Traditionally, men are earlier adopters of new technology compared to our female counterparts – although that gap is narrowing as technology use becomes more widespread and integrated. Even so, targeting the male demographic on the platforms where they are present is smart marketing for fresh produce brands since men are grocery shopping more frequently than women. Couple that trend with the near-constant technology revolution and one could predict that food technology advancements are primed to make a big splash.
As Father’s Day approaches, we’d like to showcase a few of these gadgets and apps that not only are great gift ideas for foodie dads, but will potentially provide marketing opportunities to fresh produce companies looking to connect with men.
Drop Kitchen is an innovative cooking/baking solution that includes a wireless kitchen scale and an accompanying app. When combined, they deliver step-by-step digital guides for creating the type of recipes you thought only Julia Child or your mother could whip up. With these tools, Drop Kitchen claims that “now anyone can bake,” and I’m a believer after just one view of the video on their homepage. But, the coolest feature? In my opinion, it’s that this platform is perfectly suited for partnerships with and featured content from fresh produce brands whose products are prominent throughout.
Somewhat similar, but on a larger scale, is Ikea’s “A Table for Living.” While this isn’t available for your own kitchen now (sorry, Dad!), this Jetsons-esque device is undoubtedly where we’re headed as more and more facets of our lives get digitalized.
Fooducate is an app that enables shoppers to scan items in the grocery store to learn what the foods are graded based on Fooducate’s proprietary grading system. From the website:
All products are graded from A down to D based on product’s nutrition facts panel and ingredient list. Minimally processed, real foods with intrinsic nutrients will score better than processed foods that are poor in built-in nutrients.
From a marketing perspective, the fresh produce category across the board will benefit from receiving “A’s” from this app – and with no cost required!
We’ve just scratched the surface with these three tech tools and look forward to discovering even more ways to marry marketing with techno-trends. We encourage our fellow fresh produce marketers to become the early adopters of these opportunities to maximize their appeal to not only dads and other guys, but all demographics as tech becomes even more mainstream.
