Marketing Aquaculture Products — 1

stores are the same or similar to those of
dealing with distributors and brokers: When
presenting yourself and your product, tell your
story. Come prepared with a good promotional
sample kit for sales personnel. If you go into a
meeting armed with a quality sample kit, you
communicate that you are in the game.
Th ere are some documents that are important
to bring with you to a meeting with a store
manager. Grocers also like to see forecast
sheets. Th ese are especially important for
produce and other perishable-good buyers.
Th ey give the store manager an idea when and
how you will have product: the timing of your
harvest, time for you to process from order to
delivery, order and processing confi rmations,
and similar details. Along with the forecast
sheet, a background paper on your operation
is important for the grocer to have on fi le to
substantiate COOL labeling. COOL stands for
Country of Origin Label and is a compliance
labeling requirement.
Do not expect farmers’ market retail prices
when going through a grocery store. Th e stores
have razor-thin margins and they must do everything
in their power to be cost-competitive
with their competition and as aff ordable as
possible to the customers in that store’s demographic.
Th e price for your quality product
34 — Marketing Aquaculture Products
is less of an issue if you have a high-quality
specialty product that you are niche marketing.
Tell your story with good point-of-contact
and point-of-purchase communications, and
consider in-store demonstrations to work with
the grocer to educate the consumer about your
product.
Your Big-4 ideas on determining your price, as
with distributors and brokers, include: pricing,
quality, margins, and risk. Th e price the grocer
has to take the product to the consumer is very
important. It is equally important that you or
the grocer cover margins for advertising and
marketing, and the risk of a product introduction.
One great solution for fi guring out your
costs and how to budget for them is to design a
spreadsheet that shows all costs as your product
moves through the value-chain to the end
user. Be transparent and absolutely honest with
yourself for yourself. Th is is how you learn and
see how profi table you are, or need to be, to
sustainably grow your business.
All grocers, but particularly the niche and
independent grocers love it when you put on a
product demonstration in their store. It shows
to the customer (and to them) that you believe
in your product and are willing to stand by
it, and that you have a relationship with the
grocer. Consider holding a demonstration with
some other local producers on the same day
and publicizing the in-store event. Work with
the grocer, they will either want you there during
peak shopping activity time or may suggest
a time better suited for an event where you can
spend more face-to-face time with customers.
Work this out with the store manager. Th e
manager can help you determine your level
of preparedness with respect to staff , product,
and promotional materials. Be sure to collect
contact information from customers for e-mail
or direct-mail notifi cations and similar followup
communications. You may want to collect
contact information in the form of a product or
grocery raffl e.