“What did you have for dinner last night?”

“Oh we had chicken.”

“Is that all?”

“What do you mean?”

 

This is exactly our point! 99% of the time, you probably had a side dish with that chicken, or other main course. Maybe it wasn’t memorable, but it was definitely there, and you might be surprised to hear just how much customers are thinking about it. To clarify, shoppers have made clear that they are sick of the same old side dishes with their meals. Recent data shows that side dishes ranked number 4 out of 103 categories for customers wanting to “try something new and different”. It also ranked in the top 10 for customers saying that they often buy extra. If you’re still hearing the words “side dishes” then you’re missing the point! All we hear are the words “driving spend”. And if we’re being honest Mister Executive, those words sound like a chorus of angels, singing all the way to the bank.

Now that you have your focus in the right place, it’s time to talk about the “how” of all this. It’s great that customers want new side dishes and even better that they often purchase more of one they like, but that’s an end result, and to achieve it, you need one simple thing: Innovation. Innovation is not an entirely foreign concept. It exists in every industry one way or another. But it is definitely NOT the first word that comes to mind when you think about side dishes. No wait, stop thinking about food! Lunch is right after this blog okay? We promise. When asked about their side dish preferences, customers ranked “uniqueness” and “innovative” at number 3 and 5 respectively out of 103 categories. Letting your customers know that a side dish fulfills these two simple wishes is key to success here. 47% of shoppers said that their side dish purchases were unplanned and 30% of those unplanned purchases were made on a promotion trigger by none other than… in store information! In fact, out of all 103 categories, promotionally triggered purchases for side dishes made based on information available in store ranked number 2!

So Mister Executive, ready to slice off a little piece of bacon on the side for yourself? All you need to do is make sure you’re innovating your side dish category by providing easily accessible and enticing information in store for your customer. Only then does the category truly start working for you. Oh and go for the side salad with the burger today instead of the fries. T-off is at 1:00 and we don’t want you to cramp.