Values-based marketing: |
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Values-based marketing, an appeal to certain values or causes to sell a product, has been a key to the success of Ben and Jerry's ice cream and Stonyfield Farms yogurt, among others. This marketing strategy promises even more opportunities and successful ways for farmers and local food processors to sell their products.
June Holley, president and founder of the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet), shared how her organization has used cause marketing to promote food products in southeastern Ohio. She presented a seminar at Iowa State University in October while on campus to discuss the Leopold Center's marketing initiative.
"Research shows us there are lots of people who want to support sustainable economies and farms," Holley said. "The problem is how to link these people to products."
Mom-and-pop operations
Solving this problem is key to the mission of Holley's organization: to bring people together in the economically depressed rural area of the Ohio Appalachians to create jobs and other opportunities for employee-owned businesses. In the food sector, ACEnet staff members provide basic services that "mom-and-pop" operations need to start and expand, including access to loan and venture funds, financial planning assistance, and connections to industry experts. The organization also operates a community kitchen, food processing and training facility, and a storefront operation to test-market new products.
'Food We Love' campaign
A current ACEnet project is a new Food We Love™ brand that features high quality, specialty products from locally grown ingredients. Products that may be sold under the Food We Love™ label include bread, jams, salsas, juices and various condiments.
Holley said that support of regional brand foods often centers on values. Customers know the producer and most advertising is by word-of-mouth. She encouraged entrepreneurs to tap into local networks by being part of festivals and other events, selling products at farmers' markets, and working with influential people in the community "who care about what you stand for."
"People really want community," she explained. "There's been a rapid shift among large groups of people who are tired of buying just so much stuff and want something that relates to their values, and they're willing to pay for it."
Target unique high-end products
Holley advised growers to think about unique, high-end products, such as organic blueberry preserves, pawpaw chutney and pickled asparagus, where the profit margin is higher than it would be for standardized products. Opportunities also exist in organic, gourmet, natural and vegan niche markets of the specialty food industry.
Holley came to Ohio University as a sociology professor in 1981. In 1986, she opened ACEnet in an office over the campus bookstore. It was patterned after trade associations she had seen in northern Italy that brought together many small family-owned enterprises involved in one aspect of the clothing industry.
ACEnet also operates Foodnet, an international listserv for food and farm businesses, and Food Ventures web pages featuring a searchable market database and other information. With a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Holley developed the Collaborative Cause Marketing Handbook that outlines a strategy for a regional brand and marketing program. In 2001, Ms. Foundation published Accessing Lucrative Markets, co-authored by Holley and Anna Wadia.
More information is available by contacting ACEnet, 94 Columbus Road, Athens, OH 45701; 1-888-4-ACENET, or on the web at www.acenetworks.org.