Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association

Newsletter #297 May/June 2014 Volume 30, Number 5

Fresh Facts

Inside this issue:

Membership News 2 Farmers Hate Money

3

Make your Location a Destination

4

Launching OFFMA’s Podcasts

6

Before e-mailing, Get Consent!

8

Let’s Celebrate Local Food Week

10

Merchandising to the Max

11

They’re your words, choose them

12

President’s Message As I write this letter at the end of April, the last of the snow is just going. There is still ice on the lakes and rivers and in the bush. We have been working at getting all our office tasks completed, so we are ready to get on the land when the snow finally leaves. One of those jobs is getting our seeds ordered. While working out our pump-kin plan, I came across a book that I could really relate to and I think many of you will too. It is called “The Pumpkin Plan: A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business” by Mike Michalowicz.

If you have ever grown giant pumpkins you will really be able to relate to these three gems from the book.

1. Plant the right seeds: Don’t waste time doing a bunch of different things just to

please your customers. Instead, identify the thing you do better than anyone else and focus all of your attention, money, and time on figuring out how to grow your company doing it.

2. Weed out the losers: In a pumpkin patch, small, rotten pumpkins stunt the growth

of the robust, healthy ones. The same is true of customers. Figure out which cus-tomers add the most value and provide the best opportunities for sustained growth. Then ditch the worst of the worst.

3. Nurture the winners: Once you figure out who your best customers are, blow

their minds with care. Discover their unfulfilled needs, innovate to make their wishes come true, and over deliver on every single promise.

As the season of planning draws to a close give these ideas some thought.

The season of action (spring) will be upon us soon!

I hope your crops all wintered well and the “Seeds” you plant this spring will flourish!

Brian Hugli OFFMA President

Providing knowledge and leadership to grow the farm fresh experience.

MEMBERSHIP NEWS

Page 2 Fresh Facts

Classifieds AUCTION AT FORSYTHE FARM Monday, May 19th, 10:00 am Leslie & Jim Forsythe 1025 Cragg Road, Greenbank, ON For a complete listing of items, visit KevinBarkerAuctions.com WANTED: Small Drink Cooler with glass door for self serve. Could be counter top style. Email marketing@fultons.ca WANTED: Frozen raspberries whole or crumbles. Frozen wild blueberries. Email marketing@fultons.ca FOR SALE: BEE EQUIPMENT Call Walter Pingle at Pingle’s Farm Mar-ket for more info, 905-725-6089 FOR SALE: FROZEN RASPBERRIES Frozen in 20lb pails, Nova Scotia and Pol-ka varieties, prices FOB Simcoe, ON. Price is $1.50/lb. Contact John Cooper, Berry Tyme Fruit Inc., Simcoe, ON 519-426-3099, e-mail: styme@kwic.com AUCTION AT BIRTCH FARMS & ESTATE WINERY - business closing Saturday, August 23, 2014 Bakery and food service equipment(sheeter, mixer, convection ovens, com-mercial Panini grill, hotdog roller, 4 cash registers , winery equipment (many stain-less and plastic tanks, fittings etc), farm and orchard equipment, playground equipment and structures, tour wagon, store displays, refrigeration compressor, walk in freezer, commercial freezer and fridge(3-4 years old), 2 commercial deep fryers. Orchard and playground signage and many other related items. Great for new business start ups. Everything must go. FOR SALE: 10 x 16 modular walk-in freezer—single phase, call Tom Hughes at Springridge Farm, 905-691-8423 Classifieds are free for members. Simply send your information to the OFFMA of-fice and it will be included in the next newsletter.

