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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Advertising

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Subject: Market Farming

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  • From: "jay gee" <jgj23 AT mindspring.com>
  • To: "market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Advertising
  • Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 16:40:48 -0800 (PST)

Adriana wrote in part:

>The fact that Jay mentioned that he lived (still lives??) in
>California colors his advice on spending money on advertising for
>market farmers. In California a market farmer can sell direct to

My advice is based on the known effects of the power of
advertising, not the fact that I am in California. Does
General Motors stop advertising to you because you
live on a farm? Heck no! Does the local supermarket
stop advertising because the town is small? Heck no!

Farm equipment dealers don't advertise in the city.

All because of the power of advertising.

>But in the rest of the country, farmers markets are
>small and limited to one or two in a region, and these operate one day
>a week for maybe 12-16 weeks out of the year, with average sales per
>vendor of MAYBE $500-600.

Assuming the sales per vendor you quote are $500 - $ 600 per
one day market per vendor, some type of advertising by that
farmer is justified. Especially if s/he wants to increase that
weekly take, either by being able to raise prices, or by attracting
new customers and increasing volume.

> How many ad insertions at $700 a pop would
> it take to double this volume? And given the short season, I would
> think it would take several weeks of repeated advertisng to see the
> effect.

If you reread my post, the $700 insertion is unlikely to be profitable
for most small farmers. That amount was spent one time by a
farmer on this list. It worked for her and got her CSA jump started.

>Jay, one piece of free advice I would
>think you might be willing to give is is suggestions on what to look
>for when shopping for an advertising agent so that the probablility of
>getting good services is maximized.

Before I give you some tips on getting professional help,
I want to STRONGLY REITERATE that advertising a
Mom and Pop farm, or any farm or business, is not a cookie
cutter process. If you are looking for a cookie cutter solution
at a bargain basement price you will probably waste your money.

No ad pro worth a nickle will tell you to do something
only because it worked for Joe Blow in your neighborhood.
Copying in advertising often does not work. Be careful.

Here is some FREE (there's that magic word again) advice
on looking for, or getting started with advertising pros:

1.) Know what you are looking for before going
out and shopping for someone or some firm to
establish a relationship with. A person who does
art or layout freelancing may be perfectly suited
to that task and produce good work output. S/he
may know nothing about writing ad copy or
designing advertising campaigns which take
branding implications into account, etc. Don't
assume because one is "in advertising" that they
do it all, equally competently.

2.) Suspend your ego and pride of authorship in
any marketing or advertising you have done to
date. If it hasn't worked, it may have no value.
The fact that you spent money to produce it is
irrelevant. You cannot recover that money. You
can hope to avoid those mistakes in the future
in that subsequent advertising actually makes
money for you.

Be prepared to supply copies of what ads you
have run with notes on what worked and what
didn't, if you have them. Don't fabricate notes
or guess at results if you aren't sure.

If you have done no advertising, be prepared
to state that also. There is no shame in not
advertising if you don't know how.

3.) Be prepared to pay a substantial amount of
money up front if you want to go all the way,
i.e., develop a complete working relationship
with an ad person or agency which will design
a complete advertising strategy, campaign
and all the necessary pieces for use in it.

The initial time is spent getting to know
you and your business and products. This
ramp-up time is critically important because
whoever you select must have this understanding
to do more than a mediocre job.

3.) If you don't know that the advice this firm or
person supplies is valid (does the job), ask for
a list of for profit clients with situations similar to
yours. That means a similar size of business,
preferably not in the same business and certainly
not serving the same market area(s) you do.

Ask the clients to tell you about their story and
experiences in dealing with your candidate and
whether or not the advertising produced by
candidate has caused a noticeable increase
in the amount of business they did, or alleviated
competitive pressure.

Do not deal with an agency where there is a
potential conflict of interest between you and
another client. Require that any agent you
sign with give you regional exclusivity as to
their services.

4.) Find out what you get for your money.

While I charge $250.00 an hour for my services,
that is because I have you do some, or much, of
the legwork to minimize the time I need to spend
doing what underlings with lower hourly rates do in
an agency. The benefit to you is that you get a
chance to learn about the assembly and thinking
process. Sort of learn by doing.

A market survey you might spend $5,000 for with an
agency might cost you $1,000 with me, because you
do the distribution, collection and tabulation. I help
with the important parts in designing, writing and
interpreting the survey.

5.) Understand that competent advertising folks are
happy to be judged by the results they produce.
Incompetent ad folks do not want their work judged
on the basis of results.

Understand also that there are lots of folks offering
advertising and marketing services who cannot
explain what and why they suggest something
because they don't really know what they are doing.

Though we are all learning as we go along, you
probably don't want to start with someone who is
learning the basics at your expense. Your in-law's
recent marketing graduate is probably not the
person to be helping you design a long term ad
strategy and campaign.

While a low hourly rate may get you low quality
results, it may not. The only way to find out is to
try. A high hourly rate doesn't guarantee big
results either.

6.) Start with a small project if you are unsure of
what you want.

This could mean having a business card
or letterhead designed or redesigned to
produce a particular image you hope to
project.

7.) Don't be afraid to change if you start up a
relationship but it produces no positive
results in terms of your business.

8.) Be prepared to change how YOU do business
to accommodate more of it if you take the
plunge.

There is an old saying in advertising that goes
something like this: "While good advertising
improves the success of a superior product
or service, it accelerates the destruction of
an inferior product or service."

You don't want to find that your product or service
is made deficient if the strains of increased
business are too great for you to deal with.

I hope your question has been answered.

Jay Gee
not a farmer - but interested in farming





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