Perhaps you’ve overseen the growth of a bustling coffee shop on the corner of town, or your traditional pizzeria enterprise is starting to take off in a big way now that COVID-19 restrictions are increasingly easing. No matter what corner of the market your food and beverage business taps into, you may be wondering how to approach the next phase of its development, and even be looking to sell for a profit within the next few years.

We’ve put together a handy guide on how to expand your business and prime it for a healthy sale valuation using custom branding on your products.

Creating a strong brand through next level print marketing

With potential buyers of your business primarily looking for a food or drinks company that has strong branding and potential for growth, it’s important to start thinking about how your company is perceived by potential customers, and whether you are doing enough to reach them.

One way of making your brand stand out amongst competitors is through custom branding of coffee cups, food packaging, and cutlery. Loyal customers will notice the added professionalism, while there’s also an increased likelihood of passers by noticing your logo and brand name.

The benefits of custom or printed food and drink packaging includes:

• Heightened brand recognition perfect for growing start-ups and brands
• Eco-friendly materials appealing to modern, eco-conscious consumers
• Perfect promotional tool when advertising a new website or event
• Cohesive design and branding which can complement or enhance brand colours seen in location décor and on your website.

As interest in your food and drink products rises, think of branding your drinks cups and food packaging as a stamp of authority for customers to observe that the “Best cappuccino they’ve ever tasted”, or “Most succulent burger this side of London” is produced through your company.

Cost-effective and cohesive personal branding

The beauty of custom printing for your growing business is that it can be much more beneficial in terms of return on investment than more speculative digital channels when it comes to growing your customer base.

While large-scale PPC ads will have some relevance when it comes to reaching a wider consumer audience, custom-printed products as an intrinsic part of the customer experience can be a better way to spend more conservative marketing budgets.

Because customers will already be using your napkins, cups, and paper packaging, adding your logo and strong tagline offers you a form of free advertising as they go about their day either in the office or while walking the streets near your food and drink venue.

Getting your brand message across for longer

Potential investors in your business will be pleasantly surprised that you’ve been thinking outside the (food!) box when it comes to how your brand message is conveyed to customers both old and new.

While billboard posters, regional TV adverts and search engine promotions have a short shelf life when it comes to grabbing attention of potential customers, printed packaging containing your logo and slogan is unique in that it will be on view for anytime between 10 minutes to an hour or more.

Picture a scenario where someone has invited their colleague to your coffee shop for the first time. Over a half an hour coffee during their lunch break, the new customer has been moving back and forth between consuming your product and taking in the brand information on the cup.

This lasting impression on consumers is something that can be hard to attribute cost to, as it reaffirms your market position with an increasingly accessible audience.

Working in conjunction with apps and social media

Scaling up your business with custom-printed product marketing needn’t mean adopting it over digital growth methods.

Because your new look packaging will likely contain your brand colour scheme and much of your identity, this is a great opportunity to encourage customers to share snaps of your coffee cups, burger and food wrapping to social media.

An increase in related brand hashtags and ‘check-ins’ will only help increase your exposure on social media, while also providing some handy user-generated content that saves time on curating your own posts when promoting the business.

Another way you can grow your business with custom branding alongside technology is by adding QR codes to your custom packaging. This can be a great tool for pointing customers to your website, competition, or social media pages with a simple hover of their phone camera.

 

Quality custom printing for improved customer loyalty

With prospective new owners of your food and drink company looking at the current relationship with existing customers, as well as the potential to attract new customer demographics, custom printing can help you improve this side of the business too.

While the aforementioned methods showed you how to get your brand name out there, custom packaging and cup designs can also be useful for maintaining customer association with high-quality products to coincide with your food and drink offering.

Examples include our Custom-Printed Greaseproof Paper Sheets with ample surface area and suitability to freezing, oven and microwave use, or Branded Paper Cups that are constructed with two individual layers of cardboard to create air pockets for keeping drinks hotter or colder for longer.

These finer details can make the difference when looking for repeat custom, and with low minimum orders required, will also be attractive to potential buyers long-term looking for ways at reducing operational costs without compromising on customer value for money.

Final thoughts

Our guide above will hopefully having given you plenty of food for thought (sorry!) when it comes to scaling up your business with a view to selling in a given timeframe.

As you continue to expand and work with larger clients, it is important to remember to regularly engage with your existing customer base, so as to ensure that they grow with you before you hand over the business when the time is right.

 

Tags: Scaling up, business advice, food and drink, social media, food packaging, coffee cups, custom branding