Having Fun Doing Farm Marketing

I have always felt that when you and your employees show the public that you are having fun doing what you are doing that they then have fun as well and keep coming back for more of it. The trick is to get them in the groove, your groove, and keeping them coming back for years.

As a teenager and young man I put myself through Michigan State University by selling retail on the South Bend In. Farmers Market. Soon after graduation I opened “Farmer Friday’s Market” on the Coloma Mi. exit of interstate hi way I 94 which immediately became a fun place, here are some examples of some of the crazy things we did: We had an intercom system and we paged everybody by code names such as Elvis Presly, Pat Paulson, the guy looked just like him, Wanda the Witch, she looked just like her, etc., When George Bush the 1^st was president we had a sign over the broccoli display which said “Barbara likes it”, there was a roll of toilet paper hanging over the tomatoes that said “Please Squeeze the Charmin, and not the Tomatoes”, when cucumbers were cheap we had a sign which read “ Pickle for a Nickel” and when the price went up, “Pickle for a Dime, Sorry it doesn’t Rhyme”. Having a bent on Halloween we had a huge mask by the front door of Bill Clinton, during his reign, with a caption saying “Our Scariest Mask” and had a classic convertible sports car out front on the lawn being driven by Herman Munster with Grandfather as the passenger and we had giant, comical, rubber rats mixed through our huge cheese display. When customers asked something like “Why are your 10 # potatoes $1.49 when they are $1.29 at Hardings” then we would ask “so why didn’t you buy them there” and the response was “ They were sold out” then we always said “ When we are out of potatoes ours are 99 cents.” The customers loved this nonsense and from it and a lot of other interesting ideas such as a 2500 sq. ft. fully automated, year round, in the store, haunted house (scary only, not gory), a 1500 sq. ft. indoor golf course, a meat market, fresh bakery, 20 flavors of ice cream and a large quality buffet restaurant, we grew our business from $40,000 the first year to about $ 5 ½ million. I have always felt one of the biggest advantages we have as individual marketers over the chain stores is our ability to be different thus making it a much more interesting experience for the consumer than just going shopping for groceries. I strongly stress the importance of showing ones own individuality as an important feature of our retail markets.

 For the past few years we have been going to farm markets in several locations in the greater Chicago area. At our new city farm markets we stress top quality, flavor, product differentiation and fun. Our main attraction is Flamin’ Fury® peaches which of course is our mainstay, and we all wear Flamin’ Fury® t shirts. We pick them as ripe as they can be transported and give samples of them. Our other primary crops are blueberries and raspberries which we also sample. I see other marketers with a display of 20 or more items and I believe to tell the story, grab the money rapidly in a short time span, and do the right job overall that 5 items or less is more effective and you become the peach guy or the chestnut guy etc. This, of course is the opposite of my market along the expressway where I had lots of space and tried to carry almost everything. I also believe in having limited numbers of sizes of containers for any item, thinking that too many decisions for the customer takes more precious time. We start the morning with hundreds of quarts of peaches and no other size container. If they want a lot, we sell them 10 quarts, for example, it’s very easy to discount the price for such a sale and the customer appreciates what they perceive to be a bargain. For fun I wear a mad hatter top hat. In the big city the media is always crawling around looking for a story and the goofy top hat helps to bring them in our direction. Yep, it looks like, once a marketer always a marketer. I can’t imagine totally giving up marketing, even in my old age, I will be 70 next year, It is just too much fun.

                          Helpful Ideas That work

1. Always have everyone working at your market park their cars at the front of the business to help make it look busy. When you get busy and need the more convenient parking spaces for customers, employee's cars are very easily moved to more remote locations. Looking busy all the time is a very inexpensive and highly effective promotional tool.

2. In my opinon, another very effective and inexpensive effort you can put forth at your business is to create the theme that you desire with the proper music, creating a very enjoyable and memorable atmosphere. Choose your theme and be consistent, always having the same image. Panera Bread plays light classical, and it obviously creates the theme they are looking for. At my big market I always played 1940s Dixieland, quietly but always present and customers loved it. I think this works great in a cider mill type setting. I often observe what I consider to be a very negative image from music at businesses.   When the owner or manager is not present and the employees play what ever the heck they like and often times it is played way too loudly. This can annoy and irritate your customers as opposed to putting them in a buying mood. I find this lack of control to be most harmful to any business and I believe without control that no music is much better than "bad music". A well to do, high class, resturant owner friend of mine says "If you want to change your customer base, change your music". I believe as well that selecting the right music is that important for your business success. Incidentally, I lead a 1940s 15 piece Big Band called the Moonlighters, a most enjoyable experience. From being a part of the music loop I have learned that there are a huge number of very good musical groups everywhere who are anxious to perform for very little compensation. I believe that any farm market can do very well for themselves, taking advantage this talent that is looking for a place to perform. 