New Members– if these members are in your area, reach out and give them a call to welcome them into the OFFMA family. New Members Barrett’s Christmas Tree Farm Diana & Robert Barrett Cobourg, ON 905-342-2622 The Barrett’s welcome the whole family to their farm for the adventure of finding the perfect tree to celebrate the Christ-mas season. You can pick and cut your tree out of the grove or select one of their pre-cut trees. They have many varieties of evergreens as well as natural season-al decorations. Farmtown Canada Kelly Franklin Aylmer, ON 519-773-2292 Farmtown Canada helps children and families to make a memory that will last a lifetime, whether it’s at their camps and programs or during a Farmtown visit. You can experience rustic rural Ontario and learn about farm heritage. You can also take a Funny Farm tour with a guide who will help you enjoy fence-free interaction opportunities and hands-on learning with their interesting and comical farm ani-mals. River Road Farms Toula Murchie Lindsay, ON 705-344-0399 River Road Farms is a century farm of one hundred acres located in Kawartha Lakes. They farm in the traditional way, using only sustainable methods. They plant a variety of veggies that are har-vested throughout the season, using the best quality seeds to produce the best tasting vegetables. They go to a number of Farmers' Markets and operate a CSA. From early to late in the season, they have a lot to offer!

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Okay, I don’t know any farmers who hate money. I’m just trying to grab your atten-tion, like author Scott Stratten has done so successfully in 2 of his books I loved, and wanted to share with anyone who likes making money. The first book to grab is UNMARKETING. It was published in 2010, but if you haven’t read it, you should, and his most recent book, QR CODES KILL KITTENS, is LOL funny. UNMARKETING Scott Stratten, who has over 168,000 fol-lowers on Twitter* has been named one of the top 5 social media influencers in the world on Forbes.com, is also a local, from Toronto. UNMARKETING is all about engaging cus-tomers. “If you believe business is built on relationships, make building them your busi-ness”. Scott shares many stories of compa-nies’ successes and failures, and in a very entertaining way shows how amazing social media can be if done well, and you can har-ness your “word of mouth army”. If you are a social media guru, loving it, hat-ing it, or don’t even want to talk about it, UNMARKETING has something for us all. Scott does a great job, simply sharing how to engage effectively, to gain “traction, mo-mentum and (hopefully) expansion”. And it’s worth our time. Scott uses actual blogs and twitter conversations to show us that even if we are not linked into social media, “people are on-line right now talking about you and your competition. Are you listening?” Have you seen what the trip advisor reviews say about your farm, or the one down the road? Even better, are you searching/ monitoring social media to see what people say about visiting your farm, after a busy weekend? In case you had any thoughts about the ROI for social media, Scott says it simply. “If I offered you a tool 10 years ago that allowed you to listen and respond to the casual conversations of your potential, cur-rent, and past customers, you would have paid me $20,000 a month for this 8th won-der of the world.”

He very clearly, in short and easy to read chapters, 56 in total, uses real business ex-amples to show how and why we can use social media to engage and connect with cus-tomers. Does your newsletter sign up read “Sign up for our newslet-ter!”? He hilariously points out how ridiculous this is. Scott says “no one needs your newsletter”. How does your farm stand out, or “this is where you want to be in any business- in front of your market positioned as an expert.” He talks about the “PULL and STAY”; are people on your website and it’s simply a copy of a brochure? How are people staying and engaging. This is what QR Codes KILL Kittens is all about. It’s an unconventional book, most-ly screen shots of websites and social media conversations, all hilarious, do and don’ts. This is one to have on the lunch table. We laughed out loud!!!! Scott uses footnotes throughout the book, it’s such a cool way to add his per-sonality to the read, and he brings in lots of internet examples so keep your com-puter nearby, and enjoy. *He does walk the walk; check out www.iambreakingupwiththeleafs.com, his viral video with almost 100,000 views. * Hey, need some-thing to twitter #farmie @offma right now, from your bak-ery, store, field. May-be it will catch on. Maybe you can get customers to do it too! Hhhhmmmmmmm (a selfie is a popular self portrait people share on social me-dia a #farmie is one taken on a farm, why not).

