Is it worth entering your food brand or food product into an awards programme?
The entry cost for food awards vary – for example, the Great Taste Awards entries are priced from £62 per product to £255 per product, depending on the size of your business. The Irish Food Awards (Blas nah Eireann) has a flat entry fee of €80.
So, the cost of entry is not off-putting.
If your product wins an award, or is even shortlisted, then this is where the bigger investment needs to be made.
Show off on Shelf
If budgets are tight, get some stickers and put them on your products. If you can, amend the design of your label/s to include your award. These shiny medals help your product to stand out and help to shift units.
Tell the World
Send media releases out to relevant local and, if appropriate, national media. Target food writers, with samples to show exactly why you won a prize. Include quotes from judges’ feedback. Get good photos taken with you, your team, your products and the awards and share on social media. Videos are even better.
Get it on Your Site
Add all awards on to your website as soon as you can. Update your Google My Business page with info on awards won by products.
Celebrate with Your Team
Winning a food award is great for marketing your food brand to customers and consumers, but it also gives you a great opportunity to recognise the hard work your team does to make your wonderful food products. Let them know you appreciate their input – they can make such a difference and each of them is a champion for your brand outside of work too.
P.S. I tried to get some stats on how much sales are boosted by awards on products but haven’t found anything concrete yet. The following is of interest in this though and I think assumptions can be made based on it:
According to the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services,
Product quality has been proven to be a vital factor in grocery retail store loyalty*and the most highly rated criterion in food purchase decisions**. The quality of merchandise enhances the perceived value and grocery store loyalty***
*(Kanakaratne et al., 2020, Allaway et al., 2011
**Nilssen et al., 2019
*** Wong and Dean, 2009
