go up.

There are a lot of rooms up and down the famous Daytona Strip but remember there are going to be over an estimated 150,000 bike and bikers there so the sooner you can book the better. So once you get there you have to head to Main Street there are a few other places to have fun but party central is definitely Main Street, it's the main drag and still the best place to watch all the bikes and people going by. The first night of Biketoberfest there are several places to go called welcome centers where you can pick up a complete schedule of all events, activities and a lot of other information. One of the first places we went when we got there was to the world famous Daytona Speedway. The Speedway hosts several events including several bike races and swap meets; there is always something going on in the vast parking area there people buy and selling all sorts of things from t-shirt to tires. Some 2500 vendors or so are there any given year with loads of things to give away.

Last year when we were there they had these scantly clad 'Wild Turkey Girls' walking around Dirty Harry's with trays of either Turkey shots or turkey and coke, handing them out. Every where you look there are girls in booths calling to you to came buy a drink or shot and let's just say it's a goo thing it's been fairly warm these last couple of Octobers or they would have been very cold. Dirty Harry's is a pretty popular place they have a lot of bikini contests there two or three a day and then at night it's the main event contests and lets just say that after a day in the sun of drinking and partying most of the girls are in a pretty uninhibited place and open to the Emcee's suggestions which as you can imagine get wilder as the night goes on.

Some other places to stop by on Main Street are Froggy's Saloon, Cruisin Café which is on the corner of A1A and Main Street an ideal spot to watch the happenings. The Hogs Breath Saloon is a local favorite all year round and the Bank & Blues Club has two stories so you can people watch from upstairs and enjoy the rock and roll downstairs. The building is actually an old bank that's been 'reformed'. Bruce Rossmeyer's Destination Daytona in nearby Ormond Beach is fast becoming a big part of Biketoberfest too. The have a huge showroom of bikes and during the fest that place transform into a virtual bikers village. They too have contests, food, live music day and night, girls in booths offering beer and booze, people and bikes everywhere. Another place that's becoming very popular is the Cabbage Patch Bar in nearby Samsula. They have all the usual t-shirt and hot buns contest but their becoming kind of famous for something a little different - coleslaw wrestling. This place gets wild and it's a lot of fun.

Mark mid October on your calendar to save the date and make plans to head down to Daytona Biketoberfest. You'll find all kinds of vendors, live entertainment day and night, food, many free give-a ways and more in Daytona Beach. You can watch people and see bikes from all over the world, it's definitely something to take in and experience for yourself.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kirby_Collins

Experience the Many Festivals and Events in Malaysia

Author: Pinky Mcbanon

Malaysia is a colorful country not only for its exotic beauty and amazing culture, but also of the many festivals that is celebrated by Malaysians. Every Malaysian celebration is very vibrant and lively. One will definitely enjoy being a part of these amazing events.

Here are some of the well known festivals and celebrations in Malaysia:

• Chinese New Year - like any other New Year celebration, the Malaysians celebrate theirs with such vigor. Fireworks and lots of colorful craze are seen. The whole country is really multicolored and vibrant during this occasion.

• Gadai Dayak - the Malaysian's celebration for the harvest seasons. This is to give appreciation to their gods who blessed the Malaysians with good harvest. During this occasion, locals eat and drink together. There are also dance performances by the members of the community. The Gadai Dayak is celebrated during the end of May until mid July. Malaysians are always in their traditional clothing and the elders perform rituals and services.

• Malaysia Water Festival - held from the second week of April until the month of May. This occasion is managed and organized by the Malaysia's Ministry of Tourism. The celebration is all about water sports activities. There are competitions and games that involve water tricks and races. The celebration is then completed with singing and dancing of the locals with their traditional dances.

• Merdeka day - the Malaysians' own celebration of Independence Day. It is celebrated in August 31st, and is their National Day. During this day, all the streets of Malaysia are packed with music, parades, and people dancing around. People are out blowing horns and trumpets making loud noises around their community.

• Tadau Kaamatan - held during the month of May and lasts for two days. The whole celebration is to commemorate the culture of Sabah's largest ethnic group. The tribes conduct rituals and give honor to their gods. There are also a large variety of foods that are served during the Tadau Kaamatan. Residents enjoy indulging with these tasty and delicious foods for the entire celebration.

• Malaysia Mega sale Festival - probably the most favorite event of all shopaholics. This is to celebrate Malaysia's big gross from its shopping industry and to commemorate this; the Malaysia's tourism department conducted a Mega sale festival. Almost everything that is sold in all shopping stores in the country is on sale during this event. One can enjoy shopping with the lowest prices shops has to offer. The country's shopping department stores are always swarmed with thousands of people buying and treating themselves with bargains and discount prices.

These are just some of the many well known events in Malaysia. Whatever the country celebrates, definitely is a must see for all.

