Food truck popularity is growing like crazy, with niche offerings like cupcakes, grilled cheese and ice cream sandwiches. If you’re an up-and-coming food truck vendor, you might think such specific offerings could only be appreciated in big cities like Los Angeles, New York City and Boston. But even small cities like Providence show love to the fancy trucks, including Kickstarter-funded Providence Juice Company.
However, if you watched the Food Network’s first season of America’s Next Great Restaurant, you know that marketing your food truck has a lot more to do with selling a concept than location and the variety of food you offer.
Source: Providence Daily Dose
Mama Kim’s Korean BBQ uses the popular “locally-sourced” element that is so widely encouraged these days. Their ingredients come from local vendors and farms, while local Johnson & Wales students cook their food. In fact, their truck was even designed by RISD students.
There’s nothing un-Rhode Island about this truck except the authentic Korean flavor that they want to share with people. Parked right in the most heavily trafficked college area of Providence, Mama Kims has no trouble getting customers in and out, but their emphasis on authentic Korean food from locally-sourced ingredients has people parking down the street just to get a take-out meal.
Chez Pascal, a French restaurant on the east side of Providence, RI also has their own food truck. Hewin’s Dog Mobile uses Twitter to let their followers know where they are at any given time, on any given day.
They also use their Twitter account (@chezpascal) to let people know if they’re being rained out, or if they have a new special. Like Mama Kims, Chez Pascal focuses on locally sourced meat and produce. And how could they not, with a lineup of sandwiches that includes “bacon-wrapped meatloaf”, which I can personally give a delicious thumbs up to.
In fact, Chez Pascal’s Matt Gennuso was recently interviewed by Mashable about his stance on social media. “We don’t have any precise formula for tracking the success of social media, we base it on the fact that people show up when we tell them where we are. We do only a few print advertising in local publications, the rest is direct email and social media marketing,” Gennuso told Mashable.
At another food truck, Jackie Levanthal from the Sixth & Rye kosher deli truck told Mashable that “without it, we wouldn’t have dozens of deli aficionados eager for our product, tweeting from the line as they are enjoying our products.”
Pi On the Spot also has a great tactic — accepting credit cards. After all, what’s worse than going to a place and being stumped by a “no credit cards” sign? With food trucks, it’s just assumed by the general population that a lack of internet connection means a lack of credit card use, so many will skip the truck and head somewhere where it’s easier to pay.
Chris Sommers from Pi On The Spot started using Square to accept credit cards and estimates that 50% of his customers now use cards to pay for their meals. He also estimates that it’s increased sales by about 35%. Frankly, I bet a big “WE ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS” sign on the side of his truck would drive that number up even more. Bacon Mania, another niche food truck in Southern California also uses the Square reader to boost sales.
The free Square reader is available if you have an Android phone, iPhone or 3G iPad and it allows you can accept credit cards just like any other vendor. They do take 2.75% of every sale, but that’s simply a cost you can factor into your pricing.
You can order one online (again, it’s free) or you can buy one for $10 at the Apple Store, which will automatically give you a $10 credit on your account. Either way, it’s free.
Source: Mutineer Magazine
Dim Sum Charlies, not only has an active Twitter account, Facebook account and accepts credit cards, but they also do one fundamental thing right – they specialize. As a patron of Dim Sum Charlies I can tell you that finding this little food truck near downtown Napa, CA was a delight. I didn’t happen upon it while strolling down the street, I found it online and I drove straight to it. After all, it’s hard to find good Dim Sum, but Dim Sum on wheels is a whole other experience. Dim Sum Charlies also adds the delight of a permanent location with picnic tables, a fire pit and late night hours.
Specializing is truly key for the food truck industry which is bound to get over-saturated very quickly; the food truck bubble, as they say. Or maybe I just made that up.
In any case, people have made grilled cheese a hundred times in their own homes, but they’re willing to dish out $5 or more for Roxie’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese in Boston. After all, they probably never thought to make it with goat cheese and candied bacon right? You can’t be everything to everyone, but I doubt that Roxie worries about offending the lactose intolerant. Instead, she focuses on what she’s good at—grilled cheese. And great, great signage.
That’s another thing you want to think about. Will people stop and look at your truck, or will they simply pass it by?
Niche food trucks are a specialty and food truck marketing doesn’t need to be more complicated than simply specializing. If you own a food truck now that serves everything under the sun, you might consider narrowing down your menu items. Instead of considering your grub just something to eat, try implementing the strategies above to make your restaurant-on-wheels a place where people come to you, and not just the other way around.
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