Farm Marketing Matters

Eco-labels: do they really work?

2009-05-16T06:28:00.000-07:00

In the past twenty years or so, the number of so-called “eco-labels” used for marketing earth-friendly or people-friendly food and fiber products has mushroomed. While the most widely-known eco-label today might be the federal organic label, there are numerous others that have appeared on the scene and, in some cases, disappeared just as quickly.

Which raises the question: do eco-labels really sell products? And that fundamental question leads to even more. Do consumers look for these labels? Do they understand what they mean? And do these labels help growers carve out a niche for themselves but hurt other growers in the process?

It seems like there’s an eco-label for just about every possible issue facing modern agriculture. Beyond organic, there are labels for sustainable agriculture, integrated pest management, no genetic engineering, animal welfare, and social responsibility (which stretches the “eco” concept just a bit).

Eco-labels have been established and promoted by a wide variety of government agencies, non-profit organizations and private businesses. But all are based on the premise that consumers would choose to buy environmentally-friendly products if only they could identify them.

That puts a lot of pressure to perform on a little sticker. The consumer has to know what the little ladybug or apple tree or blue ribbon symbolizes. And if words, phrases or acronyms are included, the consumer has to understand what they stand for and why they should care.

Take a concept like integrated pest management, for example. IPM is a complex system of pest management practices that may include monitoring, cultural controls, biological controls, mechanical controls and possibly chemical controls. How do you convey all that on a half inch label?

If you’re designing the label you have to boil it all down to a simple picture, word or phrase and hope that the basic meaning gets across. And you have to have a public education campaign and informational resources to support it.

Perhaps because there are so many eco-labels around today touting such an array of complicated concepts, the Consumers Union has a website (www.eco-labels.org) devoted to informing the public about what each label means, the standards on which it is based and who is behind it.

Each label referenced on the site has a report card that assesses the meaningfulness of the label and a detailed description of what it means, the history behind it, the organization that promotes it, and where you can find it.

After you do a little searching on the site you’ll likely be amazed at just how many eco-labels are out there. Although some labels have come and gone, the fact that there are still so many might be a clue that they are working for some growers and organizations.

If you’re a grower contemplating getting into a program that would allow you to use an eco-label, you might have some conflicting feelings about it. By telling consumers that your products are grown with fewer pesticides, are you just alerting them to the fact that you use pesticides at all? Or are you portraying yourself as the “good farmer” and your neighbor as the “bad farmer” if his or her products don’t bear the eco-label?

Some growers who practice IPM or are certified organic or install conservation practices do so because they feel it’s the right thing to do, not to get a marketing edge. But if you’re doing good things, why not tell the public about it?

For what it’s worth, a study on eco-labels by Iowa State University showed that while most consumers understood the eco-labels that they were shown, they were most responsive to labels with the least about of information. Consumers were also most responsive to those labels that conveyed a message about local produce and freshness as opposed to labels with an environmental risk context.

Like anything else in marketing, the decision to use an eco-label or not goes back to knowing your customer. If with a little research you find that your customers are informed on agricultural practices and care enough about environmental risk factors to base their buying decisions on them, then eco-labeling might be right for you.

Otherwise, just reminding folks that your produce is locally grown and fresher might be the only marketing edge that you need.

Copyright Diane Baedeker Petit
This article originally appeared in the March 2006 issue of Growing Magazine.

Charity as a marketing tactic

2009-03-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

A while back, a Greenfield, Mass., radio station ran a story about a family left homeless by a house fire. The story mentioned that a local restaurant was donating 10 percent of their profits on a given day to the family. While that was a very kind, charitable thing to do, it was also a savvy marketing move.

First of all, the restaurant name was mentioned on the radio as part of a news story, which amounted to free advertising. Secondly, the news no doubt motivated some people to patronized the restaurant on that day who otherwise might have dined elsewhere, increasing overall sales. And lastly, the charitable act surely created a positive image for the restaurant and it’s owners within the community, which could boost business in the long run.

Charity as a marketing tactic, also known as cause-related marketing, has been around for a long time but continues to grow. The concept can take many forms. There are corporate sponsorships of charitable events. There are outright donations of cash, goods and services. And then there are guerrilla tactics like the restaurant example.

Think of all the companies that donated products to hurricane victims. Their actions benefited the companies as well as the people who needed water, food, clothing, medicine, tools, lumber, etc.

While you might think that only large corporations can afford to be charitable, one could argue that small and medium businesses – like family farms – can’t afford not to be. According to an article by David Frey on FrugalMarketing.com, many small businesses are affiliating themselves with charities to market their products and services. He points out that it’s not only a primary means for developing a powerful network but also helps others in the process.

Of course, for your charitable actions to have a marketing benefit, you’ll have to let people know about it. That means publicizing your donations by sending out a news release, including information and photos in your newsletter and other marketing materials, and asking the recipient to do the same, if appropriate.

According to Frey, charitable organizations are not oblivious to companies’ marketing motivations. They understand that there is a secondary purpose to your participation.

The public and the media also understand, all too well, that there is a secondary purpose and that, can be a pitfall, according to David Zucker on onPhilanthropy.com. Zucker claims that the public and the media can suffer cause-related marketing “burn-out,” no longer being impressed by a company writing a check to a charity. These days the media are less likely to see that as newsworthy. For that reason, he says businesses must come up with unique charitable activities.

My guess would be that the burn-out factor is more likely to occur with larger city media than it is with your small local newspaper. If you do something that benefits someone in your community, the local paper is likely to cover it.

Another pitfall might be the charity you choose. If you pick a cause that’s controversial, your good intentions could backfire on your bottom line. Luckily, farms are well-positioned to participate in causes that anyone who eats can support. Food banks, senior meal programs, homeless shelters are just a few food-related causes that might accept produce donations.

Some farms and charities have teamed up for gleaning programs, where volunteers pick up any produce that remains in the field after the harvest and deliver it to the needy.

Worried about the liability of donating food to the needy? Could you be sued if someone gets sick after eating produce that you provided? The Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act is a federal law that protects donors of food products, except in cases of gross negligence or intentional misconduct.

So, there is little to lose and much to gain, for you and your beneficiaries, by doing something charitable.

If you feel guilty about having a marketing purpose behind your good works…think about the alternative. What if no one did anything at all?

Copyright Diane Baedeker Petit
This article originally appeared in the February 2006 issue of Growing Magazine.

The ancient arts of the up-sell and the cross-sell

2009-02-21T12:00:00.000-08:00

When people first started selling things many thousands of years ago, no doubt it wasn’t long before someone invented the up-sell and the cross-sell. You know the up-sell drill: you order a burger, fries and a coke and the voice coming through the drive-up speaker asks if you want to super-size your order.

The up-sell – suggesting more expensive item – and its close cousin the cross-sell – suggesting a related item – are practiced everywhere these days. Whether you’re buying a toaster or a DVD player, you can’t check out of a store without being offered an extended warranty. You finish a meal at a fine restaurant and the server wheels over the dessert cart. And let’s not forget all the options available on a new car.

The up-sell and cross-sell have even been automated. Before you click to finalize a web order, often you’ll be prompted with suggestions for alternative or complementary items.

Some on-line merchants are giving the up-sell concept a bad name, particularly some unscrupulous sellers of digital cameras and other electronics. They lure customers in with ultra low prices, then require them to call to confirm their order at which point the hard sell for various accessories begins. Internet discussion boards are filled with e-commerce horror stories of harassment, phony penalty fees and fraudulent credit card charges for those who didn’t cave in to the up-sell.

But the up-sell and cross-sell ideas aren’t inherently evil. It’s just a matter of a seller trying to increase his or her profits by offering the customer a higher value item or additional related items. If done right, the customer feels like the seller was being helpful not abusive.
There are countless up-sell and cross-sell opportunities for growers, and that’s nothing new. When bottled salad dressing was first invented, I’m sure that a grower somewhere started selling it next to his lettuce.

Look around any farmstand (including your own) and you’ll likely find kits for making caramel apples, pumpkin carving kits, cider mulling spices, and pie making ingredients. Holiday time is especially ripe for up-selling. Along with the apples, cider, squash and Christmas trees, many farms offer wreaths, ornaments, gifts, and holiday centerpieces.

It may not be enough to simply display these add-on products. If your staff is trained in helpfully suggesting items that would complement a customer’s order, the chances of a sale increase. If employees can describe the advantages of a superior or extra product, all the better.

