Hey Hot Potatoes,

Welcome to the latest edition of the Hot Potato Newsletter. Now, for those who actually still read this, you’re in for an absolute treat today. I am going to give you all the tools you need to take on those pesky big corporate brands while on a shoestring budget. In today’s newsletter, we look at four key growth areas you, as a small business, can use to your advantage, to help take on the big guns. After reading this and applying what you’ve learnt, Pret a Manger won’t know what’s hit them, so lets get into it!

In today’s email: How to punch above your weight and take on the big brands.

Read Time: Approx 6 mins

Build a Community

Source: JROSS

Don’t you love it when you walk into your local coffee shop and the barista knows your name and order, or is that just one of my small lame pleasures? Most people want to feel part of a community and be part of something, so be that place where people want to come and spend their time.

Key Points:

1. Become an integral part of the neighbourhood: Whether you host the monthly Harry Potter quiz or boiler room style DJ sets, you can become the focal point of your community. Be a venue that people want to return to over and over again. How Matcha, a matcha bar in Marylebone, recently hosted an event at their site. The event featured a DJ spinning tunes whilst attendees enjoyed the bar's signature matcha beverages. It created a fun night out for their community, bringing matcha lovers together.

2. Get to know your customers: Alright, it is cliche BUT people do buy from people. I also know I want to spend time at a place I feel a connection to. Getting to know your customers on a personal level and providing that connection can be a big differentiator between you and your competition.

3. Work with local organisations: Start working with other businesses and establishments in your area and become an integral part of the local economy. Supporting those around you, whether they're suppliers, schools, or charities, can help cement you and your brand as a pillar of the community.

4. Loyalty: …is not just one of my favourite songs by Kendrick Lamar, but it’s also an important tool that you need to be leveraging. Consider creating personalised rewards and offers for your customers to keep them coming back.

We are creatures of social habits; bringing people together and creating meaningful connections with your customers creates a positive association between you and them. Focusing on the small things, like remembering your customer’s name or their favourite order can be such a value add and a massive competitive advantage that the big guns will find it harder to do. If you want to get more involved with community projects but not sure where to start, check out the guys at Earnt, who are doing some cool work supporting great causes.

Master Digital Marketing

Source: Growth Natives / Me:Mo

Honestly, I can’t tell you exactly how much time I spend scrolling on social media (I know it is too much), but I just like looking at food and I KNOW I can’t be the only one! If you manage to nail your digital marketing strategy, you arguably have one of the most cost effective marketing tools at your disposal.

Key Points:

1. Create an online presence: If you’re not on the gram (that’s Gen Z chat for ‘Instagram’), you’re missing out. Opening yourself up to the online world can introduce you to an entirely new audience that otherwise may have not heard of you or your brand. I spoke with Cocomelt recently, a dessert brand in Soho, and they told me after their online videos went viral, people as far north as Scotland started visiting. This really shows the power of social media, even for a small business established only two years ago.

2. Focus on storytelling: We as humans love storytelling for a number of reasons. Not to get too technical here, but storytelling triggers the release of chemicals like dopamine and oxytocin in our brains. These chemicals are associated with positive feelings like pleasure and empathy. As a brand, focusing on storytelling will get your customers invested in you, your journey and they’ll start to feel a connection to your brand. As Akhil from Amala Chai mentioned in our previous edition, sharing his story about their brand has proved to be a successful strategy for their growth.

3. Email campaigns: Building a strong subscriber list gives you the opportunity to create personalised offers and content for your subscribers. This will keep them engaged with your brand and coming back for more.

4. Ads on socials: Even with a very limited budget and having a niche offering, running ads on your socials will help you reach wider audiences and increase the traffic to your website or social page.

We’re living in a digital era, so it’s about time your business gets with the times and starts having an online presence. In an ideal world, you cover as many online touch points as possible, whether that’s social media, email marketing, website visits, app downloads and then everything in between! The power of having a strong digital marketing strategy cannot be overlooked, even if you only have capacity to start small, just focus on one digital channel to begin with and be sure to measure the impact.

Be Agile

Being small means you can be agile, like Andrés Iniesta (an analogy for the football fans here) who has the ability to drop his shoulder and change direction on the pitch at pace. When you’re a small business you can get valuable customer feedback and respond to it quickly. When you’re agile you can make fast decisions and respond to new trends even faster.

Key Points:

1. Leverage your customer feedback: Don’t be an ostrich and bury your head in the sand when negative feedback comes your way, you must embrace it. Listen to what your customers are saying and use what you hear to make improvements to your offering and services to get better. Being small means you can avoid all the red tape and levels of authorisation larger organisations have in place, take feedback on board and make adjustments quickly.

2. Be on the pulse with trends: You also have the ability to react to trends far quicker than slow moving big corporations. If there’s a new craze and customers are raving about it online, it’s an opportunity for you to respond and add your own twist. Recently the baking world has seen the rise of the croissant and cookie’s love child… the ‘crookie’. It has found it’s way into shop windows and has been seen at the likes of Philippe Conticini’s sites in London and Lunko Bakery in Liverpool amongst many other spots.

3. Test new ideas out and experiment: Bounce new ideas around and try new menu items out, whether that’s daily or weekly specials. See what does and doesn’t sit well with customers. As a small business, you have far more freedom for creativity and more scope to test and refine new concepts at a much quicker pace than larger brands.

Let being a small business work in your favour, allow your brand and concept to evolve at pace and really harness the benefits of being agile.

Utilise your Uniqueness

You know the saying “keeping an eye on the competition,” I also say do the exact opposite of what they’re doing… well maybe not the exact opposite, but do something totally unique and different.

Key Points:

1. Unique offerings: Be an absolute pioneer in your space and give customers a specific reason to come to you. Create unique products, menu items and provide the kind of service that no one out there is offering. I love what the team at Get Baked are doing; creating crazy desserts, especially their ‘Bertha’ cake slice which looks like it can feed a family of four for a month. No one else is doing anything like that!

2. Collaborations: To create an even more unique and personalised experience, think about collaborating with other brands in different industries too. As we’ve explored in our previous article on brand collaborations, partnering up with brands in a different industry to your own e.g. retail or fashion, allows for big benefits. Cross or same industry collaborations give your customers a unique experience and gives your brand more exposure. The recent Get Baked and Fortnum’s collaboration has seen queues stretch hundreds of metres and has accumulated over tens of thousands of likes on social media, proving to be a very successful campaign.

Be brave and be different, it’s how you will stand out in what seems like a sea of competition. Whether you focus on a super niche cuisine, dish or are creating a one of a kind collaboration, get your name out there and get customers talking about you!

Today we’ve explored the tools you have at your disposal to give you a competitive advantage against the big guns. What are you going to immediately implement?

Want to know more about what’s trending in the industry right now? In next week’s edition we explore some of the latest trends that are shaping the industry, its not one to be missed.

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to subscribe to stay updated weekly on all things hospitality!

Bon appétit,

Max Shipman, Editor-in-Chief, Hot Potato

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