2014
Marketing Your Food
Product
Adapted from: www.sba.gov/
Module designed by Tera Sandvik, LRD, Program Coordinator;
Julie Garden-Robinson, PhD, LRD, Food and Nutrition Specialist;
and Kathleen Tweeten, MBA, Director, Center for Community
Vitality, Community Economic Development Extension Specialist;
Module updated in May 2014, by Kim Beauchamp, Food
Safety/Food Entrepreneur Extension Specialist.
The following tips will help you
navigate through each module.
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Click the left mouse button or the down
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Presurvey
Before we begin, let’s take a presurvey to
see how much you already know.
 Click here to begin the presurvey.
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Do you have a new, exciting product?
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If you do, that’s great, but keep in mind
businesses need more than a great
product to be successful.
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A high percentage of home-based food
businesses fail their first year because
they didn’t have a market to support their
product.
Let’s learn about marketing basics
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Marketing is based on the importance of
customers to a business and has two
important principles:
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All company policies and activities should be
directed toward satisfying their customer wants
or needs.
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Profitable sales volume is more important than
maximum sales volume.
How do I use these principles?
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Find your customer wants or needs through
market research.
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Analyze your competitive advantages to develop
a market strategy.
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Select specific markets to serve by target
marketing.
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Determine how to satisfy customer needs by
identifying a mix of products (market mix) they
want.
Marketing Strategy
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A marketing strategy identifies target customers
that a particular business can better serve than
its competitors, and tailors product offerings,
prices, distribution, promotional efforts and
services toward those target customers.
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The strategy should address unmet customer
needs that offer adequate potential profitability.
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A good strategy helps a business focus on
the target markets it can serve best.
Target Marketing
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Owners of small businesses often have limited
resources to spend on marketing.
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Concentrating their efforts on one or a few key
market segments - target marketing - gets the
most return from small investments.
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These are two main methods used to segment a
market:
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Geographical
Customer
Geographical Segmentation is:
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Specializing in serving the
needs of customers in a
particular geographical area.
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For example, a neighborhood
convenience store may
send advertisements only to
people living within one-half
mile of the store.
Customer Segmentation is:
Identifying those people most likely to
buy the product or service and targeting
those groups.
There are two main methods to segment
a market. Do you know what they are?
Click to see the answer.
Geographical and customer
What type of segmentation is the
following example?
A local pizza place puts fliers in everyone’s
mailbox within a one-mile radius of the pizza
place.
A. Geographical
B. Customer
Click to see the answer.
Managing the market mix
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Every marketing program contains four
key components:
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Products and services
Promotion
Distribution
Pricing
Products and Services
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Product strategies may include:
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Concentrating on a narrow product line
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Developing a highly specialized product or service
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Providing a product-service package containing
unusually high-quality service
Promotion
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Promotion strategies include advertising and direct
customer interaction.
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Good salesmanship is essential for small businesses
because of their limited ability to spend on
advertising.
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Good telephone book advertising is important.
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Direct mail is an effective, low-cost medium
available to small businesses.
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Web presence may be an important and effective
part of a successful strategy
Pricing
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The right price is crucial for
maximizing total revenue.
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Generally, higher prices mean
lower volume and vice versa.
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Small businesses often can
command higher prices
because of their personalized
service.
Distribution
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The manufacturer and wholesaler must decide
how to distribute their products.
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Working through established distributors or
manufacturers' agents is generally easiest for
small manufacturers.
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Small retailers should consider cost and traffic
flow in site selection, especially since advertising
and rent can be reciprocal:
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A low-cost, low-traffic location means spending more on
advertising to build traffic.
Distribution Cont.
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Products/services, promotion, pricing and
distribution combine into an overall marketing
program.
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The nature of the product or service is also important in citing
decisions.
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Purchases based on impulse should be in a
high-traffic and visible area.
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Location is less of a concern for products or
services that customers are willing to go out
of their way to find.
Distribution Cont.
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The availability of fast shipping and highly
segmented mailing lists, developed or
purchased from list brokers, magazines or
other companies, has enabled certain small
businesses to operate from any location, yet
serve national or international markets.
Which of the following is not one of the
key components to a marketing plan?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Pricing
Promotion
Distribution
Planning
Click to see the answer.
Marketing Performance
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Entrepreneurs must evaluate their
marketing program.
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Every program should have performance
standards to compare with actual results.
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Researching industry norms and past performances
will help develop appropriate standards.
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Entrepreneurs should audit their company's
performance at least quarterly. The key
questions are:
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Is the company doing all it can to be customer-oriented?
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Do employees ensure the customers are satisfied and
leave wanting to come back?
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Can the customer easily find what he or she wants at a
competitive price?
Let’s move on to our marketing plan.
A sound marketing plan is key to the
success of any business.
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Marketing plans include:
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Market research
Location
Customer group you have targeted
Competition
Positioning
Product and service you are:
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Selling
Pricing
Advertising
Promoting
Positioning your product is defined as:
A. Pricing your product higher than its competition
B. Pricing your product lower than its competition
C. Creating a unique, consistent and recognized
customer perception about a firm's offering and
image
D. None of the above
Click here to help find the answer.
Click to see the answer.
Marketing, planning and promoting
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Begin with current information about the
marketplace.
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Visit the local library.
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Talk to customers.
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Look at other businesses’ advertising
strategies.
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Consult with relevant industry associations.
Write down your plan
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Define your business
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What’s your product or service?
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Where are you selling your product or service
(neighborhood, regional or national)?
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Who’s your competition?
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How are you different from the competition?
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What’s your price?
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How do your competitor’s market their product?
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What are your promotion methods?
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How are you going to distribute your product or where will
your business be located?
Define your customer
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Who is your customer?
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Age
Sex
Income
Neighborhood
How will your customers learn about your product or
service?
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Advertising
Direct mail
Word of mouth
Yellow Pages
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Web site
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Newsweek
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Patterns or habits your customers and potential
customers share
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Qualities your customers value most about your
product or service
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Where they shop
What they read, watch and listen to
Selection
Convenience
Service
Reliability
Availability
Affordability
Qualities your customers dislike about your
product or service
Define your plan and budget
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Know previous marketing methods used to reach
your customers.
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Know methods that have been effective.
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Know cost compared to sales.
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Know cost per customer.
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Research possible future marketing methods to
attract new customers.
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Figure out what percent of profits you can use for
your marketing campaign.
Examples of marketing tools
Newspaper
 Magazine
 Yellow Pages
 Radio or television advertising
 Internet
 Direct mail
 Telemarketing
 Public relations activities
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The final stage in your marketing plan should
be your overall promotional objectives:
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To communicate your message
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To create an awareness of your
product or service
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To motivate customers to buy and
increase sales
Post-survey
Let’s see what you’ve learned.
 Click here to begin the post-survey.
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•The last slide shows additional
resources.
•After the slideshow is done go to
“File” and click on “Print.”
•A box will open up.
•Click on “Slides” under “Print Range.”
•Type in “36” and click on “okay.”
Additional Resources
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Marketing plan outline
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Marketing strategies for the growing business.
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www.bplans.com/targetonline/index.cfm?s=specs&i
d=4&affiliate=sba
http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/manage
/marketandprice/SERV_MARKETSTRATEGY.html
Marketing Plans
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http://www.bplans.com/targetonline/index.cfm?s=
specs&id=4&affiliate=sba