The hard sell isn’t really necessary when it comes to produce. Even though consumers are likely to be more jaded about these selling practices today, especially if they have had a bad experience elsewhere, they are surely less likely to be guarded when patronizing a farm and therefore more receptive to point-of-sale suggestions.

For one thing, you’re selling a relatively low-priced product. The decision to buy a bigger pumpkin or some cornstalks to go with it doesn’t represent a major investment for most folks. And visiting a farm is a friendly, enjoyable experience, not stressful like buying a car or a house, for example.

Like all sales, up-selling and cross-selling are all about knowing your products and knowing your customers. What collateral products would your customers find most useful or attractive? What higher-value products could you offer them? How can you suggest a different or additional product without turning a customer off? These are marketing considerations that can be continuously evaluated.

As many business people will say, it’s easier to keep a customer than it is to find a new one. So increasing your sales with existing customers should prove more cost efficient than cultivating new ones. Practicing low-key up-selling and cross-selling will help you do just that.

Copyright 2005 by Diane Baedeker Petit. This article originally appeared in the December 2005 issue of Growing Magazine.

E-mail marketing: does it really work?

2009-02-13T13:49:00.000-08:00

These days we are all barraged with e-mail messages from people we don't know trying to sell us something. Every day our inboxes are full of offers for stuff that we don't want, don't need or find downright offensive. It's like the old days of door-to-door salesmen gone out of control. (Though in the old days we couldn't hit a delete key to get rid of the salesman.)

Yet among all the spam, there are probably offers that you are glad to get. A major office supply store sending a coupon off your next purchase, an on-line bookseller telling you about a new release on a topic you've purchased in the past.

Maybe you've thought about using e-mail as a marketing tool for your farm. Maybe you've even tried it. It's certainly a cost effective method of getting a message to potential customers. Other than your monthly service fee, sending e-mail costs nothing. That's why there are so many spammers out there.

But because spam is so pervasive, it leads one to wonder whether the spammers have ruined a good thing for the rest of us. Has the peak effectiveness of e-mail marketing come and gone? Not necessarily.

No doubt spam has made people annoyed, jaded and all too quick to hit delete. But if there is a deciding factor in whether you hit delete or print, it has to be trust. Most likely those messages that you're glad to receive are from companies with which you've done business. You recognize the name, you have a relationship and you probably signed up to be on their e-mail list.

That's why e-mail marketing can be effective for farm businesses in particular. For one thing, trust is easy to establish. Most likely you'll develop your e-mail list from customers who sign up at your farmstand, at a trade show or on your website. They've opted in to your list and will recognize your name when the message arrives. You're not likely to join the ranks of spammers unless you purchase a mass e-mail list from someone or use web spider software to harvest e-mail addresses from websites like they do.

And the immediacy of e-mail can be a real communications advantage in an industry where product availability can change with the weather. If the strawberries are late, or the tomatoes are coming in early, or the blueberries are all picked out, you can let your customers know right away.

There are a few things to consider if you're going to get into e-mail marketing. How are you going to manage your e-mail list? The most basic way is to add your customers to the address book in your e-mail program and set up a distribution list if your software provides that function. As your list grows, however, it will become more and more unwieldy to manage.

If you do address your e-mail to a list of contacts from your address book, it's a good idea to put the list in the Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) field rather than the To field. That way everyone on the list won't have access to your list and you'll protect their privacy.

For a maintenance free list, consider using list server software, which your Internet service provider may offer, or use a list server service. In either case, customers can subscribe and unsubscribe themselves.

Format is another consideration. Most e-mail programs now to send and receive e-mail in HTML (hypertext markup language) format. That means you can design the body of your e-mail message in much the same way that you would design a web page, with fonts, colors and images. That ability can really enhance your marketing message but you do have to take into consideration the folks out there who may still be using plain text e-mail.

Here's a tip to ensure that your information will be easily readable for all. Before you send your first e-newsletter or announcement, send a draft of your message to a few friends who have different e-mail services and software. Then find out how it looked on their end. This will give you the opportunity to make adjustments before sending to your entire list.

There are a couple things you can do to bolster the authenticity of your message. Make sure that the identity that you specify when setting up your e-mail account on your computer is something that your customers will recognize, for example your farm name. (This can be changed at any time.)

The subject line is also important. Spammers have all kinds of tricks to make a message look like it's from a friend or business associate. They also use very vague subjects to fool spam blocker programs. The clearer and more specific you can make your subject line, the more likely your customer will recognize the message as relevant to them.

So, with the trusting relationships that you've already established with your customers, the great seasonal products you have to offer, a few technical considerations and no cost involved, e-mail can be another effective marketing tool at your disposal.

Copyright: Diane Baedeker Petit

This article orginally appeared in the November 2005 issue of Growing magazine.

Guerrilla Marketing: What is it? Does it really work?

2008-07-27T08:26:00.000-07:00

There are two well-known marketing and public relations books with similar titles: Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Levinson and Guerrilla P.R. by Michael Levin. Both give readers advice on using unconventional, low-cost tactics in marketing products and gaining visibility for small businesses.

In fact, the concept has evidently been so successful that since Guerrilla Marketing was first published in 1984, Levinson has written a number of spin-off books including Guerrilla Advertising, Guerrilla Marketing for Free, Guerrilla Marketing Weapons, The Guerrilla Marketing Handbook, Guerrilla Publicity, and Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days.

But do these unconventional tactics really work? In particular, do they work for agricultural businesses?

In my past job with the state ag department, I worked on quite a few promotions that employed what might be called guerrilla marketing tactics. Or maybe you would call them publicity stunts. Take your pick.

One time, for example, a coworker and I put together baskets of farmers' market produce and brought them to Boston area radio stations. The basket included a statewide listing of farmers' markets. One popular rock music station invited us right into the studio, the DJs put us on the air and we were able to plug visiting local farmers' markets during the growing season.

Another time, we did a promotion for local maple products that involved sending an information packet, recipes and a small sample of maple syrup to food writers at daily newspapers. That effort did result in several maple stories in newspaper food sections.

Working with various associations over the years, there have been promotions that involved delivering squash, potatoes, cut flowers, poinsettias, and coffee cake to food editors, business editors, radio stations and television studios. There have been tomato contests, cider taste-offs, zucchini races, pumpkin carvings, corn boils, giant strawberry shortcakes, farm-to-farm bike rides, and all kinds of farm tours.

While many of these efforts have been fruitful in terms of generating publicity and in turn, hopefully, sales for farms, sometimes they're not. While guerrilla tactics are usually low cost, they are often require a lot more work than, say, conventional advertising. If successful, the pay-off can be great, but if not you might be left wondering why you went to all that trouble.

A few things to keep in mind:

1. You're competing with many other businesses and organizations for the attention of the news media and the public. Find a way to make your product stand out and don't get discouraged; be persistent but don't over-do it.

2. When sending product samples to reporters and editors, make sure that they are just samples. Some media organizations have policies against accepting gifts that could be construed as bribes in exchange for coverage. You just want them to have a little taste of your product for evaluation purposes.

3. Showing up at a radio station, especially without an appointment, doesn't guarantee that you'll get on the air. They may just thank you for stopping by and for your product sample and information. Don't be too disappointed or angry; the effort may pay off later on.

4. Sometimes radio and television stations tie appearances on certain programs to advertising. So, if you're not an advertiser, you might not get on. This doesn't apply to news, though.

And sometimes publicity stunts can go wrong. Earlier this year a popular juice company was introducing a new line of frozen juice pops. To get publicity, they created what they hoped would be certified by Guinness as the world's largest frozen pop and planned to erect it in New York City's Union Square on the first day of summer. As it turned out, it was a hot day and the pop started to melt, sending sticky goo all over Union Square. Pedestrians and cyclists started slipping and sliding in it, and a woman was taken to the hospital with a sprained ankle.

That stunt may not qualify as strict guerrilla P.R. since it surely cost quite a bit to stage but is an example of an unconventional tactic that certainly did generate news coverage...perhaps more than if the thing had remained frozen.

Maybe you've been involved in these kinds of guerrilla activities, too, on your farm or through an association. I'd be willing to wager that farmers are particularly adept at guerrilla marketing and publicity tactics because of their natural ingenuity, a need to keep costs down and products that are well suited to this approach. After all, fresh farm products can be fun, wholesome, nostalgic, unusual, trendy, beautiful and always tasty. Which make for irresistible combinations.

Copyright 2005 by Diane Baedeker Petit. This article originally appeared in the October 2005 issue of Growing Magazine.

Do you have a crisis communication plan?

