Summer 2014
Ag Marketing
Newsletter
Ginger S. Myers
Marketing Specialist
University of Maryland Extension (UME)
Director, Maryland Rural Enterprise
Development Center
gsmyers@umd.edu
301-432-2767 x338
Inside This Issue:
 Market Research—Look Before You Leap
 How Do Customers Find You?
 Food Hub Benchmarketing Study Results
Available.
 Agriculture By The Numbers
40 Maps
That
Explain
Food in
America
By: Ezra Klein and Susannah Locke
on June 9, 2014
These maps are a terrific
resource for understanding
where and how we produce
food in America, but even
more interesting is where and
how we consume it.
Bookmark this site because
you will return to it often.
http://www.vox.com/a/
explain-food-america
Photo: Edwin Remsberg
Business Coaches for Ag
Entrepreneurs
By: Ginger S. Myers, UME
Entrepreneurs are made, not born. They can be developed to their
full potential when provided training, a support network, and access to resources. They also need to have a sounding board for
their ideas and dreams and a trustworthy “reality check” in their
business planning process to help them avoid wasting time and
resources.
New and beginning farmers, like other entrepreneurs, can greatly
benefit from working with an agricultural “entrepreneur coach,”
someone who can listen, advise and encourage budding agricultural entrepreneurs.
The Beginning Farmer Success (extension.umd.edu/newfarmer)
program can provide new and beginning farmers with an Entrepreneurial Coach. This trained agricultural professional can provide one-on-one consulting and access to a wide variety of re-
The University of Maryland Extension programs are open to all and will not discriminate against anyone because of race, age, sex, color, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability,
religion, ancestry, or national origin, marital status, genetic information, or political affiliation, or gender identity and expression.
Los programas del Colegio de Agricultura y Recursos Naturales de la Universidad de Maryland están abiertos a todos y no discriminará contra nadie debido a raza, edad, sexo, color, orientación sexual, discapacidad física o mental, religión, descendencia, origen nacional, estatus matrimonial, información genética, afiliación política, o identificación y expresión de género.
Market Research—Look Before You Leap
By: Ginger S. Myers, UME
potential.
The purpose of conducting market analysis and
research for a business is two fold. First is figuring out how big the market is:

Is there a large enough market available to
justify your time and resources in the effort?

Secondly, good market analysis and research
can help you describe your potential or ideal
customer. Identifying your customer base is
one of the first elements of the marketing
process
The process of identifying your potential
customer Decision Marketing Units (DMUs),
determining your market segments, and then
developing a targeted strategy is called market
research. This research involves gathering additional information about customers, competition, and overall market potential. Conducting
market research is part science, part research
and part intuition. Before you invest any money
in your project, you need to determine:
1. The projected volume of sales of your goods
or services and the price you might realistically
expect to charge for them. You will need this information to analyze profitability and cash flow
Business Coaches for Ag Entrepreneurs
2. Who are your potential customers? What are
their ages, income levels, and when and where
do they shop? Why would they buy your product
rather than your competitors’ product?
3. How many competitors are there for this market? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
4. What is the total market size for products like
yours and what share of that market By
might you
The
expect to capture?
Numbers
5. What are the trends for consumption, competition and pricing in your market?
Answers to these questions will help you better
understand what your potential customers, your
“target” audience want. This information about
them is called demographic information.
Having answers to these questions will help you
determine your market niche and facilitate
writing your business plan.
Remember that the purpose of your business is
to sell products at a profit, not to make products
and hope they might sell.
continued from page 1
sources. A copy of the 17 trained Agricultural Entrepreneurial Coaches
directory and videos related to agricultural entrepreneurship are located under the ,“Cultivating Entrepreneurship” (extension.umd.edu/
mredc/business-modules/cultivating-entrepreneurship) section of the
Maryland Rural Enterprise Development website at:
“extension.umd.edu/mredc or for more information contact Ginger Myers at gsmyers.umd.edu.
2
How Do Customers Find You?
By: Ginger S. Myers, UME
Word-of-mouth (WOM) advertising is important for every business. It's one of the most credible forms of advertising because
a person puts their reputation on the line every time they
make a recommendation since that person has nothing to gain
but the appreciation of those who are listening.
Source: Small Business Trends—smallbiztrends.com
Prior to the advent of smart phones and social media, word-ofmouth advertising happened directly between customers; for
example, if a client liked your product they might recommend
it to seven other friends. Social media provides a digital WOM
advertising platform. If a client likes your product and endorses it in their social media outreach, there is the potential for
that post to reach hundreds or even thousands of that client’s
“friends” or “followers”. Other digital marketing tools such as
email, electronic newsletters, and Internet searches all contribute to customers finding your products.
But, according to a recent survey for Verizon, direct customer
word-of mouth is still the number one avenue for attracting
new customers.
3
WAYS TO BOOST YOUR
WOM ADVERTISING:

