 Today I'm going to be discussing marketing your farm products and that's kind of a vague title. But today I'm going to briefly cover the different marketing channels that you can go through or the different ways you can combine them. But I'm also going to spend a good bit of time today talking all about market strategy, something I really haven't had a lot of time to go in-depth in before. Okay, so to start with, there's really two big categories when it comes to marketing channels, you have direct sales or wholesale. Direct sales are things like farmers market, online sales, you pick, farm stand, anything where the farmer is selling directly to the consumer. And the wholesale side is essentially anything where there's an intermediary between the farmer and the consumer that counts for things like school, retail stores, restaurants, other institutions, something like a farm cooperative would count as well. And, you know, I had to start off with a chart of some sort. So the last local food survey was done and processed in 2015. And I really just wanted to show y'all that 34% of foods sold through the intermediate markets and institutions that accounted for the largest share of local food sales. So you can see that the pie chart on the left, that great area 34%, that's how much of local food sales came from direct to consumer sales. And on the right, it really just kind of breaks it down even further. But I just wanted to show that initial that roughly about a third of it came from the wholesale market. This next chart, this is the last one I swear is really just to compare that just because you spend a lot of time in one of these marketing channels that is not necessarily translate to being profitable in that market channel. So looking at this pie chart on the left you see that the CSA that took up about 18% of their total labor hours. But if you look at the pie chart showing their growth sales, it accounted for 45% of their total growth sales. That's a pretty good return in my eye, but you can also look at the other categories and just see that some of them correlated about the same. Some of them, you know, had greater or less returns than the percent of labor that was spent in that market channel. So talking about selling in the wholesale market, branding is important when you're selling wholesale but it's a little less extensive marketing is required than if you're selling direct to the consumer. You still need to invest in branding that can be translated through the market that you sell through something. You still want your brand to be visible to consumers that are buying it from that distributor or school, and you still want it to be known where that product is coming from. But typically, there's a lot less marketing involved in it. There's also a lot less labor after harvest than when you're selling direct. That's something that you really have to focus on when you're selling wholesale or things like consistency, and that's consistency in quality and in volume. You also have a lot more post harvest handling, you've got to package it in a way that that distributor or that reseller or even that school can handle it. It also may require additional certifications. Farmers really like to sell wholesale just because of the efficiency side of it. A lot of their work is done after the harvest. They're really not spending time talking to people one-on-one selling their produce to farmers. They harvest it, they sell it, it's off their hands. And also, I saw this report is called the state of local report done by Forger. And they surveyed consumers that shop primarily in grocery stores and saw that 93% of those consumers are disappointed that grocery stores choose to buy from industrial giants instead of local suppliers. So it just kind of goes to show that consumers are looking for those local supplies in their grocery stores. When you're selling wholesale, you're really adding to the convenience for the consumer. You know, they're already buying it in a place where they're buying 90% of their other home goods. But I really just thought that statistics, it stuck out to me because it just showed that consumers pay attention to what their grocery store supplies and that they're disappointed or that they desire food from local growers. All right, now selling direct, there are a lot of other things to take into consideration when you're selling direct to the consumer. You really, you need to have some diversity in the crops that you offer. You're going to spend a lot more time marketing your crops after the, after you harvest them. You're also one of the pros to selling direct is that you're going to get a higher price point, but you didn't need to take into consideration the time and effort and labor that's spent in all this post harvest marketing. There's also the additional customer interaction and additional marketing that's required just in general essentially everything after after harvesting can be considered marketing. You're just working to sell the products that you have they're not already promised to someone. All right, and another statistic that I like out of that report was that 96% of consumers say that they feel locally grown and locally locally grown and locally produced food is the freshest, healthiest and most nutritious food available. Not necessarily a stat of a fact, but that is just something that consumers say they feel. And they showed in that survey that 96% almost all of the consumers feel that locally grown produce is the freshest, the healthiest the most nutritious food available. All right, and so I put together. This is not a chart I don't think it might count as one but I really wanted to demonstrate a lot of the things that are required when selling direct or selling wholesale. So if you look at the left side of these arrows, that shows what's required for direct marketing, higher crop diversity, higher customer interaction and a higher price point. You don't necessarily have to have as much volume, and you don't have to have as much post harvest handling. But if you look at the other side so with wholesale you have to have to handle you have to handle your produce a lot more. You need to have a higher volume most of the time, your price point is lower that kind of matches up with the high volume lower price, lower price point. Lower customer