2008-02-24T07:28:00.000-08:00

Some people say that all publicity is good publicity. While there may be a certain rationale behind that statement, I'm sure that many small business owners would take issue with it. In the food industry there have been some notable cases of negative publicity and it's hard to imagine that it resulted in increased business for the companies involved.

Whether it's severed fingers in chili, e. coli bacteria in salad bars, Alar on apples or mad cow disease, this is not the type of media coverage food businesses would prefer.

As a food producer, you do all that you can in growing and handling your products to ensure that they are safe and wholesome. You take steps to ensure worker safety and if you are also a food retailer, you ensure that your premises are safe for customers to visit. While these things may be required by law, you also recognize that it's the right thing to do.

But the reality is that bad things, often beyond your control, can happen and it's best to be prepared for how you will respond. How you respond can affect your business' image and ultimately affect your bottom line. That's why a crisis communications plan should be part of your overall marketing plan.

What is a crisis communication plan? It's the process of putting into writing exactly what you will do if a crisis situation arises and how you will deal with the news media and the public. It involves designating a spokesperson, developing key messages, preparing for tough questions, and keeping track of media contacts. Once you have a plan in writing, you make sure that all your employees are familiar with it and review it regularly.

With any luck, developing a crisis communication plan will be a complete waste of time. It may be the one thing you will do for your business that you hope you will never use. But the ramifications of not having one if you do need it are far worse than the time wasted if you never do.

So what kind of crises should you plan for? A crisis can be any situation that threatens the your business' integrity. Such situations often involve negative media attention. These can be situations like legal disputes, illnesses, crimes, accidents or controversies that are related to, caused by, or that affect your business or industry.

Examples can include someone getting sick after eating a product you sold to them, a dispute with your neighbors, an environmental problem on your farm, or an employee being injured on the job.

Since some crisis situations could have legal implications, your lawyer will probably be wary about you saying anything that would imply fault. It is good public relations, however, to acknowledge that a problem exists and explain what you are doing to correct it. And, if someone is injured or upset you'll certainly want to express sincere concern for the person and their family.

Sometimes the crisis might not be confined to your business alone. For example, when a drought strikes the region, the media may want to interview you about crop losses and get pictures of crops withering in the field.

How you respond in that type of crisis can have a direct effect not only on your business but also on other farms in the area. In the case of a drought, usually local produce is still available even if yields are down. Painting a picture of doom to a reporter can cause customers to stay away from all farms in the area, thinking that there is no produce.

Instead, you can acknowledge that the weather is less than ideal but point out that weather challenges are part of farming and farmers do what they can to make sure that local products are available in season. Invite the reporter to come out with a photographer to see the crops that are doing well despite the drought. You might just help kill the drought story in the process.

That's not to say that you should ever, ever lie to a reporter. That would only make a crisis situation worse. But it is a good idea to have a plan that includes accentuating the positive (as the song goes) to keep negative publicity from undoing all your good marketing efforts.

Copyright 2005 by Diane Baedeker Petit. This article originally appeared in the September 2005 issue of Growing Magazine.

Product proliferation: When is consumer choice enough?

2007-12-02T12:55:00.000-08:00

Anyone who has shopped for toothpaste in the past twenty years has probably felt more and more overwhelmed by the number of choices within all the major brands. In the old days, each manufacturer offered one or two flavor choices. Now there's toothpaste for cavity protection, tartar control, whitening, plaque protection, gingivitis protection, breath freshening and sensitive teeth.

You can choose your ingredients - baking soda, peroxide, and fluoride - as well as the texture - paste, gel or a combination. Then there are the flavors: fresh cool mint, fresh clean mint, icy blast, cinnamon spice, vanilla mint, mint zing, spearmint and sparkling mint. All of those are actual choices offered by just one brand.

The technical term for this marketing phenomenon is horizontal product line extension. This is when marketers expand their product offerings within the same category, price and quality range but vary other attributes such as color, fragrance or flavor. Vertical line extension is when marketers vary their offerings in terms of price or quality. Athletic shoes are a good example, or, in the food sector, you might recall that a major soup company offers tomato soup in different packages at different prices.

Horizontal line extension is not limited to toothpaste. Among food products you'll find it in products ranging from cola to coffee to pasta and even to milk. And it's certainly nothing new to farm produce marketing.

In fact you've probably extended your line over the years. How many varieties of apples, tomatoes, sweet corn, or peppers do you sell now compared to ten or twenty years ago? I wouldn't be surprised if it's more.

In agriculture, there's a ripple effect in line extension. As researchers develop new varieties, the seed companies offer more varieties, and farmers can in turn offer more varieties. Apples might be the most prolific in terms of varieties with differing attributes, but tomatoes, sweet corn and pumpkins are catching up.

Marketing experts who study product proliferation believe that there is a maximum number of choices that consumers will tolerate before they give up and switch to another brand with a simpler product line. If you've ever felt dismayed when trying to select a toothpaste or diet cola, you know what they mean.

The rationale behind extending a product line is to retain customers by offering more choice. According to research by business professors at Stanford and Northwestern universities offering new and unusual products can also result in a brief sales spike due to consumer curiosity.

For both reasons, offering more consumer choice makes sense as a marketing tool for farmers. If customers have more choices when buying from you, they won't have to go elsewhere to find a particular variety. And a new or unusual variety will pique customer interest, giving your bottom line a boost and drawing them in to buy your more conventional items.

The Stanford/Northwestern research determined mathematically, that there is a point at which it's no longer financially sound for a manufacturer to continue to expand a product line because of the costs of new product development. Vegetable and fruit growers have a slight advantage in being able to test a variety on a small amount of acreage.

But are farm marketers even close to maxing out and stressing out their customers with too many choices? I would say no, as long as customers have information on the attributes of each variety and how best to use them.

I think that consumers are intrigued by different and unusual produce varieties. After all, unlike toothpaste manufacturers who only have to find different ways to combine ingredients, agricultural researchers must figure out ways to make a tree or a plant produce a product that looks or tastes different. That makes a new sweet corn variety so much more interesting and impressive than a new kind of cola.

So, go ahead, try that new variety and offer it along with the old standbys to give your customers more choice. Add some supporting signage or flyers so they know what to expect and it's likely to be a recipe for marketing success.

This article first appeared in the August 2005 issue of Growing magazine.
Copyright 2007 Diane Baedeker Petit

Is the customer always right?

2007-08-26T13:26:00.000-07:00

One night recently my husband and I went out to dinner at a nearby restaurant that’s part of a national chain. We’d been to that location numerous times before and on many occasions have found the service sub par. On this particular night, the service was once again mediocre and the food was not very good, especially for the price. Why we continued to go back there is anybody’s guess, but this time I swore that we’d never patronize that location again.

Still feeling cheated when I got home, I got on-line, found the company website and filled out a feedback form explaining my unsatisfactory experiences at this restaurant. The very next day I had a phone call from a company representative wanting to know more. She expressed concern, said that a report would be filed with the district manager, and said that she’d be mailing me a $20 gift certificate to come back and dine with them again.

Even without the gift certificate, the speedy and concerned response would have made me reconsider my resolve to boycott the restaurant.

Every business, and farms are no exception, has to deal with dissatisfied customers at some point. Regardless of how good your products are, there is going to be someone, sometime who isn’t happy with something they bought from you. Knowing how you will respond to such a customer should be part of your marketing plan.

Good customer service is a marketing strategy aimed at increasing market share by helping acquire and retain customers.

And it’s all about communication. According to a fact sheet by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food (OMAF), customers want to be helpful to you, the grower, by giving you their opinions and letting you know when they aren’t satisfied.

Sometimes you’ll get one-time complaints from good customers who just happen to pick up something that doesn’t measure up to your usual quality standards. Other times you’ll find yourself dealing habitual complainers. But, believe it or not, many dissatisfied customers never say a word.

Experts say that many people just don’t like to complain. Even if they would like to complain, customers may not know to whom to complain or cannot find a venue for offering their feedback. In fact, some businesses not only don’t encourage complaining, they may actually make it difficult for customers to complain.

Getting customer feedback, according to the OMAF, gives a business owner the chance to return the customer to a state of satisfaction so they will be more likely to patronize the business again. Business people who offer the customer a rational explanation and demonstrate sensitivity and concern, will find that the complaining customer will respond accordingly.

No doubt, some customers are difficult, but most customers are just looking for friendliness, fairness, and empathy – in addition to value – when spending their hard earned money. If they feel that they have a relationship with the business, especially the owner, they are more likely to be loyal.

