Dated: June 16, 2023

The Dirty Martini Digest volume 4

Welcome to The Dirty Martini Digest, Issue #4. This newsletter is built for our technology friends to enable you to do your job more effectively. Summer is here, so grab a drink, take a seat, and let's get straight to the good stuff.

The Dirty Details

Get your hands dirty with our deep dive into a specific report, and uncover hidden insights that matter most to you. As we delve into Summer and the nicer weather, it is a time for dining out and enjoying with friends. This month, we’ll focus on the changing restaurant environment and how technology is playing a role in their evolution.

The world is open! Regardless of food inflation, restaurants are busy, busy, busy! After two-plus years of cooking at home and delivery, consumers have been eager to get out and enjoy a meal in a social environment with friends and family. This doesn’t mean, however, that the restaurants of today are the same as the restaurants of 2019. Restaurateurs were forced to adopt a litany of digital technologies throughout the pandemic, and guests have come to expect convenience when it comes to things like payment and ordering. That is why providing a more convenient dining experience is the #1 priority for restaurateurs in the next 24 months. Integrating digital with physical capabilities is table stakes in today’s dining environment, and in many cases, kudos should be given to the industry for evolving as quickly as they have.

According to our recent studies:

  • 62% of restaurant executives are planning on investing in new technology and equipment to improve the in-restaurant experience over the next 2 years.
  • Technology to support the fulfillment of digital orders is the #1 investment priority for restaurateurs (91% of fast-casual restaurants and 79% of full service restaurants).
  • 79% of restaurants will offer mobile ordering by 2024.
  • 85% of quick-service restaurants and 59% of full-service restaurants state that it’s becoming harder to meet guest expectations on digital ordering.
  • Only 17% of restaurants are currently mature at being able to manage expectations with customers by setting clear wait times or order acceptance limits during peak store hours.

Dive deeper into our cross-industry research and content

  • What Does Generative AI Mean for Retail/CPG - Our own Head of Strategy Giri Agarwal will be moderating this Web Session on June 27th with executives from Wayfair, Avanade, Microsoft and Zebra. They will be discussing the most realistic use cases and opportunities to drive business value in the short term from generative AI.
  • Boosting Success Rates and ROI of Strategic Store Initiatives - Published in partnership with MarketDial, the study surveyed 200+ store executives to uncover the challenges around executing in-store initiatives successfully. It also details where a defined testing process can improve success rates.

Straight from the Shaker

Get practical insights and best practices straight from our industry experts as we shake up and serve up our knowledge to help you improve your go-to-market strategies. Each month, we'll share tips to help you stay ahead of the game.
In this month's "Straight from the Shaker," we're exploring leveraging industry benchmarking for marketing and sales enablement. As retail and hospitality continue to evolve, the team at Incisiv believes it is critical to continually benchmark key capabilities retailers are leveraging to provide better customer experience and better operational performance. As technology solutions and/or service providers, leveraging benchmarks can yield great results in your go-to-market strategies.

Consider these 5 tips:

  • Map key capabilities to your solutions: When you are using a third-party like Incisiv or doing in-house benchmarking, understand which capabilities will provide the retailer or restaurant the greatest benefits. Map those benefits to key capabilities of your solutions so that inferences can be made to the higher value achieved by partnering with you.
  • Target benchmark to priority segment or function: Retailers and restaurants always want to compare themselves to their key competitors first. Benchmark a targeted segment where they can understand clearly how they stack up against their competition and see which capabilities drive leadership in that segment. If your solution is highly targeted, benchmark a function (e.g. fulfillment, loyalty) that can highlight key capabilities that help your target titles win.
  • Target benchmark to priority segment or function: Retailers and restaurants always want to compare themselves to their key competitors first. Benchmark a targeted segment where they can understand clearly how they stack up against their competition and see which capabilities drive leadership in that segment. If your solution is highly targeted, benchmark a function (e.g. fulfillment, loyalty) that can highlight key capabilities that help your target titles win.
  • Use benchmark for account-based activity: One of the definitions of an industry benchmark (at least for us) is a review of the capabilities of individual retailers in a defined company set. This becomes a powerful account-based tool your team can use in sales cycles. Create individual company reports against the data set and use these to set meetings with prospects to do a walk-through. It’s powerful insights that provide value to a retailer.
  • Bring Benchmark to life in live settings: Referring back to tip #2 and the interest from retailers to compare themselves to their peers, use the benchmark as a session in your user group meetings or at industry conferences. Retailers want to know who the leaders are, so these sessions always draw good attendance. Even more powerful is creating a workshop where each attendee receives their own account-based report.

Benchmarking is a powerful tool in a marketer’s toolkit. In addition, it is one of the better assets for sales to use as it delivers defined value to a prospect. Of course, not every solution can be benchmarked but look into if/how yours can and it will pay dividends.

On the House

Sip on our team's latest research, analysis, and industry news, with a quick scan of our recently published work and key takeaways.

Art on the Rocks

Experience the intersection of technology and creativity each month as we use artificial intelligence to generate a unique art piece that explores a key industry topic.

Art on the Rocks volume 4

This store would make quite the impression along the interstate during this summer’s travels.

This artwork was featured recently in a blog titled Four Key Areas Retailers Must Innovate in to Gain an Edge Over Competitors.

Second Round

Expand your industry knowledge with our recommended reading, featuring insightful articles and resources that caught our attention this month.

  • It’s earnings season! Check out how the mega-grocery chains performed and what they are planning for the rest of the year from our Grocery Doppio brand.
  • NEXT WEEK is Grocery Doppio’s AI in Grocery digital event. We have a great lineup of speakers that will highlight key use cases and disruptive companies driving the segment.
  • Our friends at IHL Consulting have looked at the opportunity around AI in Retail - The numbers are ‘Yuuge’! Check out the webinar and slides from their recent session.

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We're here to help you navigate through your biggest challenges and win in this highly competitive market. Anytime you want to talk, book a meeting.

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