Designing food sampling trailers and vehicles

sampling-vehicle

As a designer and manufacturer of food tasting and sampling vehicles MVTech are only occasionally involved in the very early part of a clients roadshow planning.  In fact by the time we become involved the client has normally developed their promotional strategy in at least outline form.  Similarly, having built many sampling vehicles and waved them a fond farewell at the factory door we can easily fall from the picture (though happily not always!).  Sometimes, only by instigating our own enquiries, do we find out how a roadshow activity has performed and justified the investment.

But being “in the middle”, so to speak, in no way diminishes our role and the constructive part we can play in influencing the effectiveness of the promotional activity.

Prior to our involvement most clients, who may be launching a new product, looking to expand their geographic reach or perhaps broaden a distribution network defines the objectives, determines the target audience and even develops the message they wish to convey.

It is at this point where our skills and experience tend to be called upon.  Having designed and built many food sampling trailers and vehicles over the years we have accumulated a wealth of knowledge and experience. Our role is to therefore to understand and appreciate the clients’ unique promotional strategy and come up with novel ideas and designs to enable these to be implemented. And to do this successfully we follow a well-trodden path of looking to design a vehicle that will grab the ATTENTION, create an INTEREST, generate a DESIRE and finally facilitate some ACTION.  For many new to marketing these may sound like new concepts but in truth they are as old as the hills but are still as relevant today as they were when initially introduced way back in the 1950’s and 60’s.

ATTENTION

We can grab the target audience’s attention in a number of ways and the very basic one is the choice of vehicle itself.  It can be a single decker bus, a double decker, a van conversion or a chassis cab.  But we’re not even restricted to these.  We can transform older vehicles such as the famous (or infamous!) Citroen “H” van which does seem to be popular with coffee vendors, or converted horseboxes, former mobile libraries and the like. Even articulated trailers have a role to play for some campaigns.

Having selected the vehicle we then have to “dress” it in a way to make it stand out from the crowd.  We can as an example use swing out display panels, hinge up canopies and banners, flags, pylons and even additions to the body shape and mouldings. We look to “shape” the vehicle in a way to reflect the product or the message.

INTEREST

Having grabbed the audience’s attention it is important for us to generate the interest to come forward and see what is on offer or just what product is being sampled. Often competing with other stands at public events or encouraging someone to cross a city centre square to make the visit. Generally we achieve this by creating a theatrical stage for the performers (better known as Event Staff!) to maximise the interest element. We use colour, lighting and LED special effects.

Branding the vehicle via informative vinyl graphics and information screens are all options which we can use in the most appropriate way to maintain interest in the event/presentation unfolding in front of the viewer.

DESIRE

To create the desire we need to understand how the food needs to be prepared, cooked and served. Our role is to provide the correct and fully functional equipment and serving conditions for the food to be in prime condition when offered as a sample. We have to make it perfect for the palate, their taste buds and leave the taster wanting more. This may involve the installation of fridges, freezers, cookers, microwaves, hotplates, bain maries and more. We have the experience to do it. We also have to consider the consumables required such as plates, cups, glasses, and cutlery and ensure these are stored, displayed and distributed in a way that supports the sampling process.

ACTION

The objective of any promotional activity needs to result in the target audience taking some form of action. It may be purchase of the product there and then, taking away a sample, requesting a coupon, going onto a mailing list or signing up for the clients latest App.  Whatever is required we design into the vehicle the means for our clients’ desired action to be practical and possible.

Sounds simple but it takes experience and understanding to achieve a positive result and a really effective food sampling vehicle. https://www.multivehicletechnology.co.uk/products/catering-and-sampling-trailers-and-vehicles/

And finally,

So far in this blog we have been referring to how we go about the design of food sampling vehicles with the primary aim, one way or another, of increasing sales.  But it should be remembered that once built such vehicles can also be used for market research purposes to test responses to new flavours, trial new brands, understand new foods. And other uses need not stop there, many of our clients have used their vehicles for training purposes to enable employees, distributors, retailers and caterers to learn how to cook, prepare and serve the brand correctly.

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