Branded Hospitality’s Post

That's the Carbone Fine Food story and it's one of the best brand building case studies in the food industry right now. Inc. Magazine just published a deep dive on Hospitality Hangout guest, Eric Skae, the man who helped Rao's Specialty Foods, Inc. scale before The Campbell's Company bought it for over $2 billion, took Carbone Fine Food from zero to $101.3 million in revenue in just a few years. And the strategy? Wildly unconventional for a center-of-store product. A tomato candle collaboration with (MALIN+GOETZ). An April Fools' campaign for a fake Spicy Vodka Almond Creamer with Califia Farms that earned $4.8 million in media value without selling a single jar. A brand philosophy built on the idea that Mario Carbone's line "dinner is the show" applies to every marketing activation they do. Here's the hospitality lesson buried in this story: the brands that treat their product as a lifestyle and their marketing as entertainment are the ones building the guest relationships that actually last. Go Check out the Hospitality Hangout episode with Eric to hear more. 👇 What food brand do you think has done the best job turning restaurant loyalty into retail success? Branded Hospitality #CarboneFineFood #FoodAndBeverage #CPG #BrandBuilding #Hospitality #RestaurantIndustry #Marketing

The conscious side of food & beverage isn't a niche anymore. It's the engine of the category - and most founders are still scaling it with a 2016 agency playbook. We fed the launch signals, social chatter, and buyer sentiment into STANbyJK, our intelligence engine, to separate the fads from the future. The result... 🥁... Taste, Transparency & Traction - the JK guide to scaling modern food & beverage. Inside: → 4 structural shifts (the back of pack is the new front of pack) → The 4-pillar playbook: brand, creative, storefront, media - one velocity system → The JK Scale Audit: 10 prompts your current agency hopes you never ask If your team blanks on more than three, your growth model is vulnerable. Now you know exactly where. Full report below. Pick your hardest prompt and bring it to us → my-jk.com Respect to the brands doing the work: Tractor Beverage Co. SIMPLi Yerba Madre Recess Stumptown Coffee Roasters Blue Bottle Coffee #FoodAndBeverage #CPG #BrandStrategy JK James Kev

“Butterfly clips, frosted tips, and a food court that's actually cool again.” That’s how Food and Beverage Magazine is describing B.J. Novak's Chain six-month food court residency at Westfield Topanga Mall in LA — kicking it off with some sharp cheddar energy with their debut partner Cheez-It [Kellanova ]. Featuring cheesy twists on mall classics like cinnamon rolls, corn dogs, and Philly cheesesteaks. And over the next six months, major chefs like Roy Choi, Calvin Eng, Mason Hereford, and Mei Lin each get the freedom to craft their own nostalgic chain-food favorite with a rotating lineup of big brand partners. Did I mention the sweet surprise? Chain is also partnering with nostalgic cereal favorites like Lucky Charms, Trix, and other General Mills brands for limited-edition snacks and desserts available only at the pop-up. Is it a little unhinged? Maybe. But the strategy behind it is worth paying attention to — nostalgia, scarcity, chef credibility, and a menu built for the camera, all showing up at the same time in one of the largest markets. And it's a move worth keeping an eye on regardless of your category. Which brand could you see them partnering with next? My guess: Takis. Takis [Barcel USA] are everywhere and anywhere…  Read the full article → https://lnkd.in/gq7qa_vx #brandstrategy #cpg #experientialmarketing #consumertrends #foodindustry

Two days of big ideas, personal branding, great conversations… and plenty of good food. ✨ We loved collaborating with Matt Purcell for his Branding Workshop, bringing together an incredible group of business owners and professionals for two days focused on personal branding, social media, marketing and learning how to show up with purpose. While Matt led the room, the Flavours team made sure everyone was very well fed. 🤍 Across the two days, we served morning tea, fresh salads and sandwiches for lunch, hot buffet dishes, sweet and savoury bites, cold pressed juices and, of course, afternoon tea to keep everyone going. From build-your-own yoghurt cups with fresh fruit and crunchy toppings, to generous lunch spreads, colourful salads and a hot buffet featuring gourmet meats and seasonal sides, every break brought something different to the table. And because no workshop is complete without something sweet, there were plenty of beautiful mini tarts and treats along the way. For us, catering a workshop like this is about more than putting food on the table. It’s creating those moments between sessions where people can recharge, connect, share ideas and come back ready for more. A brilliant two days collaborating with Matt Purcell and the Kyu Media team, and connecting with so many great people and businesses along the way. Matt Purcell x Flavours Catering + Events ✨ Personal branding, connection and very good food. #FlavoursCatering #MattPurcell #PersonalBranding #SydneyCatering #CorporateEvents

