Digital Pushes Food Retail Forward

A case study on the use of digital marketing and media production assets to increase sales volume and velocity in food retail.

Background:

Venda Ravioli was purchased in 1972 by Alan Costantino, who had great plans for the small business. Over the past three decades, Venda Ravioli has grown to be one of the most respected Italian food curators and retailers in the Northeast. The business now operates 2 restaurants as well as manufacturing and distribution centers in Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Florida through which they sell more than 150 SKU’s of fresh and frozen old-world Italian specialty foods and pastas in stores across the east coast. 

Venda Ravioli has been reviewed and lauded by many celebrities such as famous Food Channel personality, restaurant chef and cookbook author Mario Batali as well as Mary Ann Esposito, host of the popular PBS television cooking show, "Ciao Italia" and the most-watched Italian TV cook in America with more than 1.3 million viewers on PBS since 1989.

Challenges & Objectives:

As Venda Ravioli grew and the digital revolution continued in 2014, Alan and Alicia Costantino (a father and daughter duo) realized they needed to remain competitive with other brands in the market to continue their dominance for their niche in the region. Alan and Alicia Costantino wisely wanted to provide an improved online presence to their customers. The idea was to capture lost leads and opportunities from customers who wanted a quick and easier way to connect with the brand online through channels they already use and enjoy such as social media platforms. Their desired goal was an increase in their sales numbers and order counts.

The Proposed Solution:

To do this, they hired Luis, Mastic’s Founder, to enhance their online image through excellent design, professional photography, and social media campaigns to provide an elevated digital experience to pair with a celebrated brand name.

Over the course of 12 months, Mastic provided the following services: 

• Mastic redesigned both restaurant menus for their brand
• Compiled a focused content strategy
• Provided multiple professional product photo shoots
• Cleaned up their current logos and modernized them
• Designed clever ads and launched them through social media campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
• Implemented best practices in online reputation management on Yelp and Foursquare
• Monitored and optimized ad spend for their business eliminating waste and providing more efficient returns
• Provided Market research and data analysis for business decisions
• Provided online support activities such as white label direct engagement and sales with consumers on their behalf
  

The joint partnership and hard work paid off as results continued to manifest in real time throughout the service.

‍Results:

The growth exceeded their desired standards by every benchmark. Our custom strategies even eliminated waste in their advertising spend and kept their spend below their average competitor's spend while generating strong results.

• Our services generated thousands of views per month
• Increased customer reservations by more than $1000 dollars per weekend at their restaurants - an average increase of 30%
• Exceeded each of their quarterly sales goals by more than 20%
• Provided an overall return on investment in our services for the year of 5X.

Future Plans:

All in all Venda Ravioli’s return on investment was strong and our joining work together was successful, they later continued service with us to enhance the B2C and B2B areas of their Catering division with Email Marketing services to decision makers and event planners. We highly encourage anyone to check out their great food and warm company culture.