Strategies to Effectively Promote and Market On-Farm Retail Enterprises

Agritourism promotes the concepts of locally grown foods, place-based foods, the heritage and culture of the farm and the food grown on it, and places an emphasis on sustainable and natural resource preservation and development. Agritourism enterprises usually are an addition to an existing farm operation and the effectiveness or the efficiency of promotional and advertising transaction costs often are not completely understood or evaluated or are neglected. Getting visitors to the farm is a hard sell, and different than selling products off the farm.

The activities involved in this project will target the Iowa agritourism industry and will enable state entities to provide marketing research and identify strategies to effectively promote and market on-farm retail enterprises. This project will provide for specific and relevant marketing education aimed to affect increased opportunities in the state for the development of the agritourism industry and to help build a state wide marketing campaign. These activities will be directed by the Iowa Agritourism Working Group, led and facilitated by the staff of the Iowa State University Extension Value Added Agriculture Program.

Contacts:
Raymond Hansen
Value Added Agriculture Program
1111 NSRIC Bldg
Iowa State University Extension
Ames, IA 50011
hansenr@iastate.edu
515-294-3890

Marsha Laux
Agricultural Marketing Resource Center
1111 NSRIC
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50010
mlaux@iastate.edu
319-796-4362

Christa Hartsook
Value Added Agriculture Program
1111 NSRIC Bldg
Iowa State University Extension
Ames, IA 50011
hartc@iastate.edu
515-294-4430