In order to meet customer demand and ensure that our produce is readily available, controls will play a critical role. For direct marketing we can establish a farm stand near an area with a high volume of foot traffic. We can determine the amount of produce necessary to meet demand thru repeat purchases and customer loyalty. This method can also be used to monitor our stand at the local farmers market. First we will determine the amount of traffic for each day the farmers market is open, then on the days with the highest amount of traffic we will be sure to stock all produce. Farmer’s markets are a great way to establish a relationship with the consumer. By establishing great relationships with the co-ops and farmers markets we can relay on word of mouth advertising from our customers. After we have established a customer base we can expand to more marketing channels.
Marketing in large grocery stores and natural food stores will give us ability to reach out to more customers. Our marketing strategy consists of campaigning the benefits of organic produce in hopes to increase customer demand. With this rise in demand for organic produce it is essential to be USDA certified organic. Putting the organic label on our products guarantees to our customers that we’ve put in extra effort in the production of our produce and can be considered healthier for them than conventional alternatives. Our marketing plan will be monitored by inventory turnover rate in the grocery stores. Because we will mostly be working with perishable items it will be necessary to monitor our inventory in making sure we have a very high inventory turnover rate.
