Fresh Idea: Ping Your Customers

When I bought soap for my girlfriend at the St. Paul's Farmer's Market the seller gave me a loyalty card that would entitle me to $7 worth of merchandise for every $40 I purchased. On the back was her information so that I could contact her with any questions that I had about the product. The card reminded me that it is not enough these days just to concentrate on the current transaction, but a seller must be thinking about ways to bring their customers back for more of their product as soon as possible.

Building a long term relationship with the customer can be as easy as having an easily identifiable brand that customers can associate with and feel comfortable with. Within that brand it can be important to have variations that are consistently changing and making the customer aware of it. This is one of the attraction points of a market - products change with the season.

At the market level, it can be really important to have some type of consistent communication with your customers. In the book I am reading right now, Never Eat Alone, the author calls the concept "pinging." He says that you can build relationships with customers by constantly staying in communication with them. I have seen a mix of different ways of doing this including newsletters, news feeds, and twitter feeds. The best I have seen have been those that alert you or even entice you with potential deals. I like those markets that keep in touch with me and tell me what I can expect at the market. Relationship alone is not sufficient for me to return to a market - I want to know that I will be seeing fresh things there.

I would love to hear what your area market does to stay in touch with customers like you. What are other things you would like to see them do?

Apple Valley: A Family Friendly Farmer's Market

Source: Minnesota Zoo

Home of the Minnesota Zoo, Apple Valley was my primary destination in my hunt for a farmer’s market.  Overall, the Apple Valley farmer’s market was relatively easy to find.  It was near the major shopping centers of the city and in the parking lot of the municipal center.  As an outsider, it appeared to be located in the center of the action.  It was not difficult to locate with the nearby signage.

What initially drew me to the Apple Valley farmer’s market was the fact that the vendors were there until 1:00 PM.  As someone who likes to sleep in on a Saturday, it was easier for me to get to this farmer’s market without being rushed or deprived of my valuable sleep.  However, for those that might be going to the Minnesota Zoo, this could be an added stop if you like your fresh vegetables and the other things I discuss below.  If you are hesitant to bring your children along, they may enjoy one of the many balloon animals sold at one of the booths.

I was initially disappointed upon my arrival because of the apparent lack of vendors.  After looking around, however, I was pleased by the uniqueness of the few vendors that were there.  As someone who loves breakfast food such as pancakes and French toast, I was first drawn to a booth that sold maple syrup.  The business operating this booth was Three River’s Farm —they specialize in producing 100% pure maple syrup (please visit their website for additional information).  The woman at the booth was very kind and friendly.  She knew the product well and offered me an abundance of samples to try.  I tried the cinnamon maple syrup, vanilla, and the traditional flavor.  All of them were absolutely delightful—I decided to buy a bottle of the traditional maple syrup for myself.  She also explained to me the many things that their syrup could be used with (fresh fruits, oatmeal, yogurt, snow, milk shakes, sweet potatoes, maple butter, ham, etc.).  This booth was marked well and probably had the most impressive display of all the booths there.  On top of that, they also had fliers available with suggestions of what to use your syrup on, which also had their contact information.

The next booth I visited was for the Great Harvest Bread Company.  I thought it was strange that such a large business would have a booth at a farmer’s market, but having a fairly large anchor at a farmer’s market may attract more people and serve as a benefit to the farmer’s market as a whole.  Overall, the salesperson again did a great job discussing the various breads she had for sale.  Like Three Rivers Farm, this booth also had some samples.  I tried some apple crisp bread and it was again amazing.  There was a very large variety of breads at this booth.  You could get anything from sour dough bread to a hamburger bun.  Given my love for pepperoni pizza, I ultimately decided on the pepperoni roll—and it made for a great lunch upon my return home.

I then continued through the rest of the farmer’s market to see what was out there.  At this time, the local farmers did not have much more than snap peas, fresh onions, potatoes, pea pods, and lettuce.  However, these will likely change as fall approaches.  Nonetheless, there were an abundance of these fresh vegetables.  Generally, the booths for the local farmers had good signage for their prices.  My only disappointment with these booths was the fact that some of them were packing up near noon rather than one o’clock.

Something else I noticed at this farmer’s market was a booth or two that sold fresh strawberries.  I really enjoy fresh berries, but they tend to be a bit on the expensive side in the grocery stores.  Although they were still a little pricey at the farmer’s market, I would rather spend the money at a farmer’s market with assurances that my fruit is fresh.  As a plus, the strawberries I purchased came in a wood-like box rather than the cheap plastic ones you find in the store.  Additionally, if you are feeling adventurous, most of the booths selling berries had opportunities for customers to go pick the berries themselves.  If you had the extra time, berry picking could prove to be a good morning or afternoon activity for the family.