interaction, and you also tend to have less crop diversity because you don't have to provide everything a customer may have interest in, you could just grow one crop and sell it wholesale, all at once. A couple of questions you could ask yourself when you're trying to choose the right marketing channel. So what is your production like where you located and what is your local population like. So if you look at the pros and cons you could come up with a much more detailed list. Then this chart, then these arrows that I have on this slide. But just look at the pros and cons more detailed and look at how they fit into your operation, but also look at what your customers want. So just a couple examples of customer types and the marketing channels that they line up with. So, imagine if your target audience would be foodies people that love to try new things people that are always searching for something different, seeking an authentic experience. Some of the channels that would be great to sell for them would be like a farm stand a farmer's market a CSA. That group of customers tends to be the least price sensitive out of all three of these listed. The next group so say you're thinking of socially motivated consumers. They typically they vote with their dollar. They go out of their way to support businesses with a cause they support some channels that would be great to serve them in would be farm stand farmers market you pick or CSA. And traditional buyers, which is probably what a lot of us think of. They can be the toughest but also the most loyal customers. They have that traditional belief that if you're selling direct to the customer, you're cutting out that middleman so their price they should get the best price for that. They're typically pretty price sensitive and value driven. And some of the channels that would be great to market towards them would be something like a farm stand a farmer's market or you pick. They're really into buying things in both really value driven they won't the most bang for the book. All right, and so everything past harvest can be considered marketing. I wanted to briefly touch on the four piece of marketing. This is essentially marketing 101. So you have the product place price and promotion. Those are four elements of marketing that are crucial crucial. And kind of I wanted to give just a a short kind of definition of marketing. Marketing is the process of identifying customer needs, creating a product to satisfy those needs and then delivering on it. It's the act of sharing your product with those that want it. And I also just wanted to briefly show some of the marketing materials. Just some examples of it. These are tools that you'll use to promote your product. Of course I've got a lot of extension goods on here because I work for extension. Dr a his beginning former program is great about sending out marketing materials that way you always see their name around bags brochures cards. brochures and extension as a whole that we send out a lot of marketing materials we have a lot of that just so people have that logo have that brand in their mind. But also marketing includes conversations and face to face interactions. It can also include things like a sign for your form social media your website. And also one of the ways that you can kind of plan out your marketing one on one discussions with your consumers would be to write out the top five questions you get from customers say at a farmer's market or even on your website in your email. So, plan out those top five questions you get and how you answer them and kind of how you wrap it all up into your story. I'll put more on that in a little bit. But today, so I wanted to talk mostly about marketing strategy. And how farms. How it can go if you don't have marketing strategy so a good example of marketing without a strategy is saying hey, we'll grow what we can, and people will just come and they'll buy it. So having a market strategy is essentially knowing what you plan to sell and who you plan to sell it to having that plan in place can really set you up for success. So much more than just saying, we're going to grow what we can we're going to grow what I want to grow, and people will come and buy it you really need to have it thought out about what you can offer consumers how you're meeting the needs. So the next slide will go a little more in depth. So thinking about positioning your business or your farm. So the farms positioning statement will help guide your marketing plan, as well as helping you select a marketing channel. The more specific and detailed you can be when you fill this out, the better your statement will be. So real exercise to go through would be to think about so our farm produces blank. What do we offer. And then for blank, who's our target customer who are we offering that for. And then also what are those customers behaviors and activities that exist already. What are some of the things they do what are some of the things they already buy what are their activities. And that way you know, you can get an idea of what they're searching for what their needs are and how you can supply those needs. And so how to use your positioning statement so once you know your targeted audience, you can improve your product to provide even more value to the customer. And relating to pricing so customers are willing to pay based on perception. Well, you should ask yourself are your customers willing to pay based on perception or they only seeking value. That kind of goes back to those different kind of groups of consumers you can be targeting. Another question do you need to spend money on additional packaging presentation you know high in packaging or again are your customers only seeking value. Your customers activities can allow you to process them in a way that can allow you to add process added value added goods in a way that adds value and benefits to the to the customer. So you also can advertise where those customers already are where they shop. You can just better aim your advertisements. At the end of the day, a big question to ask when thinking of your proposition statement is to think where are your target customers already. And so we're going to revisit the four P's real quick so these four elements product place price and promotion, those are four elements that you can adjust