A brilliant example of brand collaboration, fuelled by demand. Cal booked tickets to KFC's "Coq au Vin" pop-up in Shoreditch - a collab with La Vieille Ferme pairing various fried chicken favourites with rosé, red, and sparkling wine. The format was a simple curation of three courses, three wines. Popcorn chicken with sparkling, tenders with rosé (the hero), hot wings with red. No tasting notes - but confident, well-executed pairing choices in a fully branded environment - completed with custom ice buckets. This is a moment people wanted to be part of - the "chicken wine" full circle moment! An interesting view to how brands outside the traditional wine world are approaching category collaborations. It's so easy to over-romanticise a brand - and end up stuck in a world that doesn't expand beyond it. This is the opposite. It's culturally relevant, it's not stuffy, and it gives the people what they want! We want to see more like this. What do you think? #CoqAuVin #Collaboration #DrinksIndustry Calum McFarlane

Last Friday, I attended the Barnsdall Wine Fundraiser in Los Angeles, where I discovered something I initially found a little surprising: A zero-proof beverage brand sampling at a wine event. Then I thought about it more and realized it actually made a lot of sense. Noot Drinks Co is a functional, zero-proof beverage with the tagline "get buzzed, not boozed." Its nootropic and adaptogenic ingredients are designed to create an uplifting or calming experience without alcohol. What caught my attention wasn't just the category. It was how Noot approached it. When it comes to non-alcoholic beers and wines, one of the biggest challenges I've heard consumers mention is taste. Rather than trying to recreate wine or beer, Noot takes a different route: it creates cocktail-inspired flavors. That's a smart positioning choice. Instead of asking consumers to accept a less-alcoholic version of something they already know, the brand is creating a different experience altogether. The branding reinforces that. The color-blocked packaging makes the flavors easy to distinguish, visually distinctive and fun to carry around. Even the sampling experience felt designed to make the brand memorable. Yet the placement at the wine event was what really got me thinking. The consumer who wants wine on Friday night may also want something different on Tuesday night. The opportunity isn't necessarily to convince that person to stop drinking alcohol. It may be to expand the number of occasions when they reach for a beverage that makes them feel good.That's a much bigger opportunity than simply replacing beer or wine. As I continue to watch the beverage category evolve, I'm increasingly interested in brands that aren't just competing for market share within an existing category. They're creating new occasions and new consumer behaviors. That feels like a powerful growth strategy. 🗣️ What other emerging beverage categories do you think are successfully creating new occasions rather than simply replacing existing ones? #BrandStrategy #ConsumerInsights #BeverageMarketing #MarketingStrategy #GrowthMarketing #Innovation

For wineries and wine brands looking for ways to make wine more relevant, here's a look at how a few other brand categories earned a place in everyday life. https://lnkd.in/gY9G_VTn #winerymarketing #branding #marketing #winebusiness #winecountry

What actually makes a product stand out at a food trade show? It’s not always the biggest booth or the loudest packaging. We look at what can actually translate into retail: clear positioning, packaging consumers understand, formats that make sense on shelf, and a real reason for buyers to stop and take a closer look. This September, we’ll be walking the Americas Food & Beverage Show in Miami with exactly that in mind. We’ll be sharing the products, packaging and ideas that catch our attention along the way. What makes YOU stop and look at a product on shelf? #TradeFood #FoodIndustry #FoodDistribution #FoodTrends #FoodAndBeverage

Can a drink really capture the spirit of a sports team? Fort Worth's La Pulga Tequila seems to think so, with their new 'Horned Frogs Three-Year Collection'. It's an intriguing blend of sports fandom and beverage branding that underscores how deep emotional connections can forge potent brand loyalty. This isn't your ordinary beverage release—it's a toast to the TCU Horned Frogs, beloved by college sports fans. By intertwining local pride with the rich, heady allure of tequila, La Pulga is not just selling bottles; they're bottling experiences, memories, and a sense of belonging. I'm fascinated by this fusion of culture and craft. It makes me ponder the ways we can create similar connections in our world of wine, where the soil, season, and even sports can shape a bottle's journey from vineyard to cellar. Could a wine release tap into local spirit with the same fervor? Are there opportunities in the wine industry we may be missing to blend regional pride and grape? I'd love to hear how you've experienced or experimented with this idea in your own wine ventures. ~Because every bottle tells the story of a season.~ #WineAndCulture #BrandingInBottles

13 restaurant chains. One Coca-Cola idea. 🥤 Coca-Cola’s “And a Coke” campaign brought competing QSR brands together around one simple message. Instead of marketing only the drink, Coke positioned itself as part of the meal occasion. A simple example of occasion-based marketing in action. 👉 Swipe to explore the strategy. #CocaCola #MarketingStrategy #BrandStrategy #MarketingCaseStudy