Marketing
Your
Farmers’
Market
Michelle Wolf
@ BCAFM 2015
Markets as Businesses
• Farmers’ markets - businesses of businesses
• Regardless of your incorporation (co-op, nonprofit, project of a non-profit), market Boards
and managers need to be thinking of their
farmers’ markets as businesses themselves
• Business principles will enhance your market
on many levels
• Financially sustainable, offering service (not
asking for handouts), professionalism
Perception
• People don’t believe what they believe
because it is ‘true’
• People see the world not ‘as it is’ but ‘as they
are’
• Very few absolute truths
• The rest is just perception
• “Organics is too expensive”; “Farmers’ markets
are just for hippies”; “Beets taste awful”…
Perception
• Trying to change peoples’ perceptions is the
most fundamental marketing mistake you can
make
• Telling people how they are wrong is not an
effective strategy for engagement or education
• Marketing is about benefits, values, results
• Marketing is about stories that matter
• Marketing is about positive hooks, appeals to
emotion, fulfillment of needs and wants
Start With Why – Simon Sinek
• Social movements and innovations follow a
predictable pattern
• Early adopters and innovators help us reach a
‘tipping point’ and at that point, population
thinking and behaviour shifts occur
• As farmers markets, if we emulate this pattern,
it changes the way we think about marketing
Get away from ‘Support’
language
• Our call to action has been “Come support
your local farmers”
• And people come… and hang out… and don’t
necessarily spend much money or buy weekly
basics
• And we wonder why
• What connotation does ‘support’ have?
• What do we really want to be saying?
Customer Surveys
• Why are people shopping at your market?
• WFM survey
– 86% To buy fresh, local food
– 67% To support the farmers’ market movement
• KFM survey
–
–
–
–
#1 To purchase local food
#2 To purchase other locally-produced goods
#3 To support the farmers’ market movement
#4 To support the growth of community activities in
Kentville
Activity
• How do we reach more of the innovators and
early adopters in our communities?
• What values can we share with them that will
bring them to the farmers’ market?
• How can we spend our advertising dollars
more effectively by offering incentives to these
people, to encourage them to bring new
people?
Incentives Work
• Free market $, free coffee cards, discount
loyalty cards, $2 to fill in surveys, chances to
win, name put into a draw, others?
• Incentives drive behaviour – come to market,
bring a friend, spend a certain amount of $,
participate in an event, etc
• Incentives don’t maintain behaviour – great
customer service and experiences do
Advertising Works
•
•
•
•
•
Radio is very successful
Community newspapers are very successful
Signage is very successful
Flyers and posters are not
Facebook is mixed (helpful to build community
and excitement and loyalty amongst
followers… and our innovators and early
adopters are on FB, for sure)
Events
• Rethink events
– To bring in sources of revenue for your market
– To bring media and/or publicity
– To develop partnerships
– To serve your existing customers in some way
• Events that focus on bringing new people to
market can work, but many of those people
don’t come back, so we need to do a better
job of having a ‘retention’ plan in place for
events to pay in the long-run
Service Providers and Others
• Non-profit booths are common
• Can we expand the box?
• These ‘complimentary businesses’ can fill empty
spaces w/o adding more of existing product,
generate much-needed revenue, bring people with
good business skills
• Landscaping or lawn-care companies; Yoga studios;
Piano and tennis and knitting instructors; Caterers;
Massage therapists; Baby-sitters; Housekeeping
services; Arborists; Personal trainers; etc
Relationship Marketing
• Networking = relationship marketing
• Markets themselves, not just their vendors, need
to build customer engagement strategies to have
on-going relationships with community members,
community partners, vendors, and others
• Consider segmented lists
• Have monthly or seasonal draw in exchange for
emails
• Great things to outsource, discrete piece of work
Regional Promotional
Partnerships
• Develop regional market maps
• Develop regional “farmers’ market tours”,
complete with destination restaurants, BnB’s,
farm tours, etc
– Include discount coupons
– Include maps, suggested schedule of events
– With a $200 budget from each ‘member’, you could
have $1200-$1400 for graphics, printing, etc
– Go a step further, offer ad spaces on the flyer for
another $100 each (market vendors)
Question
• What marketing ideas have you tried at your
farmers’ market that REALLY work (not just
kinda work, but are very successful and
replicable)
• Let’s share these!