Launch

This is an outline of a typical marketing plan. Your marketing plan may contain all or just some of these components depending on your company type, stage of growth, and goals.

You’ve done your market research. You’ve learned about the history and life-cycle of products like yours and the trends and key drivers that determine where your products or services “fit in the industry” Now it’s time to distill your research findings into a concentrated effort to generate a product that reflects your business goals and objectives while providing solutions (price, packaging, convenience) for the customer.

I never met anyone who got into farming because they enjoyed trying to predict consumer buying preferences or because they got great personal satisfaction from tracking the grain futures market. Most business entrepreneurs aren’t thrilled about spending time researching their competitors’ advantages. Farmers want to farm. Entrepreneurs want to develop businesses around new products or services. Neither prefers to spend a substantial portion of their time or financial resources developing their marketing program, much less implementing it themselves. Not that they’re not capable of doing so - they often don’t find the work enjoyable and they’re just not sure how to go about it. Yet, until a farm or enterprise makes its first profitable sale, it’s a business in name only.

The process of identifying your potential customer Decision Marketing Units (DMUs), determining your market segments, and then developing a targeted strategy is called market research. This research involves gathering additional information about customers, competition, and overall market potential.

Other Resources is part of the Maryland Retail Products Producer Program. This section will provide information on other resources that will help your product to become ready for retail.

Getting Things Right is part of the Maryland Retail Products Producer Program. This section will provide information on supply, storage, purchasing, establishing prices, ordering and delivery schedules, invoicing and payment terms, and product promotions.

Know Your Product and Brand is part of the Maryland Retail Products Producer Program. This section will provide information about packaging, USDA/FDA label and nutritional label requirements, and Allergen notification requirements.

Sales and Marketing Tools is part of the Maryland Retail Products Producer Program. This section will provide resources on marketing channels and tools to sell your retail products.

Product Development and Production is part of the Maryland Retail Products Producer Program. This section provides information on product development and production practices.

Specialty vegetables, of course, don’t have to be weird, odd-shaped, or off-colored cousins of their traditional counterparts. More often than not, they are not weird at all, but are simply vegetables that are not available or grown on a large scale for traditional market outlets. They may be vegetables that are grown quite commonly in other parts of the world, but are not yet known as a traditional staple crop here (ethnic specialty vegetables). They may simply be miniature versions of full-sized fruit (baby or miniature vegetables) that are available at a time when they are traditionally not in season (early or late season extension) or are an unusual or different variety (heirloom, local cultural favorites, etc.).