in order to better serve your customers. And similarly to the positioning statement, the four P's that something that can be revisited throughout your time and business. You do not just need to make your positioning statement once and be done never look back at it. It's something that can be refined over time, but the core of it should not change and once you undergo a shift in operations or goals. And these four elements, those are things that you can adjust to better serve your customers but there are external factors that cannot be controlled. Things like demographics or economic environment, cultural environment, technical environment, the legal environment, things like new acts that are put into place or new laws. They go into place affecting your marketing plan. Another note that I wanted to hit on today was to price your products, according to your goals and your customers goals and not necessarily on your competitors. So when you price according to your competition, you're pricing according to their goals, and you may not even know what they are. I wanted to include this quote from Warren Abbott. I read his story about pricing how he previously priced. He was almost obsessed with how his competitors priced the same goods that he sold, but he's learned better since then. So I'll read his quote really quick, but he was fixated on what they charge for products I was selling, but I was pricing to their goals and I didn't even know what they were. But I've learned since then every time I've marketed a new product, I've come in with a higher price because I compete on the entire experience, not just the price. So really think about what you have to offer the customer and really base those prices off of your goals, your numbers, your cost of production. I also wanted to hit on the perception of value, and this is really so I talked about pricing in the last slide. And so everyone wants to compare these locally produced goods to the prices in Walmart the prices in food land whatever your big box store is close to you. But we're set up very small farms are set up very differently than a Walmart or a big box store. And essentially you need to think that your customers experience plus your marketing is what is going to make up their perception of value of your operation. So a small business, the two things that they're really going to provide are going to be great service and great quality. A big box store, they do not stand on the fact that they are at least most of us know they do not stand on the fact that they can provide the best service, or the best quality. They stand on the fact that they can provide the lowest price you don't go to Walmart expecting the best service, expecting an employee to be able to answer every single question you have. And at the same time, not like a small business, where they really want to educate you and they want you to really know any of the answers to the questions you have they want you to just learn about how great their products are, and that way kind of build a relationship with them. And that is what sets a lot of these small farms apart from big box stores. One of those just big distributors that they're acting as that intermediary. So they just get the goods and they sell them to the consumer, but with a small operation selling direct, you can provide quality options quality products and great service. And that's really, that's a big point that separates us from these other distributors and other marketing channels. Let's talk about branding a little bit. So consumers are buying the story of your farm as much as they are actually buying the physical products. And y'all know I can't mention branding without mentioning sweet grown Alabama. That's our state run branding program, something you can sign up for you get that stamp you get that label, and people automatically you're grown in Alabama, and there's also some other benefits but I'm not going too much in depth, but just that's an example of how branding can set you apart and can kind of help consumers buy into the story of your farm. And I wanted to also introduce a quote, just from a consumer behavior article, it says when the story of your product aligns with your consumer story about themselves. They make the purchase, and that was from back in 1982 that still rings true to this day in 2022. And I also wanted to mention this may not have even been noticed because a lot of a lot of branding when done well is not always super in your face. So I have my little extension logo in the corner of every slide that so that you know every slide that I'm going through that this is an extension program that I'm an extension agent that this information is coming through extension. And so branding is just really helping keep your brand, keeping your farm, your business on the forefront of people's minds, and knowing the story knowing what business they're buying into when they purchase your physical products. And so, if you wanted to create your story, and you know to help brand to help sell your farm products. There's really just three big parts of your story you need to include so a subject and audience and a method the subject is going to be your farm, your farm products or your farm story, the audience, who are you telling what do you want. What do you know about them and what do you want them to know about your operation. How are they connecting to the different facets of your brand. You know how are they connecting to the little different facets parts of your story. And the method is just, how are you going to tell the story and how are you going to convey it to the audience. And that can vary greatly. It kind of goes back to knowing your audience so if you know your audience gets a lot of information from your farm from Instagram, that would be a really good method, a really good place to tell your story. If you know you have a lot of customers, or you have a lot of followers on YouTube because you post videos on activities from your farm. You know it might be a really good idea to post a video explaining the story of your farm really draw people in, really give them an in depth view into your farm your products and you, because you as the farmer the owner. You're often wearing several different hats, you're the face of your operation. And so you're the only one that can really tell