How to Choose the Best Food Truck Niche Market
Food trucks. These are among the most popular trends today, happening on the streets of almost every American city. In fact, the USA is listed as one of the four countries in the world that has the largest volume of food trucks with 24,000 active food trucks these days.
So, if you’re also thinking of joining the bandwagon at this time, check out UsedVending.com for the best deals and very valuable ideas.
But wait, before you decide to buy your vehicle, do you already have your target market in mind and what type of food items you’d like to sell? These and a couple more factors should be included in your business plan because without it, your new venture might get caught in some kind of trouble.
Experts say that it’s not the vendor but the potential customers that matter in this kind of business. What can help you decide who to target? Below are some parameters to ensure some level of success for your chosen food truck niche.
What’s Inside
Profiling Your Potential Customers
What type of people do you think would cue up for your food truck? Knowing your target market, as experts suggest, is the first and foremost major decision you need to make in your food truck business plan.
There are several ways of determining this factor, one of which is to create a fictitious profile. If you can’t afford yet to hire a market researcher at this point in time, then you may seek the help of a family member or your closest buddy to help you out with this. What’s important is to gather some data related to age, sex, education, religion, occupation and income, civil status, and even the size of household and other things relevant.
According to surveys, food trucks are popular with the young demographic hence the middle-class millennials, with ages ranging from 25 to 44 years and even those below 25, are the target market of this huge money-making industry.
That said, there’s a need to observe their character and buying practices, know which shops or places they frequent, and the trends they’re following in their social media profiles. In addition, take time to attend social events where your prospective market hangs out in order to get a feel of what’s going on in there.
Knowing Where Your Prospective Customers Reside
If you’re targeting the young professionals and college/working students, you might as well find out where in the city are office establishments and schools located.
One of the useful resources to get data from is the United States Census Bureau which provides information not only on population but including income and housing. These things are highly relevant because if you park closer to your potential market, then, you’ll surely get your buyers.
Once you have pinpointed your location or where to park your truck, get to know the actual place likewise. You may go on a ‘mystery diner’ mode in several diners in the selected area. Take note of what their customers are like and what food they like to binge on.
Defining Your Food Truck’s Selling Point
Luckily, there are innumerable food truck business ideas you can search on the Web. Be it vegan, gourmet and exotic food or the ‘usual items’ like burgers, sandwiches, desserts and the like, the Internet is a vast ocean of information on what type of food and drinks best sell on the road. That’s certainly a great tool for budding entrepreneurs like you.
For sure, you want your niche to be something different from the rest since the competition in real life is really pretty stiff. Based on reports, eight to ten regular menu items are typically enough to serve all at the same time. Nonetheless, specializing in a specific menu can surely attract a crowd, especially when the competitors and the big chain eateries don’t happen to list them in their offers.
A signature dish is a must along with a list of your menu specialties. Offering a unique drink/beverage or food item can definitely get the type of people you’re targeting to stand in line.
Aside from those mentioned above, other factors to consider in order to attract customers are having an easy-to-recall brand and a catchy logo. Of course, you need the help of a professional to craft out an artistic symbol.
Having a unique and interesting tagline also helps in achieving high customer retention. Here are some Catchy Taglines and Slogan Ideas for Your Food Truck Business.
Promoting Your Brand Online
Having a strong presence on the Internet can boost your business as proven by those who have mastered the tool. Even in your own locality, you can let the people know what you’re selling. You’re not just attracting your potential customers but you actually get to widen your customer base by the millions by going online and using those popular social media platforms.
And don’t forget – create your own professional business website. You may need to hire an expert but just consider this as part of your operational expenses. Your site is the perfect place to inform people about what you’re offering.
The bottom line is, prior to hitting the road, you should already have an inkling of who your niche will appeal to, in what locations you should park in order to reach your market, and what unique food you want to serve. These are just some of the essential decisions you need to make before joining the food truck industry.
Read our articles on some of the most in demand and unique niches today:
And you might also want to check our large list of used mobile kitchens and all-purpose food trucks for sale.