Innovation Food Services (IFS), originally founded in 2002 as Red’s Catering, started as a food service provider to daycare centers. In 2008, IFS transitioned to its current name and expanded its reach to also serve schools, summer meal programs and senior centers its healthy, homemade, chef-inspired meals and snacks.

IFS decided in 2021 to expand its business further through the addition of high-pressure pasteurization (HPP) technology. Company leadership determined that current sales and marketing efforts may not be as focused and effective as they could be. Therefore, they wanted to partner with an outside resource to develop and execute a more formal growth strategy intentionally designed to build their brand and, ultimately, attract and retain more customers.

Enter MAGNET in February 2022. We conducted a sales and marketing assessment that included: a two-hour discovery session with the leadership team, one-hour day-in-the-life interviews with each member of the sales team, voice-of-customer interviews with a group of local fresh-food producers and prospective customers, and a detailed report of findings and recommendations along with a comprehensive Sales Playbook.

As an outgrowth of that project, IFS Meals again retained MAGNET in March 2022 to develop a logo, brand guidelines and a new, search-engine-optimized website with all related content; secure the website domain and do ongoing maintenance and security updates; and create a Google My Business and Google Business Profile, and social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for its newly formed subsidiary, Hydro Pressure + Pack (HP+P). HP+P provides high-pressure, cold -pasteurization processing to refrigerated food manufacturers (think salsa and guacamole in the refrigerated foods section of the grocery store). The process prolongs shelf life up to 10 times without the use of chemicals, preservatives or a loss of nutritional value.

This project was delivered in August 2022. The logo and website can be viewed here. And now, the company can start marketing to potential customers and investors with its digital presence and new logo for use in marketing materials.

Over the next year, MAGNET will regularly update the website for performance, security and SEO. As of August 14, 2022, the site was fully indexed by Google. The recent “Helpful content” Google algorithm update helped boost the website due to all the new code and optimization that has been done. The site is still ranked an A grade by Google, in the top 5% of all websites globally.

HP+P hopes to have its equipment and facility up and running in 2023 for production. At that time, we may have another engagement opportunity for a digital marketing and lead generation campaign. Doug O’Bryon, marketing strategist with HP+P, says, “Thanks for everyone who rallied to push this over the goal line! The website and other online destinations turned out great, and we appreciate all the extra steps taken to ensure the messaging and layout best represent our fledgling brand and offering.”