your story. In an accurate authentic way. But also, in addition to, you know, telling your story of your farm of yourself. I wanted to throw in a couple different ways that you can differentiate yourself from other operations from other businesses. And the big way to do that is to create meaning. Really, so you want to differentiate yourself from other small farms as well you want to have your own individual unique story. But first off, you want to differentiate yourself from the commodity category, if you're selling direct to consumers. So say that you're selling peaches directly to the consumer these peaches as an example. They're also in season and they can be bought at the big box store. You know for less than what you're selling it for they were shipped in from somewhere. They're in that big box store huge boxes of them. And you're selling directly to your consumers. You want to show that you're on a different scale than those big box stores, it can, it can include labels like the sweet grown. It can include labels like organic certified naturally grown, just putting the words locally grown on there so people know hey this is grown locally. You could put this is a small business that way, like maybe small farms about them something like that you just know to just show that you are of a different scale. You know every other place that a consumer could buy a peach you could put something like a woman run business, or fresh from your neighbor if you really want to hone in on that point that you're really local. This is super fresh, just create meaning any way you can. And ideally you want to keep them short like these you don't want to. It's easier to differentiate and to stick out in consumers minds with short meaningful statements. And so we've gone over your positioning statement. Branding the value perception of your operation. And so your next step would be creating a marketing plan. This can be part of a business plan, or it can be a standalone document. I'm not going to go through each and every one of these. This would be everything that you needed. If you wanted to put together a formal marketing plan. But if it's something for you to use yourself within your operation say you already have an existing operation you just want to come up with a more defined a more intentional marketing plan, you could do this. In a in a more informal format you don't have to have a cover page and executive summary. I would recommend doing a SWAT analysis just analyzing the strengths, weaknesses and the opportunities and threats to your operation. That's something I can go through with anybody if they have any questions about it. You can also email me at any time and I'll go through some of this with you. It's relatively easy to throw together it doesn't happen necessarily have eight parts. And I also think the budget part is really, really beneficial. I'll be speaking on that in a couple of weeks, but it can be something really informal just to help your operation be a little more focused more intentional in marketing actually having a plan. So some of the questions you could ask yourself when you're trying to come up with a plan. So what industry am I in, I'm assuming most everyone here is in the fruit and vegetable industry. But what's your product, what's your pricing structure, and that's going to depend on the next question your marketing channels. You got a mix of marketing channels you really need to know your pricing structure for each of those channels how they differ, you know, and, you know, how they're working for you, you know, maybe you sell some of your things, maybe sell some things to a restaurant at a high volume, a lower price point. You need to see how that's working for you in addition to, if you also sell it a farmer's market, you're getting a higher price point, but you're selling things by the pound, rather than by the crater by by the 50 pounds. And so what are your costs of production that something that's going to go back to the budgets enterprise budgets, something I'll talk about in a couple weeks. Or if you, if you ever want to see the enterprise budgets or me go through them with you, you could call or email me, but also think about who are your customers. Who are your competitors and where do you fit in, or how do you need to differentiate yourself, and then what promotional tactics do I want to use. And that kind of takes us back to the slide on promotional or marketing materials. How do you want to promote yourself. You could promote yourself solely online. If that's where a lot of your audience is if you know your audience. Looks at Instagram every day they want to see two or three posts a day or they look on Facebook every day that's where they get most of the information. You can do that but you do need to know your product your audience. Before you make that decision of you know what are my promotional tactics. And so now what you have a marketing plan. You can adjust it based on who will read it. Like I said just a minute ago if it's just for you if it's just for your employees. It can be a really casual informal format just something to help your business internally. But if it's something that you're going to show to a lender, government agencies or other organizations, they may want a more formal document. Some lenders require marketing plan, in addition to a business plan they want to know that you've thought about how you're going to market your products. And so if you are, if you do end up going the more formal route, or this is part of a business plan. A lot of those lenders will also want projections of cash flow balance sheets or other financial statements, but the two I listed are the the main two that they would want just to know that you've thought this through. You're not going. You're not marketing with no strategy saying hey I'm going to grow whatever I can grow and people will just buy it. Lenders do not want to hear that as a marketing strategy. That's actually a complete lack of strategy. They want to know I'm going to grow this for who, for my audience, and they do this. This is how I plan to reach them. So you really only need that formal format if it's going to be going to a lender or another organization. I also threw up my contact information in case anyone wants to call or email me to go over some of this more in depth.