Promotion

Food processing regulations are specific to each type of food. Different agencies regulate different types of food. Different food processing facilities may be restricted to producing only certain types of food. For example, processing regulations differ for perishable and non-perishable foods. Processing regulations differ for hazardous and non-hazardous foods.

I have a confession to make. I’m a blog reading junkie. I read five or six blogs every day. Some are about marketing trends, others about sustainable and regenerative farming practices, and some just because I like the writer’s topics and writing styles. I tell myself that this habit broadens my perspectives and serves to improve my skill sets. And they do, but isn’t this habit also part of my busyness every day?

Beware of “pouring money down the advertising hole!” Tailor your advertising and promotions to your current and prospective customers. Evaluate the results so you don’t keep spending money on ads or promotional campaigns that aren’t working.

Today with websites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and email to promote their products and services, does a business owner still need to invest in a sign? Absolutely!

Change is inevitable. The coronavirus showed us just how fast change alters our routine. Established direct sales channels vanished overnight, limited market times and attendance become the norm, breaks in the supply chains frustrated both buyers and suppliers, and there was an explosion of online marketing platforms and delivery options. This past year the word change was rebranded as a pivot.

Frozen foods are a pandemic powerhouse ringing in $65.1 billion in retail sales in 2020, a 21% increase compared to a year ago.” In 2020, frozen food sales grew in both dollars (+21%) and units (+13.3%), with nearly all types of frozen foods seeing double-digit sales increases...Feb 23, 2021.

I recently read that there are 16M new websites launched every month. That means that there are almost 200M new sites launched annually! These all contribute in multiples to the unfathomable amount of information on the Web. To that point - a Google search of the terms “On-line Marketing Tools” yielded 94M results. When I refined the search to the terms “Online Marketing Tools for Direct Farm Marketers” there were still 36M results.

In his book The Practice of Management, Peter Drucker declares the only one valid definition of a business’ purpose is to create a customer… Because it is its purpose to create a customer, any business enterprise has two—and only these two—basic functions: marketing and innovation… Nowhere does Drucker say our business is about our product or our production, it’s about creating a customer. Our product must satisfy a want or need. So, who doesn’t need food? And with all the “buzz” about buying local products, why are we still struggling to grow our customer bases.

A new global survey of consumer sentiment about the people who put food on our tables indicates that there is a lack of understanding of how providing safe, affordable food arrives, according to a new study from Cargill Inc. A majority of the respondents in the Food4Thought survey — 55% — believe farmers should care most about providing safe, healthy, abundant and affordable food. Farmers are under pressure to feed the world and protect the Earth’s resources through sustainable practices in addition to cost-effectively providing for their own families, the survey reported.”

Just before Christmas, the USDA released the results of its first Local Food Marketing Practices Survey. The survey asked about the marketing of food directly from farm producers directly to consumers, retailers, institutions, and a variety of local food intermediaries such as distributors and wholesalers that market and sell locally branded products.