Onbei
a farm
-And o
bazar
Joyce B
Amazement never ceases at the
unique and creative marketing
approaches that show up on an
almost-daily basis via the mails,
mass media, and
telecommunication.
Even in our comparatively
small, family-farm business oper
ation, we seem to have gotten on
more than our share of printed
material and dial-a-customer
marketing lists.
Take the orange double-folded
postcard mailing that fell from a
stack of miscellaneous mail a day
or two ago. It informed me that
due to an embarrassing error in
this particular company’s “MIS”
department, my name had been
left off a particular list of
computer-material users.
Probably. I’ve never heard of it.
And might MIS stand for Mistake
Department?
Actually it was a pleasure to
learn that I’d been left off some
thing when it came to mass mark
eting. But - they’d just discovered
it. Imagine that. Wonder how?
It had to do with some account
ing program. I have only one, and
that one happens to have origi
nated with the Farm Credit
system.
Anyway, they “feel responsi
ble” and are making a special offer
so that we users - and non-users,
GOOD FOOD OUTLET STORES
See Our Original
Kinds Of Nuts,
* -m
3,^
V ®A,««E4 %
cL"*
; . 4jj/
Processors Of Syrups, Molasses,
Cooking Oil, Funnel Cake Mix
& Shoofly Pie Mizes
(With or Without Syrup)
Good Food Outlets
Located At
L&S SWEETENERS
388 E Main St, Laola, PA 17540
717-636-3486 1-800-633-2676
GOOD FOOD OUTLET
Located At Good Food, Inc.
W Main St., Box 160, Honey Brook, PA 19344
215-273-3776 1-800-327-4408
WE UPS DAILY
in this case - could update our
programs for only “X” dollars.
And with six free months of tech
nical support.
They even apologized at the
end .... on this "official” letter, er
postcard .... in ultra business like,
but definitely eye-catching, pump
kin orange.
Our trash can eats well on such
days.
But at least the mail we can read
at leisure, unlike the telemarket
ing, which interrupts our days
with increasing and ever-more
maddening regularity.
Calls from salesmen of storm
windows and siding, cemetery
plots (no thanks, I’m not ready
yet), overruns of pens, long
lasting light bulbs, and on and on,
ad nauesum.
They call while we’re milking,
during meals, and after we’ve
settled down, finally, long after
dark and a day filled with chores,
to read the evening paper.
Some claim to be charities, ask
ing for support of some worthy
cause. How do I know their cause
is worthy and not some ripoff
scheme? Usually I’ll try to be rea
sonably polite, say I’m not inter
ested and hang up.
With others, my patience wears
thin. Fast
Certain agriculture products are
Line Of Golden Barrel Products Plus All
cans, Candies. Etc. At Reduced Prices
* CORN SYRUP
* PANCAKE SYRUP
* PURE MAPLE SYRUP
* SORGHUM SYRUP
* TABIE SYRUP
* COCONUT OIL
* CORN OIL
* COTTONSEED OIL
* PEANUT OIL
* SOYBEAN OIL
* CANOLA OIL
* 100 LB. BAG GRANULATED SUGAR
If you* local store
does not have it,
CALL OR WRITE
FOR FREE
BROCHURE
& PRICES
doing increased marketing of this
nature. The caller often claims to
be responding to some “request
for additional information”
you’ve sent in. Could be. But
probably not. We don’t send for
too much of that “additional infor
mation” stuff.
The information already
stacked up and falling over in piles
around here threatens some days
to bury us in smothering ava
lanches - and often isn’t even
appropriate for recycling as bed
ding in the heifer pens.
One such caller that rang in here
on a recent early morning, howev-
DENVER, CO In a just
released Gallup poll, 49 percent of
Americans could not correctly
define white bread as a wheat food.
Forty-eight percent incorrectly
identified oatmeal as wheat And
despite of advertisements
touting Cheerios' oat content 49
percent incorrectly characterized
it too, as a wheat food.
In short the poll revealed that
Americans are being bombarded
by fairly complex nutritional mes
sages without the educational base
to understand them. Revised gov
ernment guidelines urge consum
ers to cut fats while increasing
their consumption of grain pro
ducts and other complex carbohy
drates. But two-thirds (68 percent)
of Americans were unaware of this
change from the "basic four food
groups" dietary guidelines
released in 1956, which 78 percent
of respondents said they follow.