Farmers Hate Money By Megan Snyder, Snyder’s Family Farm

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Make Your Loca on a Des na on By Paul Williams, Idea Sandbox

Reprinted with permission from the Idea Sand-box. Obviously meant for various businesses, and not necessarily agriculture, but there are still many nuggets that would work well for agri-tourism. To learn more about Idea Sandbox, go to www.idea-sandbox.com. Think about what a "destination" is... It is a place worth going to... Even out of the way to get to... because it is worth it. Florence, Italy; Paris, France; and for some Disney World. People plan, save, get reservations, and schedule to get to these places. How great would it be if your business was a destination!? The place that people would go out of the way to find. The place worth making a special trip and worth passing competitors to get to. There are a couple of ways you can do this. 1. Be The First, Only, or the Best People will go out of their way to visit the first, the only, or the best. Within your industry can you credibly claim and deliv-er that you are: •The first business to offer something? •The only business to offer something? •Or the very best among your competi-tion? If you can answer YES to one of these, *that* should be your key selling mes-sage. That is your differentiator and can make you worth going out of the way for. I'll bet, however, that your field is crowd-ed with competitors - making it difficult to be the first or only. That it is easier to ex-

plain how you’re different versus the best. (At least as perceived by potential customers). If this is your situation, our recommenda-tion is to... 2. Host Destination Events Create, regularly host, and become known as a destination for special events. Provide additional reasons for customers to make a special trip to visit. Become a destination.

They may come for mov-ie night, live music, spe-cial tastings, product demonstrations, or more. (Some farms are doing cooking lessons, wagon rides and pumpkin can-non shows.) Two logistical questions, as you start to plan: 1.What things are rele-vant and interesting to current and potential

customers? 2.Do you have the capacity and re-sources to regularly and properly host events? Here is an example... You run a great Italian restaurant. You think your meatballs and house-made tortellini are the best. (But, that’s a hard thing to prove). And, you also carry a great selection of hard-to-find Italian wines. A Destination Event you could host is Wine Tasting Classes. Bring in special wines only for the event. Pair the wine with various foods. Teach customers how to taste and pick wines they prefer. Now you’ve given your customers a spe-cial skill, adding value to their lives. You’ve provided them with a taste test of some of your food, perhaps encouraging them to return.

Disney has done an excellent job of mar-keting itself as a destination.

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Build & Plan Properly Just like any project or activity, success is found in solid construction and imple-mentation of a plan. We won’t go into detail on how to be a good project manager here... There are plenty of other resources for you if that is a challenge at your organization. Event Types Here are some event ideas to get you and your team brainstorming and plan-ning. Classes & Seminars Teach your expertise to your customers. Here are idea-starters - based on busi-ness type - of classes you could host. Modify to support your business. Clothing Store •How to pick clothes that fit. •How to tell if a garment is quality made. •How to assemble outfits that are coordi-nated. Restaurant •How to find and select the pick best in-gredients. •Cooking class in your restaurant's cook-ing style. •How to prepare a signature item you offer at home. All you’re doing is making experts out of your customers. They will thank you for it, and will become evangelists of what you taught them to others. Art Openings/Events Mount artwork on the walls of your busi-ness. Host a reception, like they do at galleries, and invite customers and the community in to meet the artist. Perhaps partner with a local, relevant charity and the artist to auction a piece of artwork to benefit the charity. Change the artwork out on a regular ba-sis - monthly, every two months, quarter-ly. Keep hosting events. Bring in different types of artist. Have live music. Demo or sample your products and services.

Music Events Bring in a small, local band to perform during the evening. Serve music and appetizers. You can literally jazz up your restaurant or make visiting the local BestBuy an unforgettable experience. Games & Competition Friendly competition can be fun and ex-citing. With game platforms, you don’t need a bowling alley to host a bowling league. Get yourself one or a few gam-ing systems and build the support for league nights at your location. Charity & Giving Events Any event can have a charity hook. But why not bring a charity into your location once per month. Let them set-up a table and provide information to your custom-ers. Donate sales during that day to the charity. Encourage customers to visit and buy on that day. You’ll be loved by the charities. You’ll be a leader in your community. Host these on a regular basis and cus-tomers will attend to feel good doing good. Tips •Create a schedule and stick to it. This will keep you organized, make it easier for those supporting you, and make it easier to publicize your events. •Use as many free and low-cost ways to spread the word as possible. ◦Your website, ◦social media, ◦your sales or wait staff, ◦inside the check folder when you deliv-er your bill, ◦at the bottom of your receipts, ◦information stuffed into customer bags, ◦signage at your point-of-sale... ◦and more. •Spend a little money to spread the word. You get out what you put into your events. Don't be too thrifty or you won't get the traffic. Becoming known for events takes time. Don’t expect to be packed with your first or only event. Keep it up. Don’t give up.

