Farmers must do marketing Marketing is part of management whether you as a farmer believe it or not. For too long the mam thing for farmers was to be a producer. That is no longer sufficient, if it ever was, to be successful. We as farmers must become marketers of our product. We must Kill THE TOUGHEST VINES IN THE ROUGHEST WEATHER. ORTHO Diquat will dessicate stubborn potato vines, and make your harvest cleaner and easier. No other harvest aid chemical delivers such con sistent, dependable results through cold and rain. With ORTHO Diquat, your harvest schedule won't change with the weather. And it won’t stain or corrode your equip ment as do other harvest aid chemicals, What’s more, ORTHO Diquat is registered for ground or air application. And, Diquat does the job without causing storage breakdown or affecting tuber quality. Stay on schedule and get the most from your potato harvest this fall with ORTHO Diquat. Chevron ** Ortho Chevron Chemical Company DIQUAT HERBICIDE-H/A Farm Talk Jerry Webb sell it to consumers who are bombarded on every side by ad vertisements from others who want their spendable buck. We must stop fighting the con sumer with slogans. What do farmers gain by antagonizing their only customer? How often would you go back to a store that insulted Avoid ate (dents Fbr safety read the entire label including precautions Use all chemicals only as directed Copyright«' 1985 Chevron Chemical C onfpanv All rights reserved you or ignored you every time you went in to buy an item? Farmers on a one-to-one basis are without question the most hospitable people on earth. Far mers as a group can be another matter. Let’s get back to the basics of selling our products. Back when there were a lot of small-farm, direct-to-the-consumers type of businesses, farmers dealing with the public soon learned to use “public relations.” The egg route man or woman was polite and usually had a pleasant word for everyone. The local dairyman knew his customers personally and greeted each one by name. The produce man knew just how ripe a customer wanted her tomatoes. There was a warm relationship that resulted in some loyalty. There is no reason that farmers today could not gam that same consumer loyalty if they used a little public relations and told the customers they were important. This is called advertising., For small operations the advertising might be mostly word of mouth from satisfied customers. Place Your Order Today... R/K AGRI SERVICE, INC. 500 Running Pumpßd., Lancaster, Pa. 17603 717-299-2541 PA. Toll Free - Other Toll Free- Richland, Pa. - Upper Marlboro, Md. -1-301-627-8700 Charlotte Hall, Md. - 1-301-884-4604 ADVERTISING Advertising is a necessary part of marketing whether it is the word of mouth type that small operations may use or the more formal news media ads used by big business. Let’s face it, Coke did not become No. 1 by saying, “let Pepsi do it.” Advertising comes in many parts: • Ads as most people know them in papers, on TV, on radio, as posters or placards on subways or other public walls. • Quality products-one of the Least recognized phases of ad vertising-without quality, a product may sell the first time but there will be no repeat business. • Appealing product-any livestock producer or dairyman knows that there are some things that animals like better than others. That is why many farmers put molasses in their feed, so the critters will eat it better-right’ • Appearances-who among you would buy clothing from a junk yard with rusty parts, greasy cloths, clumps of weeds, etc. strewn around? How many of your 1-800-732-0398 1-800-233-3822 1-717-866-5701 Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 3> 1985*09 customers do you think will buy your food product if they saw your farmstead? • Feelings-who are you most apt to buy from, the salesman who comes in and says buy from me because I deserve it or you owe it to me-or-the one who says you are a great person and I really ap preciate your business or your business is important to me and I want to meet your needs? The 15 cent check off in the dairy industry was the first really concerted national dairy ad vertising effort that provided enough money to do any good. It is hard to access the results of any advertising but for the first time there has been a lot of interest in osteoporosis (lack of calcium especially in women). Ads are effective or Coke and Pepsi would not be spending the bucks they are in their battle ovei first place. Just think, if the dairy industry could get their act together, milk could easily slip in ahead of both of them and become the undisputed beverage of the present and future. There is no question that quality will prevail. If you have a recognized quality product, con sumers will be willing to pay a little more for it. The beauty of most farm products is that the quality is there to start with. Poor handling probably does more to reduce a top quality product to average or below than we realize sometimes. Appeal is the name of the game. You could have the best ad cam paign and the best quality in the world and your product will go to waste if it has no appeal. We in the farming business need to learn how to study our consumers to see what they want. Remember in any part of our economy, wants have a habit of becoming needs. Yes, it is not only farmers and their families who have this happen. For example why don’t dairymen realize that they might be able to increase milk sales by offering new drinks based around milk. What about rootbeer flavored milk, or orange flavored milk, or milk with carbonated fizz in it with different flavors. Or for weight and choresterol conscious people why not a htc nulk (skim) in flavors including milk flavor (but also vanilla chocolate, raspberry). Part of tlu advertising money should be going to research and development t< ■ improve keeping quality and new products. At the risk of getting a few people upset, I am going to urge anyone who will listen to me to continue the 15 cent promotional program when it comes up for a vote this summer. Dairymen should at least give it a few more years to see if it will continue to help sell milk. Large Quantities of Sawdust I Available 1 10 cents per cubic foot f loaded on your truck * KONDOR LUMBER CO. I York, PA I 717-755-6841 I SERVING THE FARMERS FOR 113 YEARS HAMBURG SAVINGS EDI C and TRUST COMPANY Hamburg, PA Phone: 215-562-3811 A FULL SERVICE BANK WHATTO DO REFERENDUM
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers