Do health claims mean healthier marketing?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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?

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