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The definition of a podcast according to the World English Dictionary podcast (ˈpɒdˌkɑːst) — n an audio file similar to a radio broadcast, which can be downloaded and listened to on a computer, mp3 player, mobile phone, etc. OFFMA will be uploading a series of podcasts, one a week for the next 8 Tuesdays. The podcasts are audio only, so you can download them and listen to them in your trac-tor or as you are doing other chores. We have captured relevant, interesting topics from people who live these issues every day. If you have suggestions for other topics, let us know as we will be continuing with this series in 2014-15. The file is quite large so make sure you have enough room and give it a bit of time to download. The files are in the ‘members only’ section of the OFFMA website, you will need your username and password to access them. If you are unsure as to what these are, please contact the office and we will send them to you. April 15 - Diversifying Your Farm – Sarah Jollay, Jollay Orchards, Coloma, Mich-igan Jollay Orchards is a unique entertainment experience located 145 km outside of Chica-go -- blending a working Orchard with Family Activities. They have been perfecting the art of fruit growing since 1857. Over the last 150 years their farm has grown and changed creating today's u-pick fruit experience as well as Grandpa’s Cider Mill and Jollay’s Market. Sarah and her husband Jay are 7th generation farmers. Join this pod-cast as we look at the farm’s history, how they have diversified into three very unique and different locations and why they have chosen to diversify. April 22 - From the Farm to the Table, Raising Farm Fresh Quality Meat – Dana Thatcher, Thatcher Farms, Rockwood, ON This podcast talks with Dana Thatcher of Thatcher’s Farm in Rockwood Ontario. Thatcher Farms is located on 140 acres in Eramosa Township, in beautiful Wellington County. The family owned and operated farm offers customers locally produced meat products that are naturally raised, and that are hormone and additive free. Adam, a graduate of the Ontario Agriculture College and Dana an elementary school teacher enjoy farming and the lifestyle it provides for their family. Thatcher Farms is entering its fifth year of business, which grew out of necessity and a love for “good” food. In 2013 Dana and Adam were named Ontario’s Outstanding Young Farmers. Join us as we look at their history, marketing, butchery classes, their niches and how they price their meat. April 29 - Birthday Party’s – Is it Right for Your Farm? – Amy Williams, Springridge Farm, Milton, Ontario Thinking of adding birthday parties to your farm? This podcast learns from Amy Wil-liams of Springridge Farm as we look at their background as to why they started birth-day parties, what a ‘normal’ party consists of, how they staff and hire for their parties and easy value add-ons to give an exceptional celebration. May 6 - Birthday Parties – Rain or Shine – Amy Williams, Springridge Farm, Mil-ton, ON Weather can be one of every farmer’s biggest challenges. Hosting a birthday party is no exception. Join us as we learn from Amy Williams what some of their back up activi-ties are when the weather doesn’t cooperate.

Launching OFFMA’s Podcasts

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May 13 - Living an Intentional Life – Elaine Froese, Boissevain, Manitoba Elaine Froese is a professional speaker, writer and farm family coach who specializ-es in succession planning. Elaine helps family businesses talk about the tough is-sues and act on them. She’s a catalyst for courageous conversations, new scenari-os and more profitable businesses. Farm families are tired and overloaded. They think self-care is selfish. Too many roles and too little time. Where did the fun go? Elaine is an active farm partner with off-farm demands which makes her passionate and practical about being intentional, not “busy” and she shares her strategies for living a balanced life, our 6 core roles and the passions that drive us, energy boost-ers and creating a new storyboard for our lives during this podcast. May 20 - Hiring and Retaining Employees – Amy Strom, Strom’s Farm, Guelph, ON As your business grows so does your staff. This podcast talks with Amy Strom of Strom’s Farm in Guelph, ON about hiring, orientation and appreciating your staff. May 27 - A Week in the Life of Burnham Family Farm’s Bakery – Anne Burn-ham, Burnham Family Farm Market, Cobourg, ON Burnham Family Farm Market is situated on one corner of their 400-plus acre farm. Portions of the farm have been in the Burnham family since the 1830's. Up until 1995, dairy farming and cash cropping were their predominant commodities. In 1994, the market land, formerly known as Ontario Orchards was added to their farm acreage and Burnham Family Farm Market was born. Their mandate is to grow and sell quality produce with excellent individualized service.