While it may seem like you’re asking for trouble, think about establishing ways that customers can give you feedback, if you haven’t already. Face to face feedback with you, the owner, is great, but since you’re just as likely to be in the field as in the farmstand this time of year, you might want to use other ways as well. These can include customer feedback cards or a feedback form on your website.

And the last piece of this marketing strategy is planning how you will respond to complaints and making sure that all your employees know how to handle complaints.

So, is the customer always right? Research shows that 80 to 95 percent of customers will come back if their complaint is resolved satisfactorily, and they will tell five other people (I’ve told at least that many about my restaurant story). If a complaining customer comes away feeling like he or she was right, you may have bought some priceless word of mouth advertising.

Copyright 2005 Diane Baedeker Petit.
This article originally appeared in the July 2005 issue of Growing Magazine.

Ride the multicultural marketing wave

2007-05-28T17:02:00.000-07:00

Marketing to targeted ethnic groups has become a major focus of the food retailing industry in general and has great potential for fruit and vegetable growers in particular. The topic has warranted its own track of educational sessions at food marketing industry conventions and experts say that it is one of the most important growth areas in retail food sales.

The market segments that are growing rapidly across the nation are the Hispanic, African American, and Asian communities. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Hispanic and Asian people in the U.S. will triple by 2050.

In a 2003 report, the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) said that over the next two decades, the Hispanic population is expected to grow by 1.2 million annually, compared with annual increases of 500,000 among non-Hispanic Whites and 400,000 each among Blacks and Asians. Hispanics are expected to increase from 12.6 percent of the population in 2000 to 18 percent in 2020, and Asians are expected to increase from four percent to five percent.

ERS pointed out that growing ethnic diversity has contributed to shifts in food preferences as well as expansion of the food repertoire for all Americans. The agency suggests that to profit from this diversity, U.S. food suppliers must be both aware of the differing preferences of ethnic groups and able to creatively tap into Americans' love of novel taste experiences.

And in promoting a recent educational seminar, the Food Marketing Institute similarly stated that ethnic consumers not only comprise an increasingly formidable consumer market, but are also re-shaping the nation's palate through the growing demand for ethnic foods.

The folks at UMass Extension caught on to this trend a number of years ago and have been helping Massachusetts growers find crops typically grown in Latin American and Asian countries that will also grow in the Bay State, despite the shorter growing season. Local growers have been growing crops like ají dulce (a small light green pepper) and calabaza (a type of squash), then marketing them through farmers' markets, farmstands and grocery stores in areas with large Hispanic communities like Holyoke, Lawrence and Lowell.

In fact, UMass Extension has created a website in collaboration with Cornell and Rutgers to help northeast growers find vegetables, fruit and herbs that are in demand by local ethnic communities. The site, www.worldcrops.org, has crop information organized by region - Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe - and by country within those regions, to help growers target specific markets. Included is production information, seed sources, nutrition information and references.

Components of a successful multicultural marketing program, according to Denyse Selesnick of International Trade Information, Inc. in a presentation to food marketers, include knowing the ethnic make-up of your area, learning their food preferences, advertising in their language(s) in publications for their community, doing special promotions around ethnic holidays, and hiring a diverse staff who can relate to these customers.

On the worldcrops.org website, Frank Mangan of the UMass Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, reminds growers to be aware that crops can have different names in different countries and languages, and to label produce appropriately. He also offers marketing tips concerning price and appearance. The best way to research preferences and other considerations, he says, is to visit markets that serve ethnic communities in the area.

According to the Produce Marketing Association, Hispanic consumers average 4.6 grocery trips per week, in contrast to 2.2 trips for non-Hispanic consumers in the United States. The primary reason for that is a strong preference for fresh, high quality fruits and vegetables. That's good news for local growers, who can offer fresh produce just in from the field.

For your customers who are not part of these specific ethnic communities but who are looking for that novel taste experience, be sure to have some recipes and background information on hand.

So, with diverse markets already close at hand and data suggesting that they will only grow in the future, not to mention plenty of informational resources and technical assistance available, Northeast growers are well positioned to ride the multicultural marketing wave.

Meal Solutions: does this food marketing buzz word work on the farm?

2007-02-24T06:50:00.000-08:00

At the annual Food Marketing Institute (FMI) Supermarket Industry Convention held in Chicago each May, a buzz word emerged about a half dozen years ago for a new marketing category: "Meal Solutions." The term can have different meanings to different food marketers, but generally it's based on the idea that meal planning and preparation times have become more difficult for today's busy consumers.

Now, all these years later, the concept is still a topic on the convention's workshop program indicating that it's a marketing concept that's here to stay and which could easily work not only for supermarkets but also for farmstands.

You have probably noticed that some time ago supermarkets began offering more prepared foods, usually near the front of the store or the deli. Offerings often include rotisserie chicken, side dishes, pasta dishes, salad bars, and pre-made sandwiches. Sometimes foods are kept warm or can be quickly heated in the microwave oven.

Meal Solutions aren't just limited to fully prepared foods, but can be defined by several levels of consumer involvement in the meal:

Ready-to-eat: convenient meals for immediate consumption, usually prepared food.
Ready-to-heat: partially or fully prepared meals requiring heating for later consumption.
Ready-to-prepare: meal requires assembly but minimal planning, purchase and preparation.
Ready-to-create: refers to retailer programs designed to build consumer cooking interest and capability.

According to an FMI report, the most fundamental requirement of a successful Meal Solutions program is understanding the consumers' wants and needs. Retailers should strive to understand and market to specific consumer tastes and preferences in their market area and create products accordingly.

Focus groups conducted by FMI around the country identified six needs related to meals that encompass nutrition, family time, holiday and social gatherings, cultural traditions, and indulging in favorite foods as a reward. Recognizing these needs can help food retailers develop Meal Solutions products to meet these needs and thereby increase sales.

Local turkey farms were onto this idea a long time ago. For as long as I can remember, at Thanksgiving time turkey farms have offered fully cooked turkeys with all the fixings - stuffing, gravy, potatoes, squash, and cranberry sauce - for folks who wanted a fresh, home-cooked turkey dinner but didn't have the time or ability to cook it themselves.

A quick check of some local farmstand websites shows that fruit and vegetable farm marketers have also picked up on this marketing niche either intuitively or by studying marketing trends.
Berlin Orchards in Berlin, Mass., suggests on their website, "If you've had a busy day, pick up a home cooked 'dinner-to-go' such as our famous chicken pot pie."

Green River Farms in Williamstown, Mass., not only sells fresh produce, dairy products, cheeses and pasta, but also tells customers that "You can also look forward to an expanded selection of salads, soups and entrees prepared in-store for you to conveniently pick up on your way home for dinner, or on your lunch break from work, or any time!"

Bolton Orchards in Bolton, Mass., offers a large selection of prepared foods including appetizers, entrees and desserts, including sandwiches made to order, homemade soups, stews, chowders and chilies, dinner entrees, side dishes, salads and desserts, and party platters.

Offering fully prepared foods may not be right for every farmstand. You'll need the equipment, ability, packaging and personnel to do the preparation, or if you buy-in, you'll at least need the proper equipment to keep them hot or cold. Perhaps the ready-to-prepare or ready-to-create categories would work better.

The Meals Solutions concept can be as simple as displaying together items that can make up a meal, along with a recipe or two. That way, harried customers don't need to think about putting a meal together. All they have to do is grab and buy the items you've put together, and go.

If customers know that they can not only pick up fresh ingredients for a salad or dessert, but the entire dinner as well, without having to make an extra trip to the grocery store, that gives them all the more reason to stop by your farmstand on the way home from work.

Copyright 2005 by Diane Baedeker Petit
This article originally appeared in the May 2005 issue of Growing magazine.

Do health claims mean healthier marketing?

2006-12-30T08:23:00.000-08:00

I subscribe to a daily e-mail news digest published by a national produce trade association. Over time, I've noticed an interesting trend. Every few days, the top news story is about the health benefits of a certain fruit or vegetable. They're not just talking about fruits and veggies being nutritious. No, they're talking specifically about a particular fruit preventing cancer or helping arthritis.

Here are a few examples:

"Mushroom said to possess healing powers"
"Study: Fruits, vegetables help young leukemia patients""Pumpkin helps boost the immune system"
"Study: Kiwifruit good for the heart""Study: Eye health aided by dark greens"and even
"Study: Dogs also benefit from diet rich in fruits, vegetables"

Certainly, we've been hearing about the benefits of lycopene in tomatoes and antioxidants in blueberries for quite some time now.

