Beverage, Media, Marketing and Purchasing

This unit examines career roles and business functions that support culinary operations outside the kitchen, including beverage industry jobs, culinary media, public relations and marketing, food styling, and purchasing. Students will practice applied tasks—creating media pitches and marketing plans, styling food for promotion, and preparing vendor/purchasing justifications—to connect career knowledge to advanced workplace experiences.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the beverage industry by identifying major job roles, service standards, regulatory/licensing considerations, and typical career pathways.
• Evaluate culinary media platforms and communication strategies and develop a concise multimedia pitch or social media post to promote a menu item or culinary brand.
• Apply public relations and marketing principles to design a basic promotional campaign, including target audience analysis, key messaging, promotional tactics, and simple measures of success.
• Demonstrate product purchasing and presentation skills by comparing specialty food and equipment vendors, preparing a cost-effective purchase justification, and producing a styled food photograph or display for marketing use.