Overall, my visit to the farmer’s market in Apple Valley was a pleasant experience.  Given the proximity to the Minnesota Zoo, this is a great place to stop with the family.  As fall approaches, I imagine more vendors will arrive with a greater variety of fruits and vegetables.  If you have any questions or comments regarding this post or any future posts, please leave some feedback or email us .

~Ryan

Looking for Gifts in St. Paul

Hello Readers,

       With Ryan out of town I explored alone the St. Paul Lowertown Market. While it was cloudy and dreary outside the market this morning, it was vibrant inside with people brimming about inspecting vegetables, striking up conversations, and being drawn to different attraction points in the market. In this first post about the St. Paul Lowertown Market I wanted to share what attracted me to look, stop, and eventually buy.

      I walked the market at least three times. On the first round I just wanted to see what was hot. Where people were congregating. The place that labeled itself as the "world's coldest spring water" was also the place to get coffee. I heard several people as I ushered in say "I have to get some coffee before we walk around." I think other points that made this location especially good was its location, quick service, and fun atmosphere. It was generally a place that seem fun to be around.

    Another point that attracted me was good signage. Some people put their signage on the sides of their trucks which was good but the most effective for me were those that put the sign right behind their stand. The two products I ended up buying came from retailers that had signs for their business right behind them. In addition, I wanted good labeling on the items because this week I was not going to be consuming the goods myself but handing them off as gifts. I wanted to whomever I gave them to form a relationship with the craftsperson.

I first stopped at the stand for the White Bear Soap Company because of the sign behind the stand, the general helpfulness of the associate, and the unique nature of the soap. I have to be honest the first thing that really attracted to the stand was the bar shampoo because you so rarely see different scents for bar shampoo. When I approached the woman I took a look at her products as she was helping another customer. I found a uniquely purple bar for my girlfriend and then asked her if she could recommend another one for me. We settled on a lavendar bar. When we were done with the transaction she handed me a loyalty card so that I may stop by at a later time. The card had the craftswoman's number and e-mail on the back. Great way to build a relationship with her customers. The whole experience was quality from beginning to end and only cost me $5. Later in the week I will do a blog posting just on building loyalty at farmers markets.

Second, I stopped at the original Tarte Tatin because it had the full package of marketing with a sign behind the stand, flyers, and well labeled products. It was especially nice that you could buy boxes that had three tartes bundled for $10. I bought a box. The packaging even led me to a website so that I could learn more about the company. - http://www.theoriginaltartetatin.com/. Again I was pleased with my experience all the way through. I hope when I give the box to Ryan when he returns I hope he enjoys a Tarte.

   I gave myself a budget of $15 otherwise I would have gone after some asparagas, a donut, or some flowers. On my budget I could not go far, but it was enough to have a great morning at the market. Look forward to some more posts this week about my experience at the market and other odds and ends to get you acquainted with us.

   We would love to hear comments from you about our postings and please offer any suggestions of where we should go or what should look for when we get there. Be sure to share this blog with your friends and family.

~Joe

P.S. We have already had one request for a guest posting. If you would like to guest post about what you are seeing at your local farmer's market please e-mail us at drivingforfreshness@gmail.com.

  

    

   

Here Little Birdy....

Driving For Freshness will be tweeting to provide you our audience additional content and follow the tweets of farmers markets we attend or become enticed to attend from seeing their tweets.

Resources That Will Be Used During the Blog

We will be referencing a couple of books throughout the blog that I wanted to make mention of.

First, New Directions in Marketing for Farmers' Markets by Kristin Krokowski and Terry Gaouette - this book will give us a framework for understanding what things to look out for at farmers markets and what are techniques that we have seen that book may have touched on but did not go into greater detail.

Second, Clean Food by Terry Walters - the book is a good starting point for learning how to eat closer to the source.

Third, How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman - as my roommate and I are just starting out we will be a novice at knowing how to cook but luckily Mr. Bittman can be more than capable at helping us out

~Joe

Welcome to Our Blog!

My roommate Ryan and I are in school in the Twin Cities. We had the great idea that we wanted to get on the band wagon of going to farmer's markets in the area and blogging about it. The blog will feature:

(1) Marketing Techniques - We will talk about the ways that we heard about the market, what made us go to the market, what attracted us to the different booths, and other devices that helped get us to the food.

(2) Cooking - My roommate and I are novices at cooking. We will not only be figuring out to shop at farmers markets but how to cook it. We will have a supplementary youtube video series to complement this blog.

(3) Interviews - My roommate and I potentially want to reach out and talk to people about their vibes on certain farmers markets.

We really want to make this blog a discussion and welcome your comments about our content.