Direct Marketing-some of the basic principles
DEBBIE STILES-RENZI
Staff Correspondent
MORGANTOWN, W.VA. -
Some in agriculture still desire to
be producers exclusively and let a
middleman-wholesaler or other
broker do the marketing of their
harvest.
However, the majority of
vegetable and fruit growers are
now seeing the increased profit
opportunities presented by direct
marketing.
So how does a farmer, after years
of selling wholesale, get involved
m the retailing of his/her product?
Though most enter direct
marketing alone after a solitary,
sometimes haphazard decision
process, a group of over 100
growers, retailers and direct
marketing experts gathered in
Morgantown recently to share
their skills, knowledge, experience
and concerns. Many of the “tips”
presented by the group founding
the new West Virginia Direct
Marketing Association have
potential application and benefit
for most farmers.
Direct markets encompass four
types of retail options:
•Tailgate markets, where
produce is sold off the farmer’s
truck, usually from the side of a
highway.
•Farmer-owned/operated road
side stands, where the harvested
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•Farmers’ markets, a city-,
county-, state-, or in rare cases
independently-owned market set
up at a central location for area
farmers to bring their produce to
sell.
•Pick-your-own operations,
which bring the consumer to the
farm in order to harvest their own
produce.
All four of these options require
different levels of management
and varying amounts of labor and
time commitment from the far
mer. They also are similar in
several areas, making it possible
to learn about direct marketing
through study of some basic
principles.
KNOW THY CONSUMER
In order for a farmer to be an
effective direct, marketer, he/she
must understand the customer’s
perceptions.
“Your’re dealing with people,”
Dr. Richard Rund, Horticulturist
from Ohio State University put it
succinctly.
If farmers want the bigger profit
cut tht a retail price offers them,
they must “read” the consumer
correctly, know the market, and
use the “tricks” of the retailing
trade to get the product sold.
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One farmer who has used these
“tricks” to a profitable advantage
is Boyd Meadows of Milton. In 1970
he farmed strictly for sale to
wholesale buyers. Then he opened
a roadside market, an open-air
market, and began to sell his
produce at the Charleston tailgate
market as well. Now, with his son
in charge of field crops, his wife
taking care of the business end and
Meadows himself heading up
greenhouse production and run
ning the markets, this mild
mannered Cabell county farmer
has 45 acres in vegetable
production, 50 in apples and
peaches, and in PYO
strawberries, ui auamoa io <lO,OOO
square feet of greenhouse space.
Meadows has gone into direct
marketing in a big way; since 1970
when his first day’s take was a
humbling $28.00, Meadows now has
a healthy-six figure gross income
with eleven full-time and six part
time employees on his payroll. He
lists four things to consider in
establishing a roadside market;
• Location. Choose a well
traveled road for the market’s
location, to insure an adequate
sales volume.
• Set Up. Keep things orderly,
allow space for adeqaute parking,
and have a full, attractive display
area. Meadows emphasized the
importance of keeping a display
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case full of produce. “If you run
out, you didn’t have enough to start
with,” he told the audience. The
more that is displayed, the more
sold.
• Quality. In the produce
business, perhaps more than any
other, a reputation is built on a
“word of mouth” basis. Ad-,
vertising, it has been shown in
West Virginia, whether it is radio
or newspaper, is effective mainly
to introduce the new operation to
the community initially, or as a
means of letting established
customers know when crops are
ready to pick, and not to increase
customer numbers. The produce a
farmer sells directly to the con
sumer must be of premium quality
in order that people might “pass
the word” - a favorable word-on
to their neighbors.
• Pricing. “Three heads for a
dollar” sells cabbage better than
“Twelve cents a pound”. Why?
Consumer preferences indicate
that certain items are best
marketed by the piece instead of
by the pound. More produce will be
sold if the farmer markets it
keeping these preferences in mind.
Other surprising facts to con
sider at neak months and
seasonality of sales. May, Boyd
Meadows related, is a “sleeper”
month.
While most direct marketers
i : I
think July is the top grossing
month, in actual fact May is
Meadow’s top sales period and can
be for other producers, too.
Fresh, green, spring vegetables
are appealing to the consumer
after a long, cold winter.
With a little extra effort and
utilization of black plastic and
clear poly tunnels, growers can
market some early produce when
prices are quite favorable and
demand is heavy. Of course, using
greenhouses to get a head start or
to propagate bedding or vegetable
plants for consumers is also a
moneymaker in spring.
Surprisingly, while getting a
jump on spring is advantageous,
Meadows wants potential growers
of the dangers of selling out of
season.
West Virginians are very
seasonally-oriented in their food
choices, and trying to sell
anything, late or “out of season”
can be a marketing disaster. “Sell
strawberries in strawberry
season,” Meadows advised.
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