It’s easy to find books on how to start-up a food business. Want to create your own bakery, food truck, micro-farm, artisan food product? No problem. Search Amazon and you’ll find plenty of resources. But if you want to master marketing for a food or beverage business, you’ll need to dig deeper. We did some digging of our own, and here are the best food marketing books we found.
1 – From Kitchen to Market – Sell Your Specialty Food: Market, Distribute, and Profit from Your Kitchen Creation
One of the first food business marketing books I read, you can’t talk to any food business owners without getting a recommendation for it.
2 – Getting Your Specialty Food Product Onto Store Shelves: The Ultimate Wholesale How-To Guide For Artisan Food Companies
Jennifer Lewis of SmallFoodBiz.com is a prolific writer and sage small food biz consultant. We often refer people to her website as it usually has the answer to any food biz question. And, if it doesn’t, then one of her four books likely does. After reading Getting Your Specialty Food Product Onto Store Shelves, we can say that with confidence. In addition to providing sales insights, the book also talks about marketing at trade shows and directly to retailers.
3 – Business for Punks: Break All the Rules–The BrewDog Way
Written by the founder of BrewDog, a craft brewery in Scotland, the book outlines how BrewDog marketed its beer, brand, and locations. I’d much rather read a case study of how someone reached their goals than get a step-by-step tutorial. Business for Punks is certainly inspirational for those with guts to get people to hate you. While I don’t agree with their view that marketing agencies are a waste (obviously, they are not!), I do agree that taking risks, writing loads of content for your own blog, and working with bloggers is a solid strategy for success.
4 – Make Your Food Biz Look BIG
What kind of marketing list would this be without including our own food marketing books? We published Make Your Food Biz Look BIG in 2015 to serve our clients and friends who want to market their business in-house but are still interested in seeing how a food marketing agency runs.
In Make Your Food Biz Look BIG, we share our processes and templates that we employ in our work. It includes many examples and tips to make marketing easier and hopefully more fun.
5 – #AskGaryVee
Gary Vaynerchuk got his start in wine and successfully built a personal brand using social media and video. He is now a go-to source for many entrepreneurs and marketers interested in next-level marketing. So, while this book is not a food/drink biz book or even a marketing-specific book, it does have loads of relevant info for both.
#AskGaryVee is a transcription of the questions he’s been asked over the years by his followers. It’s a quick read, you’re sure to find value in the answers to these questions among many others…
- If you had a seven-acre vineyard, how would you sell lots of wine?
- When trying to create a new media property (say, something at the intersection of food and tech, with no real precedents), how do you find and forge the right partnerships?
Have we missed any? What food marketing books would you recommend?
About Sara Lancaster
Sara is The Condiment Marketing Co.’s founder and creative director. She oversees client relationships, strategic marketing plans, as well as a bit of copywriting and social media management.