This category of beneficial foods has been dubbed "nutraceuticals" and "functional foods." Those terms aren't limited to fruits and vegetables; they include any food that provides a health benefit in much the same way that a medicine or dietary supplement would. Other, more scientific terms that apply to produce are "phytonutrients," which refers to plant based nutrients, and "bioactive food components," which refers to health claims about food.

So why are these foods garnering so much news coverage? Well, there are several reasons. First, new health benefits of food are continually being discovered, second the news media believes that these discoveries are relevant to their readers, and third that produce marketers see these health benefits as giving them a marketing edge. The news stories no doubt started life as news releases issued by the marketers, who may have commissioned the study that revealed the health benefits.

Can farmers also gain a marketing edge from presenting their produce as "functional food?" Why not? While that exact term may not be terribly appealing to customers, the information itself is sure to be of interest to many folks.

People who shop at farmstands and farmers' markets already have enough of an interest in fruits and veggies to go out of their way to buy them where they can talk to the grower about how the produce was grown and how to prepare it, so it wouldn't be surprising if they were health conscious as well.

The abundance of health studies relating to food can be overwhelming, confusing and at times conflicting, so the key is to choose a few health claims from very credible sources to use in your marketing materials.

Health information can be incorporated into point of sale signage and literature, packaging, advertising, and publicity. It is a good idea to cite the source wherever possible. It lends credibility to the claim and deflects the responsibility from you if the claim later turns out to be false.

USDA has some information about bioactive food components and phytonutrients on the department's nutrition website: www.nutrition.gov. The Produce for Better Health Foundation offers health benefit information on their "5 A Day The Color Way" website at www.5aday.com, which presents health benefits related to produce color.

Many food and produce marketing trade associations offer nutrition study reports and nutrition information point of sale materials to their members, often for a fee.

According to news reports, some of the large food manufacturers who have jumped on recent health bandwagons by labeling their products as low-fat or low-carb are now experiencing a backlash from consumer groups that are scrutinizing the more dubious claims and accusing food companies of exploiting these trends.

That can serve as a lesson to be careful how you present health claims for your products. Fresh produce is fairly straightforward...what you see is what you get, as they say. Value-added or processed foods, on the other hand, can be trickier since there are additional ingredients to be considered. For these you might want to get a professional opinion or stay away from health claims altogether.

So, while many of your customers are simply looking for freshly picked, tasty fruits and vegetables, why not offer another reason for folks to buy even more of what you sell. Here's to a healthy and functional bottom line.

Copyright 2005 by Diane Baedeker Petit
This article originally appeared in the April 2005 issue of Growing magazine.

Let customers take produce for a test drive

2006-10-15T11:14:00.000-07:00

When I was in high school, I worked for a mall cheese store whose cornerstone marketing technique was sampling. Along the counters were stations armed with an open package of cheese, crackers broken into small pieces, and a knife so that we could offer customers a tiny taste of featured products. On slow nights, we’d wheel a butcher block table out to the store’s opening on the mall and cut a 50 pound block of cheese into half-pound pieces, all the while offering samples to passersby.

This was Sales 101: attract the customer’s attention with activity, pique their interest by engaging them in conversation about the product and close the deal by giving them a taste, thereby convincing them – through their tastebuds – that they must have the product.

This technique works for produce just as well as for cheese. Recent research by the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) that explored what makes consumers decide to buy fresh produce has found that taste remains the top purchase influencer. Taste was the key factor in all regions of the U.S. as well as among men and women.

According to PMA President Bryan Silbermann, the challenge for produce marketers is to offer shoppers new flavors and textures to engage their senses. “As marketers, our focus should go beyond getting produce from ‘seed to store’ and be devoted toward getting fruits and vegetables ‘from seed to stomach.’ The way to do that is to consistently deliver a flavorful and memorable experience,” said Silbermann.

Customers might be reluctant to try a new apple variety without knowing what it tastes like. If you run a retail store, you no doubt have seen shoppers sneak a taste of small fruits and veggies like grapes or green beans but most are not going to bite into an apple in the store unless they have paid for it. So why not help them along with their buying decision by offering them a small slice of that new variety.

In another PMA consumer survey, consumers said that they would be much more likely to purchase produce if samples were offered. Interestingly the percentage of consumers who would be more likely to buy if samples were offered was greatest in the Northeast at 67 percent.

Hands-on marketing is even gaining a foot-hold at the ultimate advertising event: the Super Bowl. According to a Wall Street Journal article, marketers were more interested in the 83,000 people attending the Super Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla, than the estimated 88 million viewers at home. Companies like Motorola and Campbell Soup did not spend the $2.4 million to buy a 30-second network advertising spot during the game but instead had representatives near the stadium enticing potential consumers with new products. Campbell’s planned to give away 100,000 tastes of chili and soup to hungry tailgaters.

And using taste as a sales technique isn’t limited to selling to retail customers; it works just as well with wholesale buyers too. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to attend a food trade show, you know that they are all about sampling. If you find yourself headed to Chicago for the annual Food Marketing Institute’s Supermarket Industry Convention, for example, don’t worry too much about dining out. You’ll be quite full when you leave the show floor. All those tiny samples add up.

If you do decide to sample produce in your farmstand, at a farmers’ market or at a trade show, be sure to give some thought to health considerations. The town board of health may their own food handling regulations with which you must comply. Also, PMA has guidelines that they provide to their trade show exhibitors, and which can be easily adapted you’re your purposes. The guidelines are available on-line at www.pma.com.

When you think about it, you wouldn’t buy a car without taking a test drive, and you usually don’t buy clothes without trying them on. Fruits and veggies aren’t so different…they just taste a whole lot better.

Copyright 2005 by Diane Baedeker Petit
This article originally appeared in the March 2005 issue of Growing magazine.

The Tomato Soup Marketing Lesson

2006-10-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

So, I’m in the soup aisle at the grocery store one day looking for tomato soup and I realize that buying a can of tomato soup isn’t as simple as it used to be. There are many more choices offered by the major tomato soup brand (you know, the one with the red label) than there were when I was a kid. There’s the standard size can of condensed soup (now with a pull tab top), the family size, the ready-to-serve with the twist-off cap, and the single serving size in a microwavable package.

Inside these diverse packaging options is basically the same product. Oh sure, you might have to add water to some of them but other than that it’s essentially the same on the inside. The price on the outside, however, varies greatly, especially when you consider the unit price. So, why would a company offer the same product so many different ways at so many different prices?

Well, I suppose you could call it niche marketing, but in effect they are trying to fill almost every soup niche. The story here is that the company knows all of its customers and is giving each what he or she needs. There’s the customer with a family that needs to feed several family members at a value price. There’s the single person who wants to have just a mug-full of soup at a time. Then there’s the worker who wants to bring soup for lunch and heat it up in the office microwave. Lastly, there’s the traditionalist who has bought condensed tomato soup in the small can for years and years.

How does the company know who these people are and what they want? Market research. By conducting extensive market research, which may include surveys, focus groups and retail sales data, they know that some customers want value, some prefer convenience, and some just want the same product they have always purchased.

This is an important lesson for anyone whose business is selling a product to a customer. You must know who your customers are and what they need, then position your product to fulfill those needs. This applies as much to fresh produce as it does to canned soup.

Knowing what your customers want and need can help you make decisions about what to plant, how to display it, whether or not to package it, whether or not to process it, and what related products to offer.

Of course, you may not be in a position to conduct expensive market research with telephone surveys and focus groups. If you are, great, but there are other ways of getting to know your customers.

You can solicit feedback through a form on your website, put a customer comment card in each customer’s bag, have employees ask customers a few predetermined questions at the checkout counter, or simply talk with customers and jot down notes on what they say. The Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) suggests having employees write down customers’ compliments and complaints, then discuss the results at staff meetings.

Also, paying attention to general trends in food marketing, can help you figure out what your customers will be looking for. For example, if you notice that supermarkets in your area are emphasizing prepared foods or low-carb foods, you might be able to find a way to capitalize on these trends.

As a small farm owner, you can’t fill every niche by offering all things to all customers like a big soup company, but you can try to find out a few key facts about your customers and adjust your products and services to meet their needs.

Copyright 2005 by Diane Baedeker Petit
This article originally appeared in the February 2005 issue of Growing magazine.

The Power of a Good Picture

2006-10-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

In October 2004, when the Boston Red Sox headed into the World Series after the most dramatic comeback in sports history, a local farm saw not just a great moment for New England sports fans, but also a marketing opportunity. Wilson Farms in Lexington, Mass., used 10,000 pounds of pumpkins and 1500 pounds of butternut squash to create a 100-foot long World Series scoreboard in one of their fields.