3." Pile it high and watch it fly. Pile it low and it will move slow". Please scroll down to the photo of my asparagus display on the left hand side of this page, to view an example. I believe that one of the biggest mistakes a retailer can make is to assume that they had the right amount of product for the day based on the fact that they sold out at the end of the day. In thinking this the unknown question remained, how much more would I have sold if I had mantained a much larger display? "No one ever takes the last potato."

A Partial List of Paul Friday's Farm Market, Agritourism Presentations  over the past 45 Years.

5 times farm market speaker at the Ohio roadside marketing conferences

4 times farm market speaker at the Great Lakes Expo

2 times farm market speaker at the Western Colorado Horticulture Society   (2010 the Keynote Banquet Speaker)

6 times farm market speaker at Michigan Certified Farmers Market Conferences

Farm market speaker at the Mid America Fruit Growers Conference, Nebraska, 2010

Farm market speaker at Lancaster Pennsylvania

East Michigan Farm market Conference

Countless Rotary and Lions Clubs

Vocational Agriculture Teacher

A Dale Carnegie Speaker

A very limited example of publications which have carried many stories many times about Paul's Farm Market and Agricultural Tourism Experiences

Midwest Living, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, AAA Tourism Magazine, Michigan Living, South Bend Tribune, Herald Palladium, Fruit Growers News, Midland Michigan Daily News, Grand Rapids Press, El Paso Times, Adventures Along the Lake, Kalamazoo Gazette,Journal Gazette, Mattoon Il. Tri-City Record and Michiana Now.

As compared to the well known industry gold standard Ag Tourism Speaker Jane Eckert, Paul brings to the podium a fresh, creative, inovative, educational and humorous presintation. He has over 50 years of farm marketing experience in a wide variety of locations. His history ranges from vending in 13 different organizied farmers markets in 3 states to operating 7 privately owned markets spread over an 80 mile distance. He also owned and operated an ag tourism market at home that he started in 1964. It started as a seasonal business doing $40,000 per year and grew to a year round Farm market doing 5 and 1/2 million dollars per year.

EXAMPLES

OF PAUL FRIDAY'S FARM MARKET HUMOR

Just for fun, at his very first market he strung a cloths line across his checkout with small plastic bags filled with water and offered invisible gold fish for sale at $.79 / bag. Today he gives out $2.00 bills as change on a regular basis which also is a lot of fun for his patrons.

Paul is willing to speak about his very varied and interesting marketing experiences for expenses and a nominal gratuity. At the young age of 69, he enjoys sharing his optimistic, educational, creative and humorous ideas for the shear enjoyment of doing so.

Paul's Farm Market Speaking Testimonials

"Paul's down-home style of speaking to farm marketers about marketing their products is based on decades of experience. Hearing him speak this past year in Nebraska showed me that there was much wisdom gained from those decades of dealing with the public. His easy-going style and bits of humor here and there made his talk both entertaining and value-packed. It was like a ten-course meal at the finest, well, um produce market!" Dr. Desmond Layne, Horticulture Professor, Clemson University       

Paul Friday could have taught a marketing class at the University of Washington where I attended graduate school. His ability to identify unique ways to promote his Flaming Fury(R) peaches and his farm markets never cease to impress. Whether it is his $2 bills or the creation of Bubble Gum Plum(R), Paul has a knack for making simple things memorable and fun — and that keeps customers coming back for more.   Pete Van Well, VAN WELL NURSERY

I think Paul’s farm market presentation was great. He hit on points of how to sell and have fun. I think as growers we often forget about the most important item within our farms which is selling. Paul’s philosophy is simple. Have fun with your products and make the customer remember you. I think the top hat, 2 dollar bills, and bubble gum plums do just that. Paul’s presentation is very laid back and questions are always welcome. A chance to pick a person’s brain with 50 years of farm marketing experience is Priceless!

Paul Friday who won this years National Peach Council Annual Achievement award is a promoter extraordinaire. He ads a great deal of pizzazz to what some consider the rather ordinary process of direct marketing his home grown produce. In addition to being a first class fruit grower he has a natural flair for innovative farm marketing. He claims that this type of marketing is fun, and results in profits that are more than double what most growers experience. His keynote address at the 2010 Western Colorado Horticultural meetings convinced me that direct marketing offers Colorado growers much farm market opportunity.

Places Paul Has Spoken About His Flamin' Fury® Peaches

Grand Rapids Mi./ Great Lakes Expo, many times

Michigan Peach Sponsors in Benton Harbor Mi., many times

Michigan show cases in many locations

New Jersey show cases many times

Pennsylvania show case

Grand Junction Colorado

Nebraska City, Nebraska

St Catharines, Ontario, twice

Clanton, Alabama