Whether you are a new farm trying be noticed or a more established producer looking to expand your customer base, targeted marketing strategies will make better use of your time and money. Join this workshop to learn how to apply classic marketing thinking to your farm business and learn practical and doable steps to define your niche and reach new customers.

1. Direct Marketing Strategies:
Connecting with Your Customer Base
Molly Nicholie

3. Nationally
Almost 30 percent of grocery
shoppers say they consider
purchasing food elsewhere if their
preferred store does not carry
local foods.
~AT Kearney Research
WNC
ASAP found that nearly three-
quarters of WNC residents deem
local food a somewhat or very
important consideration in
choosing a grocery store
~2014 Consumer Survey

4. WESTERN
NORTH
CAROLINA
THE REST OF
NORTH
CAROLINA
UNITED
STATES
Direct sales to consumers $8,311,000 $23,515,000 $1,309,287,000
Direct sales per capita $7.45 $2.72 $4.17
Direct sales: percentage
change 2007 to 2012
+69% -3% +8%
CSA farms 2012 148 431 12,617
Population/CSA farm 2012 7,533 20,031 24,880
Farms marketing products
directly to retail outlets
678 2,201 49,043
Percentage of all farms
marketing directly to retail
6.21% 4.38% 2.33%
Or one farm per X number of
people
1,644 4,429 6,401
Farmer average age 57.3 58.9 58.3

7. MARKETING PLAN
⦿Planning
⦿Pricing
⦿Promotion
⦿Distribution

8. BASIC MARKETING STRATEGY
⦿Develop a farm identity and logo
It is important to brand yourself (logo, a phrase, message etc.) so that
customers can easily identify your farm and products. Make your brand clear
and concise. Use this brand consistently to create recognition and loyalty.

9. BASIC MARKETING STRATEGY
⦿Label it local
The demand for local has increased significantly and labeling your product
local will help customers know it is truly grown and raised here in the region
(this is especially true if you are selling to a third party/wholesale).

10. BASIC MARKETING STRATEGY
⦿Take pictures
People love to see pictures of you and your farm and it connects them to your
farm and business. Take pictures throughout the season and during different
stages of production. This will give you lots of material to use in your
communications.

12. BASIC MARKETING STRATEGY
⦿The story behind your food – differentiating yourself
You have an authentic story to tell. Convey to your customers why your product is
amazing – the quality, freshness, how supporting your business supports the local
economy, uniqueness, personal connection with farmer and their family. You are
able to give customers a real story and this is valuable.

13. 2014 Consumer Survey of WNC Residents N=700

14. COST OF MARKETING
Money
● Paid
advertising
● Signage
● Promotional
Materials
Time
● Education
● Building
community
● Relationship
building
● Earned media

15. TARGETED MARKETING
⦿Most of us do not have mass markets
⦿Do not try to market to everyone
⦿Sell your product to “one person”

16. WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO REACH?
⦿This narrow focus is called a “market segment”.
⦿You can segment people by all kinds of factors,
like:
◼Gender or age
◼Price willingness
◼Interests
◼Location
◼Religion or ethnicity
◼Income
◼Size of Household
◼Local vs. tourist
◼Etc.

17. EXAMPLE
⦿Who is this woman?
Julie

18. SOME ANSWERS
⦿She is married.
⦿She has two children ages 7 and 10.
⦿They go to Emma Elementary.
⦿She is a nurse at the hospital.
⦿She spends time caring for her elderly parents.
⦿Her interests outside of family & work include:
◼Cooking
◼Being health conscious
◼Researching her family tree
◼Clemson football
SO HOW DO WE REACH JULIE?

19. In the places she is already looking!

20. SEGMENT A: PARENTS WITH KIDS AT A
LOCAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

21. PARENTS WITH KIDS AT A SCHOOL:
WAYS TO DISPLAY YOUR MESSAGE
⦿Sponsor school sports events in exchange for
logo placement/mention at those events.
⦿Advertise in the yearbook or monthly
newsletter.
⦿Sponsor school plays and other functions that
have a printed program.

22. KIDS AT A SCHOOL: PROMOTE YOURSELF
THROUGH INVOLVEMENT
⦿Offer cooking classes or
classroom demonstrations.
⦿Outreach to teachers and school
administrators about educational
field trips to your farm.
⦿Donate product to PTO
fundraisers and other school
events.

23. PARENTS AT A SCHOOL: THINKING ABOUT MEDIA
FOR THIS AUDIENCE
⦿Parents of school-age kids will tend to follow
certain patterns in media consumption:
◼Radio: Predictable drive time radio.
◼Some communities have targeted print media
for this group, such as:
• WNC Parent (Asheville Citizen-Times)
• Summer camp guides or summer activity
guides
• Special editions or inserts in local papers and
magazine

24. PARENTS AT A SCHOOL
⦿“Buying Club” type marketing
can work well in any place with
a critical mass of people
◼Create some kind of bulk
presentation of your product
• Apples by the bushel
• Side of freezer beef
• Case of 12 dozen eggs a
week
◼Organize a leader to
coordinate this program

25. THE TRICK
⦿Don’t just do one of these things. You
are creating a coordinated program.
⦿You are trying to reach the same
person 3-5 times with a consistent
message.
⦿In doing so, you are going to reach
other people like them, as well.
⦿Don’t do anything just once unless
you can really convince yourself it
was a bad idea.
⦿Be patient.