About the Author:

Her blogs and websites focuses on stay-at-home moms, dads and students who wants to work at home, build homebased business http://www.mommyisworkingathome.com

Visit her Interesting Site on Asian Travels and Destinations. Discover Asia's Culture and Great Food! at http://www.goingplacesinasia.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Experience the Many Festivals and Events in Malaysia

5 Best Festivals in Spain

Author: PaulSymonds

Spain’s festivals are well known for colourful displays, exciting parades, music and dance. Here are five of the best festivals that Spain has to offer during the spring and summer season.

1. Semana Santa - Semana Santa is a week long festival that takes place before Easter Sunday. Although the festival is celebrated throughout the country, the Spanish cities famous for celebrating Semana Santa include Leon, Valladolid, Malaga and Seville. Local parishioners participate in a parade where flamboyant and ornate floats inspired by the Passion of Christ are carried around the city streets. This festival is popular with children in particular and excellent for families.

2. San Fermin Festival -The San Fermin Festival, otherwise known as the Pamplona Bull Run, takes place in July. The festival lasts for 7 days in Pamplona, Spain. The festival’s highlights include bullfights and bull running. Activities usually begin at 8 am in the morning and last until the evenings.

3. La Tomatina - La Tomatina takes place in a small Spanish town called Buñol in Valencia. The festival is held on the fourth Wednesday of the month of August. The main highlight of La Tomatina is a daylong food fight, where participants fling tomatoes at each other. This event is one you have probably already seen in previous years, on TV or highlighted in newspapers. Even though the actual tomato throwing only lasts roughly one hours this is still an excellent festival and worth attending if you can.

4. Las Fallas – The Las Fallas celebrations start on the 14th of March and last until the 19th of March on Saint Joseph’s Day. The five day festival occurs in Valencia and the festival highlights include giant puppets that are later set on fire. There is a lot of excellent live entertainment and a number of performers and vendors.

5. Feria de Sevilla - The Feria de Sevilla is a weeklong festival that occurs two weeks after Easter Sunday in Sevilla, Spain. The festival is a celebration of life in Andalusia and activities include sherry drinking, horse races, flamenco and bull fighting. There are also carnival rides for children, horse parades and 24 hour celebrations. This is one of my favourite festivals of the year in Spain and is highly recommended.

About the Author:

Paul writes about Barcelona Golf and Barcelona Boat Charter.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - 5 Best Festivals in Spain

Under the Tent at the Naples Winter Wine Festival

Author: bruce nichols

Under the Tent at the Naples Winter Wine Festival

A career in hospitality and marketing has taught me, if nothing else, the importance of value and listening to your customer. In my semi-retired role, I write about wine with a decided focus on value even though I constantly struggle with the term.

For the most part, that means I do my best to introduce my readers to wines of exceptional value for the money. Finding great bottles of wine under $20, my benchmark, is doable, but increasingly difficult, thanks in great part to an unfavorable exchange rate that has skyrocketed imported wine prices, escalating costs to American producers, and sadly, the pervasiveness of mediocre wine in this price category. One has to search deep and hard to find “exceptional” value wines. But what about wines in the premium to super-premium range, the $50 to $100 price and beyond? Can value be found there? A growing number of readers have inquired asking whether certain higher priced wines represent good value?

Of course, they can. That’s not to say that I’ve never been disappointed drinking a bottle of wine that cost $100 or more. I have. (Fortunately, it was more often than not that someone else paid for it!) But the fact is that, for the most part, the higher the price, the more enjoyable the wine. Notice I have yet to use the word “better”. That’s a term that over the years has cost me more than my share of embarrassment in blind tastings, as the better wine was often not the most expensive wine. Is a drive to the wine store in a Jaguar better than in a Ford? Not necessarily, they’ll both get you there; but it certainly is infinitely more enjoyable in the Jag!

This leads me to share with you what guests, sommeliers, and the trade were saying about three of the hundreds of different wines that were being poured at this year’s Naples Winter Wine Festival. Vintners and collectors the world over showcase their flagship wines at this event. There were reds, whites, rose´s, bubbly’s, ports, grappa, high-alcohol wines, low-alcohol wines, big bottles, little bottles, bigger bottles, enormous bottles (12 liters!), wines from most of the continents, wines from nearly every wine producing country in the world, wines from numerous states, and wines from almost as many appellations as there were attendees - over 600! But it was three of these wineries that generated the most excitement.

Overseeing the wine service for this year’s festival events gave me a unique opportunity to hear what the customer said about this pageant of wines. Somewhat surprising was that none of the three that captured the attention and sophisticated palates of the crowd were the cult wines, or the super- super premium wines, costing hundreds of dollars. Although given the attention the favored wineries garnered, that could change very soon.

