[May 17, 2013] Festival Foods adapts to customers' needs Tweet APPLETON, May 17, 2013 (The Post-Crescent - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Ensuring repeat customers is an ongoing challenge for any business. With Fox Cities shoppers having options in supermarkets, Mark Skogen, president and CEO of Skogen's Festival Foods, which operates 17 grocery stores around the state, said constantly monitoring shopping and industry trends is an important strategy. Skogen spoke to members of the Appleton Northside Business Association this week and answered a few questions from attendees. Here are excerpts from his remarks. How do you see reaching the 21st century electronic consumer Newspapers are dying off around the country, but interestingly in Wisconsin, Green Bay and Appleton still has strong readership, which is good news for us, but we probably are on borrowed time. Our ads are put on the Internet and shoppers can subscribe to them or have them emailed to them. About a year ago, I said we have to throw more resources at all things web and electronic, so we have been doing text offers, we're on Facebook and Twitter. I know things get hot and people now are saying Facebook is falling off but we have to chase that stuff. Coupons sound old school, but surprisingly, coupons still are very impactful. Someone shopping with a coupon in hand still drives traffic and even though there's better ways to do this, the old-fashioned stuff still works for us. Another point, shopping online started to come around about 15 years ago. As an industry, we tinkered with it, and didn't have much success with it and everyone lost money on it. But today, it's become a real thing. Amazon.com is doing a great job with grocery and related items. That scares me. That's a threat. I think that will continue to carve out what you'll find in grocery stores. Soap and paper products may not be as prevalent in the store because of online shopping options. We get a lot of industry information about what different companies are doing and trying to figure out what works and what sticks. How has customer response been to the NuVal system (NuVal) is system that scores foods on a (1-100) scale. It takes 30 attributes of food and comes up with an algorithm. A nonprofit organization put it together so it's not skewed by the food manufacturers. I think it's been received well. If someone tried to determine which cereal was healthier for them and tried reading all the labels to figure it out, it would take a lot of time. NuVal has made it quite easier. If one cereal had a 25 but you wanted to go up to a 35, you know you're getting something better for you. That's the beauty of it but I don't think we've done a good enough job telling people how easy it is to use. What are some trends in foods people buy today Prepared food has been a trend. People want convenience. That's why our deli is filled with heat-and-eat items. Natural organic is a big thing and it's here to stay. Low-carb items was a fad at one time, but people still look at carbs. -- Larry Avila: 920-993-1000, ext. 292, or [email protected]; on Twitter @LarryAvila ___ (c)2013 The Post-Crescent (Appleton, Wis.) Visit The Post-Crescent (Appleton, Wis.) at www.postcrescent.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]