Page 8 Fresh Facts

In trying to limit spam, the Canadian Government has introduced Anti-Spam legislation that affects every commer-cial enterprise including on-farm mar-kets. As of July 1, 2014 Canada’s Anti-Spam legislation applies to any commercial electronic message (email, text, direct messaging on social networking ac-counts) that promotes your enterprise, facility, or service. Examples include: providing your customers with infor-mation on special offers and/or promo-tions; providing reasons why the cus-tomer should consider your facility, product or service; soliciting a prospec-tive customer in any way. You need to obtain the customers con-sent before you send an e-mail. Ex-press consent is the communication agreement you have with your custom-er. These contacts have explicitly agreed to receive email communication from you. They have completed a form, in hard copy or online or told you ver-bally “Yes, I want to receive more infor-mation from you.” And with this you can continue communicating until you are told to stop. My suggestion to any enterprise would be to send out an e-mail communica-tion from your business database well in advance of July 1 and get your cus-tomers consent to continue communi-cating via email after July 1. As many people don’t read all their e-mails, this could be followed up with a telephone campaign to retain as much of your customer data-base as possible. If you are obtain-ing consent verbal-ly through a phone call, you should set up your cus-

Before e-mailing, Get Consent! By Gary Johnson, OFFMA Membership Coordinator

tomer relationship management system to capture additional information to prove that consent was obtained (such as ask-ing for the first letter of the person’s city of birth). In the event of a complaint, you will be required to prove that consent was ob-tained. This includes knowing the meth-od or source of consent, the date it was received, and what permission state-ment they consented to. Ensure that your Customer Relationship Manage-ment system is set up to accommodate these extra fields. You should also cre-ate a separate electronic folder for the customer consent document. On an on-going basis, your e-mails need to include sender contact info, a subject line representative of content, and a 1-click automatic unsubscribe option. Some e-mail management software like Mail Chimp and Constant Contact, do have the ability to track this information for you. The following are considered exempt of the law’s provisions: the confirmation e-mail to the customer having made a pur-chase, or having registered for an event; e-mails responding to a specific request made by the recipient; e-mails providing factual information (such as payment reminders); the recipient of the e-mail is a family member, or if you have a per-sonal relationship with the recipient. Penalties for non-compliance include $200 for each message (one unsolicited communication can count as a violation),

and can reach up to $1,000,000 per day for individuals and $10,000,000 for busi-nesses. While the leg-islation seems over-

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reaching and draconian for small enter-prises, it is still the law. What does this mean for Ontario Farm Fresh? Since you are a member of OFFMA, that is considered consent, and as an organization we can continue to send you e-mail messages without requiring a consent form. The area, where it be-comes difficult for Ontario Farm Fresh, is attracting new members by solicita-tion through e-mail. This is no longer allowed without receiving previous con-sent. What does it mean for your enter-prise? You need to sign up your customers to a consent document as they come into your store so you can continue com-municating with them through e-mail. There is no other option but to comply.

Once you have their consent, you can send e-mail messages but your e-mail must contain an unsubscribe button and complete contact infor-mation. Your e-mail distribution list is good for only two years as consent must be renewed after 24 months. Something to keep in mind: Remem-ber, spam is in the eye of the be-holder. In fact, most of us don’t like receiving unsolicited commercial messages that fill up our in-boxes, while at the same time we believe our own commercial e-mail messag-es are important information that our customer needs to know. The preceding information was gleaned from research and attending an anti-spam workshop and should not be con-sidered complete or a legal opinion. For protecting your business and more infor-mation, go to www.fightspam.gc.ca or a lawyer well-versed in the legislation.