Aerial shots of the pumpkin scoreboard, which was updated daily throughout the four game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals, were published in newspapers around the region, broadcast on numerous television stations, and even included in the opening of the game broadcasts.

Now that’s a perfect example of guerrilla marketing and it illustrates the power of a good visual. The folks at Wilson Farms found a way to get involved in and capitalize on a current major news story. The image of all those pumpkins and squash spelling out “2004 World Series,” “Red Sox” and “Cardinals” a few days before Halloween appealed to news people on several levels: it was a different angle on a major news story, it was seasonal, and it was local.

The old adage that “a picture paints a thousand words” may be hackneyed but it’s true. Plenty of information can be communicated with a picture. More than that, pictures can evoke emotion and create an impression more efficiently than the written word.

When you’re trying to get publicity for your farm, don’t be too disappointed if you get a photo and caption in the newspaper instead of an article. A photo above the fold on the first page can be more effective than a story on page 10. It can sometimes even be more effective than advertising.

In fact, Janice Wentworth of The Warren Farm and Sugarhouse in North Brookfield, Mass., told me once that the Worcester Telegram and Gazette newspaper did a photo with their dog Molly patrolling their tomato display. A week later, Jan and her husband Dale ran an ad in the same newspaper for tomatoes. Every customer who came to the farm to buy tomatoes, without exception, according to Jan, said they saw the photo but no one said that they saw the ad.

Now, that’s not to say you shouldn’t advertise. Rather, think about finding ways to get photos of your farm into the local newspaper or magazines and even video footage on television, as part of your marketing plan.

So, how do you go about it? First you’ve got to find something that’s photo-worthy. On a farm there are plenty of photogenic subjects. Look at the type of images that newspapers typically run as stand alone photos to get a sense of what they will use.

Most daily newspapers prefer to have their own photographers shoot the photos they use. So, if there’s time, call the paper and ask to speak to the photo desk to alert them of a photo opportunity. If a “photo op” presents itself unexpectedly, take your own photo, then send it to the local paper.

You can mail a conventional print, or e-mail a digital photo as most papers and magazines will now accept digital photos, providing the resolution is high enough. Being able to e-mail photos is a huge advantage as it lets you get them out in a timely manner. It’s best to do a little research in advance to find out which papers and magazines accept unsolicited photos and how they prefer to receive them.

And, of course, publicity isn’t the only use for good images of your farm. If you’ve got a website, publish a newsletter, or are planning a brochure, photos will give folks a better picture of your farm and what you offer, literally.

So, start looking at your farm in terms good photo opportunities and create your own opportunities whenever you can. You may not always have something as big as the Red Sox in the World Series to capitalize on, but with a little creativity you’ll find plenty of ways to hit a marketing grand slam.

Copyright 2004 by Diane Baedeker Petit
This article originally appeared in the January 2005 issue of Growing magazine.

Old Marketing Concept Becomes Guerrilla Marketing Tactic

2006-10-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

Have you heard about viral marketing? What about undercover marketing? Buzz marketing, stealth marketing, live commercial, or roach bait? They’re all pretty much the same thing and the latest in marketing tactics. Marketing gurus are attempting to engineer the old word-of-mouth concept into low-cost paid advertising.

In case you haven’t see one of the many stories on television “news magazine” shows or on the Internet, here’s how it works: A company hires “actors” to go out into public places and strike up conversations with people about how great the company’s product is. The key to this tactic is that the targeted consumers never know that they are being marketed to by a paid salesperson. For all they know, the pitchman is just another person on the street or another patron in a bar.

The goal is to generate a “buzz” about the product. It’s like that old shampoo ad: “I told two friends and she told two friends, and so on and so on.” That’s where the term viral comes in. It’s yet another “guerrilla” marketing technique.

The scenario reported on a recent episode of “60 minutes” was the case of a new tobacco company that was launching a new cigarette. They paid some attractive young women to go into bars, light up a cigarette, leave the pack on the bar, and wait for someone to bum a cigarette. When that happened, they went into action talking up the qualities of the product.

Another scenario involved a young couple, posing as tourists on a busy city street, stop a passerby and ask him to take their picture with a camera phone. When the picture-taker seems interested in the phone, the couple touts the product and even offers to e-mail information on it.
The reason why this marketing tactic allegedly works is that the pitch is coming from a supposed impartial third party. That’s the same reason why news articles about your business are so valuable.

So what does this new-wave marketing have to do with farm marketing? Well, I’m not suggesting that farmers hire people to go undercover to pitch their produce in public places (though if anyone tries it I’d love to know about it). Instead, I think that this phenomenon underscores what we’ve always known about the importance of word-of-mouth.

As a local farmer, you’ve got a word-of-mouth advantage: other local people know you personally. You already have a great deal of credibility. According to Ivan Misner on Entrepeneur.com, word-of-mouth marketing is “more about farming than it is about hunting” or, in other words, it’s about cultivating relationships within your community.

Some companies are trying very hard to artificially generate the same results that occur naturally when customers have a good experience with a business or product and tell their family, friends, neighbors and coworkers. That’s a pretty powerful lesson for small business owners.

What do we learn from that lesson? That providing good customer service and quality products, as well as developing relationships, is absolutely critical because customers talk. It doesn’t matter if your advertising effectively brings in new customers. If they have a bad experience at your farmstand, they’ll tell others.

In fact, many marketing experts say that customers are more likely to talk to others about a bad experience than a good one. So, to a certain extent, paying attention to word-of-mouth is more about damage control than proactive marketing. A savvy consumer would know that intuitively and might be able to spot an undercover marketer. A stranger going out of their way to laud a product would seem odd.

There are already plenty of critics of undercover marketing whose chief complaint is that it’s deceptive. I suppose that if this marketing technique becomes widespread, customers will become jaded or cynical. They won’t know when they are speaking with satisfied customer or a paid pitchman. That could have a negative impact on old-fashioned word-of-mouth. People will start to distrust anyone who speaks glowingly about a product.

Viral marketing, undercover marketing, live commercials – whatever you call it – may turn out to only be a fad. If that’s the case it will at least be a fad that serves to remind us of the business fundamentals we’ve known all along.

Copyright 2004 by Diane Baedeker Petit
This article originally appeared in the October 2004 issue of Growing magazine.

Stay Ahead of Consumer Trends

2006-10-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

Maintaining your marketing edge means keeping up with – or at least being aware of – consumer buying trends. So, short of doing your own consumer study, a costly and time consuming proposition, where can you get consumer trend information? On-line, of course.

Several websites designed for the grocery industry offer some good up-to-date consumer trend information, much of which can be applied to farm marketing with a little creativity.

Supermarketguru.com features news and information for anyone interested in the food industry: consumers, food producers and marketers alike. Of particular interest is a section specifically for marketers (click on the link on the left-hand navigation bar). This section includes downloadable industry trend presentations, links to free food industry e-newsletters, and other resources.

The site, which is run by national consumer television reporter Phil Lempert, also includes new product reviews and gives visitors the opportunity to rate products. Farm marketers producing or considering producing value-added products, might be able to glean some ideas here and learn what has worked or hasn’t worked for others.

The Food Marketing Institute’s website – http://www.fmi.org/ -- offers some free consumer trend information and industry facts and figures. More in-depth information is available for members only, or can be purchased. The best offering by FMI, however, are two free e-newsletters which digest industry news and trends.

The FMI Daily Lead e-newsletter compiles food related news stories from around the country and overseas. The newsletter, which can be received in either HTML or plain text format, gives a brief synopsis of the news story and a link to the particular newspaper’s website.

“Facts, Figures & the Future” is a monthly e-publication produced by FMI and edited by Phil Lempert that delivers the latest consumer data and trend information. The newsletter can be read on the website or by e-mail subscription.

The United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association (http://www.uffva.org/) also offers an e-newsletter, the UFFVA Smart Brief, which is very similar to the FMI Daily Lead. They are both, in fact, produced by a third party service called SmartBrief, Inc.

While the FMI Daily Lead includes news on all aspects of the grocery industry – products, management, labor, non-food items – the UFFVA Smart Brief tends to focus more on produce marketing, though not exclusively. Many of the same news stories appear in both e-newsletters.

The Produce Marketing Association website (http://www.pma.com/) includes plenty of news and information on produce marketing topics and issues. PMA offers an e-newsletter as well. According to the website, the e-mail newsletter is only for employees of PMA member companies, but anyone can read it on the website.

So, now that you know there is plenty of consumer trend information out there, two questions remain: will you have time to read and digest it all and what will you do with the information once you have it?

