Reinventing Your Food Truck Brand

Have you ever wondered why people get so worked up about the New Year? The answer is because the New Year brings new opportunities for everyone. It’s a time when many make resolutions to do better or to turn over new and exciting leaves in their personal and business lives. As some food trucks have struggled to build strong, powerful, and consistent brands, why not make this year, the year of your food truck brand? To help you start the New Year with a bang, here are 10 creative ways for reinventing your food truck brand in the New Year (if it needs it).

Reinventing Your Food Truck Brand

Rebrand

While this may not take the cake as the most creative option, definitely the most drastic brand-driven move in the new year is to literally start all over with your brand. The easy way to start reinventing your food truck brand is to take a blank piece of paper and start making stuff up. Pull your team together and start answering — more clearly and concisely than ever before — what has to make up your food truck’s brand.

Refocus your team

Far too often the focus of branding efforts becomes external rather than internal. Don’t forget about your team members. Do they know how to talk about your brand? What words are important? Have they ever been given a brand brief? Why not change that in the New Year?

Customer survey

Switching gears from internal to external, how often do you ask your customers what they think about your brand? Tools like SurveyMonkey have taken the cost barriers out of market research for even the smallest businesses. There’s literally no reason not to do it.

Use a new social platform

Find a new megaphone to get the word out about your food truck. Why wouldn’t your mobile food business launch an Instagram account? Even if you aren’t a professional photographer, their easy-to-apply effects can make your dishes into works of art.

Steal something from the big boys

The Internet has broken down many cost barriers from quick and easy printing to online video. If you see an idea you like by a successful food truck or restaurant, keep an open mind and ask yourself why something similar wouldn’t work for you.

Create and share valuable content

You’ve heard it before but the social web has made all of us potential publishers. What are type of cuisine are you producing? Chances are your brand is really great at something — you may even be an expert. What are you publishing online to tell the world? Are you creating how-to videos? Are your writing an eBook? For your food truck brand’s sake, you should be.

Take a deeper dive into your web analytics

By now even the least technically savvy mobile food vendors like the idea of all of the stuff they can measure online but how much of that are you actually doing anything with? Why not pull your web analytics from the last year and come up with three actionable changes you can implement as a result of this intel to better your brand.

Find your voice

Have you ever noticed that the best brands have a distinct voice? Do you have a voice? Chances are your brand has an attitude. Work on finding it in the New Year.

Do something unexpected

I was going to say, “do something fun” or “do something crazy” but to the last point about finding your voice, not every food truck brand is particularly fun or crazy. But you can be unexpected. Find something outrageous to blow your customers away, like an unexpected event.

Branding isn’t always a big thing

Sometimes it’s simply a state of mind. Boiling down your food truck’s ethos into a direction that can inform everything from new promotions to how your service window members talk about your brand is critical. Remember, everyone on your team is a potential brand builder.

The Bottom Line

Whatever your food truck resolutions may be, best of luck to you in the New Year.

Do you have any other suggestions for this list or other ways for reinventing your food truck brand. We’d love to hear your thoughts. You can share them in the comment section below or on social media. Facebook | Twitter