Marketing for Profit, Farm Success Webinar Series

Marketing for Profit: Tools for Farm Success Webinar Series Launched

 The Farmers Market Federation of NY and the NY Farm Viability Institute have partnered with USDA Northeast SARE to present a series of webinars on marketing, “Marketing for Profits: Tools for Success”. The series will include coverage of 5 categories of marketing concepts spanning three years: Self-Assessment, Market Assessment, Customer Assessment, Communications Assessment and Business Assessment. Each Assessment will be a series of 3 webinars. These webinars have been designed with the assistance of regional and national marketing experts to provide critical marketing insights for farmers and farm markets throughout the northeast. As producers, farmers are well-equipped with the knowledge to produce quality farm products. They determine the best methods of farming, and the crop mix that will help them to achieve their production goals and revenue requirements. They understand and follow all statutory regulations impacting their operation, comply with labor law and file mounds of paperwork. But when it comes to marketing, many producers believe the Field of Dreams version of “Build it and they will come”. Marketing is a concept that must be learned to achieve maximum profits from chosen marketing channels, whether it is farmers markets, CSA’s, direct to restaurant sales, or another other venue.

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Marketing encompasses a broad array of efforts all aimed at identifying your market and customers, satisfying your customers and maintaining your customers long term. It includes all marketing channel selections and business decisions, what to grow or produce and how it will be produced; ie conventional, organic, bio-dynamic or some amalgam of these; how you choose to make products available, how product is presented to the public, how you present your business, advertising and promotions, signage, pricing strategy, and so on. Marketing is complex and is often the most misunderstood and least successful part of many farm businesses.

The Self-Assessment webinars will be held in January and February 2012. We invite all farm direct marketers, Extension Educators and Farm Service providers to participate in the webinars. In addition, each webinar series will be available in a curriculum for Extension Educators and others to present in workshops with the farmers and marketers in their county/region. The webinar schedule is as follows:

Who Dat? Assessing Your Own Identity

Laura Biasillo, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Broome County, Steve Hadcock, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Columbia County

January 10, 10am –11:30am OR January 12, 7pm – 8:30pm

Who ELSE is Dat? Marketing Channels and Fellow Travelers

Matthew LaRoux, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Tompkins County

February 7, 10am – 11:30am OR February 9, 7pm – 8:30pm

Where are We and Where do we Want to be?

Steve Holzbauer, Fingerlakes Fresh and CNY Bounty

February 21, 10am – 11:30am OR February 23, 7pm – 8:30pm

To register for the webinars, email Diane Eggert at deggert@nyfarmersmarket.com.

For more information, detailed descriptions of the sessions or a full, 3 year curriculum, please contact Diane Eggert at deggert@nyfarmersmarket.com or David Grusenmeyer, dgrusenmeyer@nyfvi.org.