Fresh Facts Page 10

Incredibly Creative Bench Ads to Get Your Juices Flowing Park benches are not the first thing that comes to mind when contemplating creative ad-vertising, but many times it’s the places you least expect that you find the greatest exam-ples of what you are looking for. Have a look at these examples, to help you start thinking more creatively around the farm. To see the complete listing of 25 benches posted by Syed Balkhi, go to http://list25.com/25-incredibly-creative-bench-ads

Made for Travel Alberta, these benches were placed around the City of Toronto and had people sitting on fake ski lifts as they wait-ed for their bus.

This cleverly designed desk on a bench cre-atively suggests how easy it is to enroll at Marylhurst University.

Without getting too graphic, this bench ad by Nivea manages to smoothly suggest how its product can help fight cellulite.

Newsletter #297 Page 11

Merchandising to the Max A consulting program with Leslie Groves, Creative Retail Solutions Leslie Groves from Creative Retail Solutions, did a presentation for OFFMA members as a part of the pre-convention workshop as well as the Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Convention this past February. The feedback we got was that she did a great job and you wanted more from her. So, the Merchandising to the Max Initiative was created. Here’s how it works in three easy steps…… Step One: Pre-Visit You will be sent a preliminary question-

naire that you need to fill out and return with pictures, no later than one week prior to the visit. The more information you are able to send, the more detailed and effec-tive the entire process will be.

Your responses will help Leslie get an overview of your business layout and your objectives for the visit

This type of visit is actually more effective if it happens once your market is open and running. It is much easier to see how customers react to your prod-ucts and your market when they are actually there.

Step Two: On-Site Visit

This part will take approximately 3 hours Leslie will meet with the principals to discuss what they hope to change and

what sort of information they hope to gain from the consultation

Leslie will review the completed questionnaire with you to get a clear understanding of your mer-chandising needs

Leslie will take pictures for the final report to clearly show suggestions on how to improve your displays

Step Three: PowerPoint Presentation Report

Following the visit, you will receive a powerpoint presentation with pictures accompanied by points for improvement or layout modifications so that you can use the visuals as a training tool while working one step at a time on the re-model of your on-farm market

Investment Cost The fee for this consultation is $200 plus HST. There is space for 12 farms to participate this year. Please con-tact the OFFMA office if you are interested in this oppor-tunity. We will be trying to coordinate members in the same area together, so get your intentions into the of-fice soon.

“Leslie will provide prac-tical ideas and strategies to help your market reach the level of growth and success you deserve.”

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Ontario Farm Fresh Cathy Bartolic, Executive Director 2002 Vandorf Rd. Aurora, ON L4G 7B9 Phone: 905-841-9278 Fax: 905-726-3369 E-mail: info@ontariofarmfresh.com www.ontariofarmfresh.com

2014-15 OFFMA Board of Directors Brian Hugli, President Hugli’s Blueberry Ranch Leslie Forsythe, Vice President Forsythe Family Farms Jesse Lauzon, Past President Springridge Farm Hollis English, Murphy’s Farmstead Cara Epp, Associate Member Edana Integrated Marketing Nicole Judge, Spirit Tree Estate Cidery Steve Martin, Martin’s Family Fruit Farm Colleen Pingle, Pingle’s Farm Market Steve Smith, Smith’s Apples Dana Thatcher, Thatcher Farms Jessica Kelly, OMAF and MRA Advisor

They’re your words, choose them By Seth Godin You’ve seen the signs: ABSOLUTELY NO CREDIT CARDS. NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR LOST OR STOLEN ITEMS. BATHROOMS FOR PATRONS ONLY. Guess what? There’s no legal requirement that signs have to make you sound like a harsh jerk in order to carry weight or to inform the public. To keep our prices as low as possible, we only accept cash. The good news is that there’s an ATM next door. Careful! We’d like to watch your stuff for you, but we’re busy making coffee. Our spotlessly clean restrooms are for our beloved customers only, so come on in and buy something! Also, there’s a public bathroom in the library down the street. In fact, you might find that when you speak clearly and with respect, you not only communicate more effectively but people are less likely to blame you when some-thing goes wrong. Editor’s note: Interestingly, Toni Newman who did our March workshops made a similar comment after she reviewed several OFFMA member websites. She chal-lenged the membership to come up with something other than ‘CLOSED’ to be used at on-farm markets and on websites…..any suggestions?