It can be daunting graduating from college and entering the professional workforce for the first time. You have very little experience and may not know how a company’s marketing operations are run. I am a recent marketing graduate as well and despite having a good amount of practical knowledge gained from my course, I know I still have a lot to learn. That’s why listening to senior marketing professionals is so important: you can learn from their mistakes, what their thought process behind marketing campaigns were and get inspiration for your own marketing ideas.
I wanted to share what I learned from The Marketing Institute of Ireland’s webinar with Camile Thai Kitchen. Camile is a female-focused home delivery brand with twenty-seven restaurants in Ireland and eight in the United Kingdom. They produce healthy takeaway food and have been named as the healthiest takeaway in Ireland. Caoimhe O’ Reilly, Head of Strategy and Daniel Greene, Head of Marketing both spoke to our members about the various steps they took to grow Camile’s brand and their plans for the future. Here are a few things that I learned about marketing in the food industry.
- Focus on the ingredients
It’s no surprise that consumers are more health conscious then ever before. To meet consumers’ expectations Camile hired a nutritionist to reduce the amount of salt and sugar in their food. They then marketed this change on their menus stating the number of calories each dish had. This proved popular amongst Camile’s target audience and reinforced Camile’s image as a healthy brand.
- Organise community events to encourage positive brand association.
Caoimhe and Daniel wanted their customers to have positive experiences with the brand and start a conversation about Camile. They organised highly successful events such as Yoga in The Park which attracted 10,000 people. They also held Thai food cooking classes in Camile’s kitchens which offered consumers a level of transparency for the brand.
- Keep connected with consumers digitally
This year has proved difficult for Camille as it has for many other businesses. The way they connect with their consumers is through authentic human connection and great service within their restaurants, which is not possible given the current climate. Fortunately, they learned to adapt and invested heavily in their app and website to provide a user-friendly experience and ensured the ordering process was easy for the user.
- Always look towards the future
Camile’s attitude towards innovation is truly inspiring, they are constantly looking for new ways to improve. This is evident as they were the first business in Europe to introduce 100% compostable packaging and are currently looking at reusable food packaging. This involves delivering the food and then the next time the customer orders they hand the packaging back to the delivery driver. The packaging is then washed and reused. Camile are also testing drone food delivery services and robotics in the kitchen to diminish preparation and delivery time.
Camille is continuously changing to stay ahead of the competition. Such innovation and creative ideas will only strengthen the brand in the mind of the consumer. I only detailed a small section of the webinar in this article. If you are interested in marketing in the food industry, then I would highly recommend watching this webinar, just login to your MII Profile and look for recorded webinars under your profile picture. Note this webinar is only available to members.