Use Social Media: Facebook,
Twitter, and YouTube Videos.

Ask for testimonials and use
them.

Deliver what you promise
every time; quality matters.

Work on product branding;
customers are more likely to
promote you to others if they
always associate your product
name or product line for
certain purchases.

Make great customer service a
priority and customers will
more readily give you referrals.

Get customer feedback to be
sure they’re satisfied.

Getting feedback will uncover
any problems, so that you can
prevent bad word of mouth.

Provide referral cards. Have a
preprinted card your customer
can leave with a friend. It
helps even to leave behind several business cards so they can
hand one to a neighbor who
may need your landscaping
services.

Thank people for their
business. Once the transaction
is complete, be sure to show
some gratitude for the customer's business and remember to
invite them back.
Food Hub Benchmarketing Study Results Available
By: Ginger S. Myers, UME
The National Good Food Network Food Hub Collaboration has released a Food Hub Benchmarking
Study: Report on Findings, 2013. The report is the result of a study undertaken to help not only farmers and food hub operators, but also lenders, investors, and grant makers to understand how this
market sector works. The study considered scope of operations, products, organization and operations, sources of revenue, labor expenses, customers, and other factors. The 13-page publication is
available online at: web.extension.illinois.edu/smallfarm/downloads/53730.pdf
The Ag Marketing Newsletter is published periodically by the University of Maryland Extension
Agricultural Marketing Program and it is written
and edited by Ginger S. Myers, Marketing Specialist and Director of the Maryland Rural Enterprise
Development Center.
Comments and suggestions regarding the newsletter are always welcome. References to commercial products or trade names are made with the
understanding that no discrimination is intended
and no endorsement by University of Maryland
Extension is implied. Articles and photographs can
be reprinted with permission.
To subscribe:
Email Notification: to be added to our email reflector list., email to listserve@listserv.umd.edu — in
the body of the message, type subscribe agmarketing name-of-subscriber (example: subscribe
agmarketing Susan Barnes)
Online: issues are posted online and can be downloaded for free go to:
https://www.extension.umd.edu/publicationseries/ag-marketing-newsletter
To Unsubscribe: email to
listserve@listserv.umd.edu — in the body of the
message, type Unsubscribe agmarketing name-ofsubscriber (example: unsubscribe agmarketing
Susan Barnes)
For more information on the Agricultural
Marketing Program, you can visit:
http://extension.umd.edu/agmarketing
http://extension.umd.edu/mredc
AGRICULTURE|
A T R I B U T E T O A M E R I C A N FA R M E R S
97%
55.3
1 IN 3
U.S. farm acres are 15%
planted for export of U. S. corn
9
acres are
irrigated
2
Times more food is
produced by today’s
farmer than their
Parents did using
less land, energy,
water and fewer
emissions
States have more cattle than people (Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana,
Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma and Wyoming)
14%
of U.S. farms
are operated by women
154
155
People are fed by a single
2/3
American farmer
of all cattle operations have
been in the same family for
at least two generations
8
90
Loaves of bread can be made
from one bushel of wheat
tons of carbon dioxide are
removed from the air by one
acre of corn during a season
Million American
workers produce,
process and sell the
of the world’s corn, is
nation's food and fiber
grown by U. S. Farmers
21
40%
YOUR PARTNER IN AGRICULTURE
Source: MNB (McCook National Bank (mnb1.com)
4
By
The
Numbers