The Rural Voice, 1995-09, Page 60•SIZZLINC
SP6GIAU " •
Prices have been slashed on
most machines plus gutter cleaner
replacement chain.
For prices on feed -handling and
manure -handling equipment,
contact a participating Patz
dealer.
Patz'
goPROGRESSIVE
FARMING
a
SAlC IV'
R.R. 2, Wellesley
519-656-2709
News
Speakers give advice
on running food
businesses
Tips on everything from preparing
food safely in a home-based business
to finding the right market niche
were provided by speakers at a series
of seminars at A Taste of Country
Food Fair in Blyth, July 22.
The seminars, sponsored by the
Huron Business Centre, provided
food business operators, for those
contemplating starting a food
business, with a look at various
aspects of the business.
Bill Baxter, Rural Business
Consultant with the Rural
Development Secretariat, illustrated
finding a niche by looking at
someone interested in baking pies.
There are lots of pies, but the person
decided to specialize in apple pies.
More than just any pie she chose
dutch apple pies and more than just
any dutch apple pies she zeroes in on
deep-dish apple pies. This then set a
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56 THE RURAL VOICE
Advice
number of parameters for the
business: it is producing a high
quality dutch apple pie that people
must be willing to pay extrafor. That
marketing position requires market
research to find where there are
people willing to pay extra for the
extra value in the pie. He compared
niche marketing to a car lot with
Chevettes and Cadillacs: both
provide transportation but the
Cadillac provides extra intangible
values such as status, prestige,
lifestyle and image. But you have to
offer those intangibles to people who
are willing to pay for them.
"Positioning sells the customer what
the customer wants and what the
customer is prepared to pay for," he
said.
He outlined the four "p's" of
marketing: product, price, place
(distribution — getting the product to
the customer) and promotion. These,
he said, "focus you in on the
customer who is going to pay an
extra buck for your product." You
need a profile of the customer who is
most apt to buy the product and not
be as price conscious as other -people.
It's important to turn people from
price conscious to value conscious,
Baxter said.
The entrepreneur has to define the
product whether it be dutch apple pie
or freezer lamb. "What makes your
product different than all the other
products out there and makes people
willing to pay more?" he asked.
Where are you going to sell it, at a
farmers' market, to a specialty store
or are you going to deliver it? How
do you get the product together with
the customer who wants it? "All this
has to be thought out as part of your
marketing plan."
Too often, he said, people create a
product, then try to create a demand
for it. "Wouldn't it be smarter to see
a need and fill it?" Baxter asked.
That can mean identifying a trend
and the opportunities it presents. A
trend, he said, is a change that takes
place over time. An entrepreneur
must analyse the trend to see if is
likely to continue or change. A
government policy change, for
instance, could change the trend. You
have to know the difference between