Value Added Marketing
Creating and selling value-added products is an important tool that farmers can use to maximize
their efforts and increase profits. This discussion is presented as an introduction to the principles,
requirements and rewards of this process.
Brief Description
Value-added refers to increasing the value to a customer of some product or service. Features are added to a product that increases the value to the consumer. It is a customer-driven process in which the farmer retains more of the food dollar by processing, enhancing, packaging and/or marketing the product him/herself.
Benefits
- Opportunity to capture a larger percentage of the money spent on food
- May increase visibility of the farm
- May expand the market season
- May open new markets
- May benefit the community by adding jobs for processing and by keeping money within the community
Challenges
- More resources and time required
- Requires different marketing strategies than raw products
- Product must be truly wanted by consumer
- Product must be perceived as worth the extra cost
- More regulations of food safety, taxes and insurance may apply
- Profit not usually seen for three to seven years
Keys to success
- Quality product
- Good marketing
- Sufficient capital
Examples of value-added items
- Jams, jellies, preserves
- Soup mixtures
- Salad mixtures
- Garlic braids
- Wreaths
- Flower bouquets
- Dried flowers
- Dried herbs
- Dried fruit
- Vinegars
- Salsa
- Herbal products
- Pastured poultry
- Free-range eggs
- Grass-fed beef or pork
- Unique or more convenient packaging
- Certain types of labeling
Tips
- Start small
- Identify your customer base
- Base decisions on good records
- Make your product unique in some way
- Create a high-quality product
- Find niche markets
- Continuously evaluate & change production as evaluations indicate
- Keep informed
- Persevere
- Be sure there is adequate capital
- Think ahead to plan the growth of the operation
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