Finding the time has to be the biggest challenge, but it’s got to be a little easier today with these electronic resources that summarize information and deliver it quickly.

Unfortunately, none of these resources are targeted specifically to farm marketers so it will require weeding through any irrelevant information and being creative in finding the trends that can apply to fresh produce sold on the farm or at a farmers’ market.

But shoppers are shoppers no matter where they shop, and if they are looking for convenience or variety or unusual products, why not find a way to offer them what they are looking for to stay in the marketing game.

Copyright 2004 by Diane Baedeker Petit
This article originally appeared in the August 2004 issue of Growing magazine.

Mixed messages in consumer research

2006-10-15T10:57:00.000-07:00

A recent national survey of U.S. consumers discovered that, when it comes to purchasing fruits and vegetables, consumers are primarily influenced by flavor, according to the Produce Marketing Association (PMA). Yet only one percent said that where it’s grown was the most important determining purchase factor. While this news might seem discouraging to growers who tout the fact that their produce is locally grown, it can also serve as a challenge to growers to help consumers make the connection between “local” and “flavorful.”

Other important factors in consumer produce buying decisions are appearance and health benefits, followed by price and freshness. Other important reasons included buying out of habit, buying items that are liked or needed, what’s on sale, and what’s in season.

It’s interesting too that, according to the PMA survey, consumers are mindful of freshness and seasonality, yet, again, rate origin so low. This might say that a consumer is only interested in how a product benefits him or her. In other words, as long as a tomato is flavorful, attractive, inexpensive and fresh, the consumer doesn’t care where it came from.

That might be true for some but it may be an inaccurate or incomplete picture of your typical customer. It’s only human nature to base personal preferences on personal benefits, so you might conclude that it doesn’t matter if you label your produce with your farm name, state, or region, as long as it’s fresh and flavorful people will buy it.

On the contrary, a label identifying produce as locally grown should help local consumers know that it is fresh, and therefore, flavorful by distinguishing it from produce trucked from across the country.

It should be a no brainer for consumers to make that connection, but on-going public education about the benefits of locally grown produce is never a bad idea. And your customers are probably sophisticated enough to take into account other factors such as how buying local produce benefits the local economy and environment, so why not point that out as well.

Label your produce as local but also back up your label with supporting information on why local is better. You can do this with point of sale materials, in your advertising, and in your publicity efforts. If you participate in a regional “buy local” campaign, the campaign is probably doing much the same thing.

Newark, Delaware based PMA is a not-for-profit global trade association serving over 2,400 members who produce, distribute, and market fresh fruits, vegetables, and related products worldwide.

“PMA members have told us they want to know more about consumer issues and have identified this area as critical to their businesses,” said PMA President Bryan Silbermann. “We want to provide our members with valuable insights and trends that will help drive consumption,” he added.

It’s just as important for small and medium-sized growers to stay abreast of consumer trends and preferences, as it is for large grocery retailers.

Other highlights from the survey were: consumers ages 60 and older are more likely to buy produce for health benefits; consumers with incomes between $25,000 and $50,000 are also more likely to buy produce for health benefits; apples are purchased more often by consumers aged 18 to 45 and those who have children; grapes are purchased more often by African Americans than Caucasians.

What can you do with that type of information? Research the demographics for your county to learn the age, income, educational and racial make-up of your community, then promote the characteristics of your products that are most important to the market segment you want to reach. Demographic data is available on the U.S. Census Bureau’s website at http://factfinder.census.gov/.

The bottom line on consumer research like the PMA survey is that even if the news appears negative, you can find a way to use the information to your advantage. But then this will come as second nature to folks who are quite accustomed to making cider and jam from drops.

Copyright 2004 by Diane Baedeker Petit
This article originally appeared in the June 2004 issue of Growing magazine.

Have you jumped on the “buy local” bandwagon?

2006-10-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

They say there is safety in numbers. That could be one way to look at why many local farmers have joined forces with each other and non-profit organizations, community groups and state agriculture departments to market their products through “buy local” campaigns. Such efforts not only offer economies and efficiencies in advertising and promotion, but also present a united front for agriculture in a given region.

The “buy local” concept and associated campaigns aren’t exactly new, but there seem to be more of them and the focus has shifted. Statewide campaigns like “Vermont Made with Pride,” Jersey Fresh,” and “Massachusetts grown…and fresher!” date back to the 1970s and 80s and were spearheaded by state agriculture departments. While some of those slogans and logos may still be around, there are new trends in promoting local farm products.

Today’s typical “buy local” campaign is coordinated by a non-profit organization, is focused on a region within a given state, asks participating farmers to become “members,” and offers members services beyond cooperative advertising. Such services can include educational workshops, business training, special events, and technical assistance.

In Massachusetts such campaigns include “Berkshire Grown” in Berkshire County, “Be a Local Hero” organized by Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) in the Connecticut River Valley, and the campaign organized by the Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership which simply proclaims “Buy Local” on its logo.

The narrower focus of latter day campaigns is probably more in line with how consumers define “local.” Does a shopper in Plymouth, Mass., consider produce from Amherst, Mass., local? Maybe…if the only other choice is produce from California. But if the Plymouth shopper can find produce from Westport, Mass., all the better.

The key to shoppers being able to find local produce is being able to identify it. That’s where these “buy local” campaigns shine. They all offer identifiable logos that should be highly visible in the area through advertising and usage by members.

The fringe benefit of consumers knowing that they are buying produce grown within a few miles of their home is the increased awareness of farms in their own community.

These campaigns seem to be working. Surveys conducted by CISA show that 78 percent of those polled could recall the campaign and it’s message, 86 percent viewed the effort favorably and 80 percent were convinced that they should change their buying habits.

Each campaign differs emphasis. Some focus on wholesale marketing through supermarkets, others on retailing at farmstands and farmers’ markets, and still others through high-end white tablecloth restaurants. Regional differences in demographics and the food marketing climate perhaps determine where that emphasis is placed.

Any type of joint venture with competitors can certainly go against the grain to New Englanders who are fiercely independent by nature, so it wouldn’t be surprising if there’s been at least a small amount of resistance to these cooperative efforts. For many farmers who do participate, however, there have been valuable rewards to be reaped.

So is it what’s in it for you? Maybe nothing…if you’ve got all the business you can handle. But if you think your bottom line could benefit from increased visibility and if you see the value of increased visibility for all farmers in your area, then participation in a “buy local” campaign might be right for you. Remember, there’s safety in numbers.

Copyright 2004 by Diane Baedeker Petit
This article originally appeared in the April 2004 issue of Growing magazine.

Selling the Farm Experience

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So, it’s late summer and you’ve got sweet corn and tomatoes out front in your farmstand. You’ve got apples in the orchard ripening for pick-your-own season. You’ll soon be pressing cider and baking apple pies. But are you really selling those things? Or are you actually selling something a little less tangible?

Think about it. Why would a customer drive miles out of their way to come to your farmstand when they can pick up all of those things, plus everything they need for dinner, not to mention health and beauty aids, greeting cards and motor oil, at the supermarket? The farm experience, that’s why.

That’s your edge over today’s mega supermarkets, big box supercenters, and wholesale clubs. Where else can a consumer chat with the person who grew their food, enjoy the country scenery, let their kids pet some farm animals, and maybe bring the whole family to pick apples? Combine that with fresh high-quality produce, baked goods and other items and you’ve given folks a reason to go out of their way.

The growing popularity of agri-tourism illustrates that there is a demand for the farm experience such that people will plan their vacations around it. Experts say that this demand springs from the desire to reconnect with our rural roots and the land, even as each new generation of Americans get further from those roots.

Now, all of this may not be news to you. More and more farmers are doing whatever they can to enhance their customers’ farm experience and are capitalizing on this trend. On one end of the spectrum are those farms that have converted almost the entire operation to “agri-tainment” and sell few, if any, actual farm products.

While something that extreme may not be for you, there is a range of things that you can do on a smaller scale to enhance your customers’ farm experience, including:

Appeal to the senses. Creating visually attractive product displays is a no brainer for farmstand operators, but have you thought about how your stand smells? Baking pies, mulling cider, or roasting corn on-site will greet customers with an irresistible aroma. And let customers sample featured products so their taste-buds can convince them to buy.

Make a date with your customers. Plan regular events that will give customers something to mark on their calendar. A fun event will not only give customers a reason to come to your farm, it will give them a reason to spend time there and buy products.

Make your customers feel welcome. If you’re around the stand, be sure to introduce yourself and greet customers personally whenever you can. But since you probably spend most of your time in the field and in the office, make sure that your staff is trained to be friendly and helpful.

