How Small Scale Farmers Can Use Direct Marketing to Their Advantage

• Convenience Ready-to-eat salad mix is an example of products that are more convenient for consumers and could be direct marketed by small-scale producers effectively. Selling produce or meat with recipes and serving suggestions is another way that farmers can make their products more convenient than what is sold at the grocery store.
• Flavor: Consumers often list taste and freshness as the top reasons for buying directly from farmers. Producers who get their products to consumers the same day they are harvested will always win on this issue. Also, small scale producers can pay more attention to detail, which often results in a more flavorful product.
• Variety: Small farmers can produce 20 different varieties of tomatoes, or grow a multitude of vegetables, flowers and raise livestock. Small farms can diversify in a way that larger farms do not, and offer their consumers a wide variety of products.
• Novelty: This ties into the variety and specialty issues. Farmers who are tuned into their customers' preferences are prepared to respond to those preferences with their products.
• Specialty Products: Labeling can distinguish your unique products from the generic. "Eco-labels" are a good example of this: locally grown, certified organic, grass-fed or free-range. When consumers purchase products with these labels, they are expressing preferences; they are "voting with their dollars."

Direct Marketing Alternatives for Small Farmers