Marketing Aquaculture Products — 1

Marketing Yourself
Know thy self is important in where and how
you want to market your product and operation.
Let’s be practical, you will not be able to
sell to every customer, not every potential customer
is going to want your product, so don’t
get bogged down trying to market to everyone
in every way. Focus on your best customer demographic;
be well prepared to state your case
about what uniquely sets your product apart
from the competition. When it comes time to
market, concentrate on the type of marketing
that is good for you and your skill set. Th en try
to broaden your market from there or consider
delegating to someone who really knows that
area. For example, you may experience faceto-face
customer sales at a farmer’s market,
or going into distribution chains, you may be
better off working through an aggregator or
distributor with large retail experience and
long-standing personal connections.
Know your capabilities; you are what you are.
Be yourself and don’t try to be what you are
20 — Marketing Aquaculture Products
not. Know the rules, but you don’t have to play
the same game everyone else is playing to be
successful. You are the brand and the value in
your brand is your operation and your product.
Most alternative farmers have no idea
what is their true cost of production. Set a
price that covers all of your cost in the product,
then market accordingly. Th is includes all
of your transportation, handling and billing
costs. Knowing the true cost of your product
is always extremely important to the success of
your business. It is critical if you decide to establish
a relationship with aggregators, brokers,
distributors or grocery-store chains and price
your product accordingly.
Give yourself a good reality check once in
awhile. For example, most people don’t want
to give a distributor a 30% margin. However,
you have to know what it costs you to do what
the distributor will do for you. What does it
cost you to do your own sales, transportation,
bookkeeping, etc.? For example if it is costing