Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
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demand. Often they will dicker with the customer, especially if the individual is a regular customer who has been coming back.
The agent also suggested that sometimes fanners would rather not take produce back home, and so there may be bargains at the end of the day.
“Of course, there is just the same chance that there will not be any produce left,” Gaffney said.
Public Relations Vital
Promotion is a vital part of direct marketing, said James B. Bell, Virginia Tech Extension agricultural economist, giving advice to farmers planning to use this method of selling their products.
“Many growers started in direct marketing by just putting some of their crop on a table out in front of the farm,” said the specialist.
But this selling directly,to th# consumer can develop into a major direct marketing business when the farmery use promotional techniques like advertising.
Bell described activities used to promote sales directly to consumers.
Some successful operations send out a newsletter to those customers who registered at their outlets. Newsletters contain information on the dates of the markets and the growing conditions. “They make it very personal,” Bell said. “They want to make the customer feel like part of a family.”
Plan Marketing Efforts
Every successful business that has a product to sell needs a marketing plan.
Farmers’ markets are no exception, if the farmers want to sell their perishable products at a fair price.
What attracts customers to the farmers’ markets is that they expect to get fresh, high quality produce. They also expect that it has been grown near-by, and not transported long distances.
89.7%