Educate your customers. Display literature on how your crops are grown, recipes for preparing any unusual produce you sell, or a seasonal harvest calendar so folks aren’t expecting local strawberries in April. Offer cooking demonstrations or gardening workshops.

Be consistent. Your business is based on fresh high-quality locally-grown produce, but don’t skimp in other areas. For example, if you want to offer hot mulled cider on chilly autumn days, make sure it’s the real thing and not a powdered mix. Customers want to feel that everything they experience at the farm is authentic.

Let them help. The concept of pick-your-own has been around a long time, but perhaps there are other things with which customers can “help.” Pressing cider with a hand-crank, feeding farm animals, milking a cow, planting and, of course, harvesting are all chores that visitors might actually pay to experience. Be sure to consider safety and liability issues when you decide which farm activities people will experience.

Share your natural resources. Consider allowing neighbors and tourists to hike, cross-country ski or snowshoe in your orchards or woodlands. Team up with area naturalists or educators to offer nature walks or wildlife talks. Encourage artists and photographers to capture the scenery around your farm.

Marketing the farm experience is a concept that’s catching on nationwide, but farmers here in the Northeast may be better positioned to profit from the idea than anywhere else with a large number of highly-educated consumers close at hand.

So, understanding that you’re selling far more than fruits and vegetables, and understanding what customers are really looking for when they come to the farm, will help you to be a better marketer.

Copyright 2004 by Diane Baedeker Petit
This article originally appeared in the January 2004 issue of Growing magazine.

Making Headlines: Getting Publicity for Your Farm

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What is publicity and why should you want it? For the purposes of this blog entry, publicity equals news coverage. When a reporter from a newspaper writes an article about you or your business, that’s publicity. If a radio or TV station interviews you and the interview runs as part of the newscast, that’s publicity too.

Publicity is not paid advertising, regardless of whether it’s print, radio or television advertising, or even a personal appearance on a radio or television show offered to you as an advertiser. You may hear people refer to publicity as free advertising, but that’s misleading and a little insulting to the news media outlets that cover you.

News coverage has certain benefits that paid advertising does not. It not only increases your visibility, but your credibility as well. A good news story is a third party endorsement since it’s someone else saying good things about your farm. An ad, in contrast, is you saying good things about your own business. A successful publicity campaign can reach a wide audience at low or no cost.

Publicity should be only one part of your marketing plan, however. Since there are no guarantees in trying to get news coverage, publicity should complement, not replace, paid advertising.

The bottom line is good publicity is good for business. Good publicity is also good for the agriculture industry as a whole because it increases public awareness of local agriculture. Every time your farm is in the news the public is reminded that agriculture is an important part of the economy and your community.

Just like in farming, you have to use the right tools to get publicity. Your most important publicity tool will be a news release. A news release is like a news article that you write about your own business and send out to the media. Although it is intended for publication, many reporters will simply use it for background in writing their own news story.

A news release is not an advertisement, so it shouldn't sound like one. Be subtle with self-promotion in a release.
A news release is not a letter to reporters or editors. Write the release as if it were a news article. Your audience is the reader of the newspaper. Assume that whatever you write in the release will be printed in the paper.

There is no guarantee that your news release will be used. You have sent it unsolicited to a newspaper, radio station or television station and you are not paying for the space or airtime. They don’t have to use your release if they feel it’s not newsworthy, relevant or timely.

A professional looking news release has more credibility. The standard news release format is designed to make it easy for writers and editors to grasp the news quickly, edit it easily and know whom to contact if they have questions. Use letterhead and always include a contact name, a date and a headline.

A solid base of good contacts is the cornerstone of successful media relations. Seek out contacts at the local, regional and national level. Include newspapers, television, radio, wire services, cable TV, trade publications, and magazines. Be sure your list includes food, business, garden, environmental and travel writers.

Having a good relationship with a reporter can increase your chances that they will be receptive to writing a story about your farm. Getting to know a reporter also means that you’ll get to know the type of stories they like, or are assigned, to cover. You can pitch your story accordingly.

Be proactive and creative in your approach to publicity. Send out regular news releases, write letters to the editor or opinion pieces for the local paper on community issues, or call a reporter with a story idea or to offer a farmer’s viewpoint on an issue.

Plan events with publicity in mind. Don’t be afraid to do something a little off-beat. Gimmicks can work in getting publicity. Making the world’s largest apple cobbler and offering samples to customers will surely turn out a photographer or two. And if, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, think of how much you would pay for that much advertising space.

Copyright 2003 by Diane Baedeker Petit
This article originally appeared in the October 2003 issue of Growing magazine.

Have You Been Branded?

2006-10-10T11:14:00.000-07:00

If you ever talk to a marketing consultant about how to increase sales, no doubt the word “branding” will come up. That’s marketing jargon for something that you may already be doing instinctively: working to build strong name recognition for your farm and your products. If you haven’t given it any thought, perhaps it’s time that you do.

Strong brand name recognition leads to customer loyalty, an important sales and marketing goal. You want first-time customers to remember your farm or product name so that they’ll return to buy your product time and again, ultimately developing a preference for your product. Of course you’ve got to offer a quality product to go with the name, but no matter how good your product is, if the customer doesn’t remember your name you may never see them again.

Most of us learn brand recognition at an early age, and often remain loyal for life. What brand of peanut butter did you prefer as a kid: Skippy? Jiff? Peter Pan? Chances are that you still buy that brand today.

Some brand names have gained such a level of recognition that they have become synonymous with the product. If you cut your finger, do you ask for an adhesive bandage? You more likely ask for a Bandaid. If you have the sniffles, do you ask for a facial tissue? You probably ask for a Kleenex. You may have even used a brand name to refer to the process of photocopying. Did you ever ask someone to Xerox something?

When you think about brand names in food, major brands of processed products probably come to mind first. Hellman’s Mayonnaise and Miracle Whip. Land O Lakes butter and Keebler cookies. Pepsi and Coke. In fact, Coca Cola has to be the granddaddy of all recognizable brands. That red circle with the wavy white ribbon is known worldwide, from downtown Atlanta, where the company is headquartered, to little mountain villages in Guatemala.

There have been some very successful branding efforts for produce as well. Does the name Vidalia ring a bell? Or Freida’s Specialty Produce? Or Dole, Chiquita and Sunkist? Names like these are household words and shoppers often view the logos associated with these names as seals of quality.

So how does all this apply to you and your small local farm? Can you ever hope to gain the name recognition of Dole or Sunkist? Well maybe not on a national level (though, never say never), but you can certainly establish your name in your own community, state or region.

One Massachusetts farm, Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury (www.ciderhill.com), launched a branding effort last year. With the help of a marketing consultant, Glenn and Karen Cook developed a logo, package labeling, a brochure and a website designed to establish the farm’s identity and build recognition for the name.

A logo is the key component of a branding effort. A readily recognizable visual symbol used in combination with the company or product name establishes your brand. Think of it in terms of a rancher branding his cattle to identify them as belonging to his ranch, which is named to tie in with his brand symbol. The Lazy K Ranch in Tucson, for example, uses a sideways K for their brand.

Closer to home, the Cider Hill Farm logo is a stylized apple and if you look closely you’ll see the farm’s initials, CH, in the shape of the apple. Another local farm has a logo with a similar concept: Carlson Orchards of Harvard, Mass. (www.carlsonorchards.com), uses an apple formed from the letters CO on their cider and sparkling cider labels.

So how do you get a logo? Well, you can hire a graphic artist to design one for you. Or you can design it yourself, or maybe ask an artistic family member or employee to design one. One way or the other, whether the logo is sophisticated or homespun, simple or more detailed, it should be reflective of your business and your products.

Once you have a logo, use it everywhere: on letterhead, business cards, brochures, packaging, PLU stickers, point of sale displays, advertising, your website, apparel like t-shirts and caps (and make sure your employees where them), you name it. The Cook’s selection of branding tools – the logo, labeling, website and printed materials – are typical components of a branding effort, though certainly not a complete list of what can be done.

Whether you sell wholesale or strictly retail, you want the consumer to know you by name, not just an anonymous produce supplier or “that farm up the street.” You’ll know that your branding effort is successful when customers use your name when talking about your products. If you overhear something like “here, have a Cider Hill apple” or “how about a glass of Carlson’s cider” you’ll know you’ve been branded.

Copyright 2003 by Diane Baedeker Petit
This article originally appeared in the July, 2003 issue of Growing magazine