Resource

There is an overwhelming amount of information available online with tips on how to improve how to market and sell food. To help you navigate this, we have sorted through the content that may be most relevant to community food enterprises to consider.

If you have a brick and mortar shop, pop-up hub space, market stall or farm gate – this resource is designed to provide you with ideas, tips and further links to help get you started.

Visual Marketing Tips and Tricks

USING SPACE:

• Use Empty Space Wisely: space between the products and ceiling is most underutilized. Incorporate signage, or dried produce such as flowers, herbs, garlic to hang around the store where possible.
• Consider layout to maximise customer exposure with products: a circular layout to guide the movement of customers is common and powerful in comparison to traditional aisles. If your layout does have aisles, use clean & sharp displays that encourage customers to slow, stop and look at products.
  Read further: 5 Most Important Elements of Visual Merchandising

CUSTOMER PERSPECTIVE:

• Think from the perspective of the customer and their experience, rather than just the need to sell.
• Customer feedback / survey: talk with customers about their experience – what is working / not working for them or could you have a place for a customer feedback or suggestion box?
  Read further: Customer Experience Engineering

PRODUCT IDEAS:

• Move products into displays outside of their normal area (if possible to do this with food safety requirements): helps customers see products they may have never noticed before.
• Multiple-price-point mantra : “A two-for-$5 is more effective than $2.49 each. If you have a two-for deal, you will almost guarantee that every customer will buy the multiple.”
• Promote products with multiple uses: social media is a powerful tool to assist in sharing recipes, images, videos i.e. 5 different recipe ideas for pumpkin
• Discounts and Temporary Price Reductions : **apply with caution: you may need to consider how this may impact your return on investment!**
  Read further: Tips and Ideas for Effective Marketing in Grocery Stores

DISPLAYS:

• POS Displays: Have plenty of products in and around the counter for a ‘quick grab’
• Window Displays: considered a ‘window of opportunity’, read this guide further.
  
• Product or producer of the week display: do you have opportunities to cross-promote with your suppliers that can help to engage customers with a specific display? Read this short article on the success of Aldi’s ever-changing section of special items. 

Finding inspiration

Online – search Pinterest and Instagram hashtags for ideas and image inspirations.

Try searching terms such as:

• Green Grocer
• Farmers Markets
• Farm Store Ideas
• Farm Gate

Your local area – Do a ‘competitor check’ to see what and how other stores are presenting and displaying information and products.

Expand the Decision making tools section below to see how you can try something new and see if it has an impact!

Want to try something new but don’t know where to start?

• Consider the Ease Value Matrix method: a method to help you prioritise tasks and make decisions based on value and effort involved. View the matrix and see further steps and details in this article by Laura Trotter.

Want to test something new and know if it worked?

• Try the Lean Approach of Hypothesis Testing: a method to help you identify and test your assumptions by creating a hypothesis, experiment and then validating this. Download this easy to use template by Stephen Bolen.

Further Reading

1. Understanding Customer Behaviour at Farmers Markets –
   Strategies for Increasing Sales and Customer Satisfaction by GrowNYC Greenmarket
2. Visual merchandising tips for small businesses by Small Business Commissioner NSW Government
3. How to sell your products – and your brand – in a window display by Vistaprint

Below are some examples of food enterprises that we think are doing it pretty well !