Product

My apologies to William Shakespeare for mangling the opening phrase of a soliloquy spoken by Prince Hamlet in Shakespeare’s play by the same name. But, as producers start drawing up their marketing plans for 2019, market vendors are questioning whether sales from farmers markets are still truly profitable. An agency marketing person declared to me recently, “Farmers Markets in Maryland are dead”.  At the risk of misappropriating another literary quote, Mark Twain said,“ The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”.

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.”

Loyalty programs have proven themselves to be one of the best most effective marketing tools retail markets and service providers can implement for increasing revenue and repeat customers. As many as 84% of consumers say they are more apt to stick with a brand that offers a loyalty program and 66% of customers say the ability to earn rewards changes their spending behavior.

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.

Despite months of sales disruptions across every retail category, people are now eager to “get out and do or buy something.” Agritourism activities and events remain popular this year, abet different in activities and protocols. Cashless and online ordering are now the expected forms of purchasing. Holiday shopping for anything from Halloween costumes to Thanksgiving turkeys, and even Christmas gifts, has already begun.

The new buzz word in marketing is “pivoting. A pivot in business usually occurs when a company makes a fundamental change to their business after determining (usually through market research) that their product isn't meeting the needs of their intended market. The Covid-19 pandemic protocols have made producers and market outlets alike to pivot to more on-line ordering and pre-packaged products.

Packaging is more than just a way to get your product from A to B — it’s also an incredibly valuable customer touchpoint. In today’s age of “Social Media” moments and You Tube videos, your product packaging is an additional way to get extra marketing mileage for your “brand”. A product's packaging communicates many things, from what the product can do for your customers to your company's values. It is important to take some time deciding exactly what you want to accomplish by packaging your item, because for most food products, almost a quarter of the cost per unit that is realized comes from the price paid for packaging.

In March 2020, one in three people in the United Sates ordered food on-line with the expectation it would be delivered to their door. The hybridization of both direct and online sales channels has only accelerated as retailers, producers, and food entrepreneurs double down their efforts to capture more sales. Whether you have already pivoted to an e-commerce platform or are still considering building an on-line catalog, here are some important considerations for maximizing your e-commerce efforts.

Happy New Year 2021, and like every new year before, this is prime planning time for your business. But unlike every year before, 2020 has given producers marketing challenges tagged by terms such as “pivoting,” “resilience,” and even “survival.” We are going into a new year but with the old year’s problems, “How much should I produce, and are people going to keep buying my products at their current rate?