26. BACK TO JULIE
⦿She wants to be more
health conscious
⦿Therefore she has a focus
on health/exercise and is
specifically willing to
spend money and time in
those areas right now.

27. SEGMENT B: IDEAS TO REACH PEOPLE WITH
HEALTH, EXERCISE, WEIGHT LOSS
CONCERNS:
⦿Provide rack cards or bulletin board material to local
gyms.
⦿Introduce yourself to nutritionists, heart health centers,
and similar health providers.
⦿Sponsor athletic events like a 5k.
⦿Add lots of nutrition facts about products to your
website. Add a recipe section.
⦿Connect with natural food stores.
⦿Use targeted radio, TV, or newspaper. TV: food network
in your county; Radio: health-related call-in show;
Newspaper: health/exercise column.

28. JULIE WORKS AT THE HOSPITAL
⦿What can we do with that?

29. SEGMENT C: REACHING HOSPITAL WORKERS
⦿Meet with their HR director. Talk about local food as an
employee benefit.
⦿This could open the door to have posters or other materials
in break rooms or public areas of the workplace.
⦿Place paid ads in employee newsletters.
⦿Find one friend/ally on the inside. Offer them a free
share/product/etc. if they will be the “captain” in spreading
the word about a direct-ordering/delivery system.
⦿Offer to provide a “farm stand” on a certain day of the week
– either just your farm or you and a couple friendly
producers.

30. WE ARE STILL TALKING ABOUT JULIE
◻We’re just listing ways to reach one person (and similar
cohorts) based on a narrow set of characteristics, and
it’s STILL impossible to do it all. You could spend all
your marketing time and money for the next year on
the last 6 steps, and you might have some hope of
reaching Julie, as busy and distracted as she is.
◻So, be strategic and don’t try to reach everyone!

31. What other types of market segments might
you focus on in your community?

32. WHAT ABOUT COST?
“Hey Molly, this has been an intriguing workshop, but
I’ve analyzed all the ‘market segments’ in the
places around me and they mostly have one thing
in common:
Everyone is broke!”

33. COUPONS?
⦿Use coupons that promote value, not
discount / cheapness. “Value” means a fair
price but also refers to the perceived value
of your product. The goal is not to reduce
the price of your product; you want to
increase its value, and the right kind of
coupon can do that.
⦿Examples . . .

34. VALUE COUPONS
⦿A free tour of your farm with a
purchase greater than $X.
⦿A free sample of one of your
lesser-sold or less-understood
products with a purchase
greater than $X of a more
popular product.
⦿Receive free product for
referring a friend to a major
purchase.
⦿Offer bulk buying options for

35. Consider Your Product Line...Given
Your Marketing Context
◻ Don’t assume high-priced items will be more
profitable.They usually have a higher production
cost and more production risk, and a may have a
smaller marketing audience. The price is high for
good reasons.

36. FOSTER WORD OF MOUTH WITH A GOOD
WEB PRESENCE AND SMALL ADS
SOMEWHERE
⦿Don’t count on word of
mouth to work magically by
itself.
⦿Customers say “I heard it
from a friend” which tends
to make us undervalue other
kinds of earned and paid
advertising.

37. HOW WORD OF MOUTH REALLY WORKS
I heard it from
a friend
Then I saw
your sign
Then I saw
your rack card
Then I saw an
article in the
paper
That reminded
me to call you

38. HOW WORD OF MOUTH REALLY WORKS
Invest early in having nice
looking, consistent, web and
print materials, and/or regular
ad placements (however small) in
the media read by your target
customers. EVEN IF you think of
word of mouth as your primary
strategy.

39. Cost share and AG materials
NC Farms
Appalachian Grown Cost Share
http://asapconnections.org/tools-for-farmers/appalachian-grown-
certification/appalachian-grown-cost-share/

40. EARNED MEDIA
⦿Press releases
⦿Pitch stories
⦿Become the local expert about food and agriculture for
the local news

41. KEEP AND BUILD A LIST
⦿It is especially important to get contact
information for customers.
⦿Get email addresses and mailing
addresses. It is better if people opt in to
getting communication from you.
⦿Train everyone who represents your farm
to ask for this information, and create
sign-up systems to make it easy.
⦿Send mass e-mail or mail communication
selectively
⦿Social media is good for a staying
connected with customers throughout the
year - images, seasonal updates + farm
happenings.

42. MONEY ON THE CUSTOMERS YOU
ALREADY HAVE
⦿It is ten times easier to sell something else to
an existing customer who loves your business
than it is to find a new customer.

43. Build upon Existing relationships &
About Cross Promotions

44. ● Develop a farm identity and logo
● Label it local
● Take pictures
● Start with marketing to one person/market segment
● Tell your story (where they are already looking)
● Spend some money: Invest early in having nice looking,
consistent, web and print materials, and/or regular ad
placements (however small)
● Foster word of mouth: Try to reach the same person 3-5 times
with a consistent message, one or more of those time will be
from someone they know.
● Spend some time: Earned media, build a list, build on existing
relationship
● Be patient: This type of marketing is relationship based and
Molly@asapconnections.org
(828) 23No6-1282Now What?

45. QUESTIONS?
Molly@asapconnections.org
(828) 236-1282