Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
side signs (where local and county ordinances allow) are one way to stim-
ulate interest. For a roadside stand or U-pick operation alongside a major
road, a series of signs can be effective in promoting sales, especially for out-
of-town visitors. Only people who drive by your signs are going to be exposed
to the message, however. To develop local interest, newspaper and radio ad-
vertisements may be the most cost-effective advertising strategy. Remem-
ber to target your population. If you want to sell U-pick cherries to home-
makers, your best success may come by advertising during a local radio pro-
gram listing items for sale and trade. Similarly, rather than advertising in a
traditional newspaper, you might find it more effective to place your ad in
a “Nicklesworth” type of paper that consists almost exclusively of classified
ads for buying and selling. In both cases, you are promoting your enterprise
at a time and in a place where potential customers are looking for things to
buy. Not only do you reach the target population, but you do so when those
people are in buying moods.
When you sell at a farmers' market or growers' cooperative, you usually
pay a fee to them. This fee helps cover the cost of advertising the market,
which advertising directly benefits you. The positive aspects are that you
can often get more bang for your advertising buck and leave the details of
producing the ads to someone else. On the negative side, your success is
largely tied to the success of the particular market or cooperative.
Packaging and Selling
Because of the large array of orchard fruits and value-added farm products
and marketing strategies, it is impossible to go into detail on packaging in
this topic. You should be aware, however, that there are industry packaging
standards for most of the goods that you will be producing. In some cases,
the standards are formalized and may even have the force of law. In oth-
er cases, packaging standards may be informally and voluntarily accepted
within an industry. The bottom line is that industry members have adopted
standardized packaging methods because they are the most cost-effective
way to get products to market in good condition.
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search