SPECIALS FOR AUGUST
GOLDEN BARREL
FUNNEL CAKE MIX
Just Add Water!
special 1 QQ
now V m
Reg.
$1.79
ZOOKIE
MOLASSES COOKIES
1 Doz. SPECIAL £ "I
Reg. $2.49 NOW X • *7*7
Vi Doz. SPECIAL f AQ
Reg. $1.29 NOW V X tUS/
JHBSBi
Americans Don’t Know
What They Are Eating
•k BAKING
MOLASSES
* BARBADOS
MOLASSES
* BLACK STRAP
MOLASSES
* HONEY
* PEANUT LUTTER
* FUNNEL CAKE MIX
* SHOOFLY PIE MIXES
er, took telemarketing to new
heights of arrogance. He asked for
The Farmer, then told me he was
with a chemical company and
answering our request for “more
information.”
“I don’t think so,” I snapped.
And hung up. When the phone
immediately rang again, I figured
it was the same caller - and left to
finish feeding calves.
Later, I punched the answering
machine to play back a taped call.
And got the same voice leaving a
two-word description of me that I
can only translate in this family
newspaper as loosely meaning a
"We must admit to being per
plexed,” acknowledged Judi
Adams, who heads the Denver
based Wheat Foods Council. "In a
society where consumers are
blanketed with nutrition informa
tion, Americans still know very
little about the foods they eat."
Current government guidelines
recommend Americans eat six to
11 servings from the bread, cereal,
rice and pasta group each day
up from the four daily servings
researchers say we now average.
But poll respondents aren't getting
the message: 15 percent said they
need more, 10 percent said they
need less, and 75 percent said they
are getting the right amount.
Gallup conducted ths poll on
behalf of the Wheat Foods Council
to help it shape an educational
program teaching Americans how
to add more grain products to their
diet. The Council was surprised to
MILLER DIESEL INC.
FUEL INJECTION & TURBO SPECIALIST
6030 Jonestown Rd., Harrisburg, Pa. 17112 (717) 545-5931
Authorized Diesel Fuel Injection Sales & Service
SALES AND SERVICE EXCHANGE UNITS
AMBAC INTL LUCAS HEAVY DUTY APPLICATIONS
BENDIX NIPPONDENSO ALUS CHALMERS IVECO
BRYCE ROBERT BOSCH CASE JOHN DEERE
CAV ROOSA MASTER CATERPILLER MACK
CUMMINS SIMMS DEUTZ MASSEY FERGUSON
DETROIT DIESEL-GMC STANADYNE FIAT-ALLIS MERCEDES
DIESEL KIKI YANMAR CORD ONAN
Ulc GENERAL MOTORS PERKINS
HERCULES WAUKESHA
Ul C WHITE FARM ETC
TURBO CHARGERS
ATS TURBO KITS (6 2-7 3 L) CUMMINS
AIRESEARCH hIOLSET
SCHWITZER
CENTRAL WAREHOUSE DISTRIBUTOR
FPPF FUEL ADDITIVES
FPPF GLYCLEAN ANTI-FREEZE
RECYCLING SYSTEMS
DAILY UPS SHIPPING
LOCATED OFF INTERSTATE 81 EXIT 26
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 10, 1991-B3
female dog that can’t speak.
Wish I’d gotten his name and
company.
After relating this later to dairy
farmer friend Jane Thompson, she
offered her favorite method for
dealing with telemarketers. Just as
soon as they start to give their
pitch, she comes back asking them
how much butter and cheese
they’d like to buy. And, she adds,
they usually ring off pretty
quickly.
Guess what I’m going to try
selling to the next telemarketer to
call?
discover its task is even more bas
ic: teaching the public what a
wheat food is and why it's healthy.
The Wheat Foods Council is a
nonprofit organization formed in
1972 to help increase public
awareness of dietary grains, com
plex carbohydrates and fiber as
essential components of a healthy
diet It is supported voluntarily by
wheat producers, millers, bakers
and related industries. The poll
involved 1,006 respondents
nationwide and has an error mar
gin of 3.1 percent
ASSOCIATION OF
DIESEL SPECIALISTS