All of the wines from this trio were reds, except for a single vineyard chardonnay, and all were from California. Revana Family Vineyards cabernet, the Mondavi’s newest venture, Continuum, and Figge Cellars three wines, a pinot noir, a syrah, and a chardonnay, were all in such demand that by the final event on Sunday, there was little of their wines left to pour. The one thing in common they all offered though, was tremendous quality - and value - for the price!

Revana, now in just their fourth vintage, makes only cabernet, but what a cabernet! And no wonder. When you start with a remarkable plot of land, employ Jim Barbour, one of Napa’s most respected vineyard managers, and then hire world renowned winemaker, Heidi Peterson-Barrett, to make your wines, good things are bound to happen.

Dallas-based cardiologist, Dr. Madaiah Revana fulfilled a life-long dream when he purchased the land for his eponymous winery in 1997 and set out to craft world class cabernet from nine acres of vineyard. The wine is definitely enjoying increasing star status, but Dr. Revana has kept the price of his wine at a reasonable $100 a bottle. An absolute “value” when you consider the quality of the wine, the success it is enjoying, and the pedigree.

There are only about 1800 cases of Revana being produced. Given the response at the festival and the mid to high 90’s scores by the critics for each of the first four vintages, one can only hope production increases.

A little further south in Napa, in Oakville, another cabernet is being produced that has California, and now Naples, all abuzz. No newcomer to winemaking or to producing world-class wines, the Mondavi family, now in it’s fifth generation, is according to Tim Mondavi, “starting over” with the family’s new venture, Continuum.

A corporate power struggle a few years back unfortunately led to the Mondavi’s losing control over their own winery in what amounted to a battle of quality over bottom-line focused Wall Street. Thankfully, Tim and the family remained true to their roots and are again producing the kind of quality wine that first put them, and Napa, on the world wine map decades ago.

The inaugural vintage (2005) of Continuum, is from hand-picked grapes from the Marjorie’s Vineyard (named after Tim’s mother) and the famed To-Kalon site, which for decades, produced the Reserve cabs the Mondavi’s have been revered for.

Tim, daughter Carissa, and Robert’s wife, Margit, came to the festival to preview this cabernet sauvignon-based wine (60%) and equal parts petite verdot and cabernet franc. Considering the reaction of the audience, the 1300 cases of Continuum, due to be released next month, will sell out immediately.

Thankfully, Tim says plans are to grow the brand to 8000 cases. \

Peter Figge, introduced festival goers last year to his first wines, a pinot noir, a syrah, and a chardonnay, which at the time had just been bottled. He returned this year with those same fabulous wines, along with his 2006 vintage of the same varietals. People jockeyed for position to get to his table where he dispensed his wines and his passion for producing those wines that, as Peter insists, “make themselves”.

That’s Peter being modest. Yes, Peter has a hands-off winemaking style, and although fairly young, the years he spent working as a vineyard manager, first at Girgich and Beringer in Napa, then at Estancia, is where he learned to “read the land”. He not only identifies what plot of the vineyard might produce fruit to meet his uncompromising standards, but has developed a keen sense as to which of the row of vines will ultimately provide the absolute perfect grapes for his hand-crafted wines. This feel for the land has put Peter in high demand with the area’s premier vineyard owners, and as a result he has gained access to the best grapes in Monterey County.

Peter defines himself as a “minimalist, not a chemist”, and he says he makes his wines without consideration for aging, making wines in a style he enjoys, with great balance and acidity. Which means wines that go with food. Judging by the demand at this year’s festival for Figge wines, this is good news for wine enthusiasts in Florida, since Peter has just allocated a third of his wines to our state.

Value has been defined as “the market or estimated worth” of something. The huge popularity and demand for the wines of these three vintners at the Naples Winter Wine Festival this year would indicate that yes, while value is indeed a relative term, customers do, and always will, seek out quality. These wines clearly demonstrate that they are all well worth their price!

Eat, drink and be merry!

Bruce

About the Author:

Naples Wine News is another step in a three decade long journey in the world of wine for its founder, Bruce Nichols. First introduced to the hospitality industry as a teenager in a summer job, Bruce worked in restaurants and hotels through high school and college. In the 1980’s, in his position as Director of Restaurants for Sheraton Hotels, based in San Francisco, Bruce served as wine buyer, conducted wine education programs and hosted California winery owners and winemakers, and worked with syndicated wine writers, Leon Adams and Jerry Mead.

Over the next two decades, Bruce managed the corporate food service program for a global financial company while consulting on wine programs for independent restaurants and developing and conducting wine education classes.

Fast forward to late 2004, Bruce retired to beautiful Naples, Florida. In 2006, Naples Wine News was born and "A Nichols Worth of Wine", was introduced to Naples and surrounding community wine enthusiasts through his internet-based, on-line publication www.napleswinenews.com.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Under the Tent at the Naples Winter Wine Festival