Field Fresh Marketing

Marketing News You Can Use

Wisconsin

Bigger Isn’t Always Better

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Here in Wisconsin we’ve been happily (and deliciously) celebrating June Dairy Month. Dairy breakfasts, cheese factory tours, ice cream polls—yes, Wisconsinites do love their dairy heritage. And even though many small dairies have given way to corporate, thankfully, there still are family operations successfully defying the “get big or get out.”

Here are premium examples (a few of my favs):

  • St. Isidore’s Dairy: Inga Witscher crafts specialty cheddar cheeses from her micro herd of 10 jersey cows.
  • Chocolate Shoppe is family-owned since 1962 and churns super-premium ice cream.
  • Widmer’s Cheese Cellars is a four-generation factory and store producing traditional Brick and Colby cheese, both of which originated here in Wisconsin.

How to Market Against the Big Guys?

The dairies above are small, highly specialized and quality focused. You won’t find them in big box grocers and their consumers recognize the uniqueness of their brand, meaning they’re willing to pay a little more. These dairies also practice imaginative marketing, a necessity for small business survival.

  • Inga Witcher, of St. Isidor’s Dairy, also hosts Around the Farm Table, a PBS food and farming adventure where she champions not only her own product but also those of small farm producers throughout Wisconsin.
  • Chocolate Shoppe boasts its low overrun and high butterfat (translate: rich and creamy ice cream) with the unabashed tagline “You want nutrition, eat carrots.”
  • Cheesemaker Joe Widmer takes pride in using the same facility, bricks, open vats, brine tanks and traditions his grandfather used in 1922.

Feeling small with your business? Remember the well-spoken words of Basecamp’s Jason Fried: “There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.” 

LET’s WORK TOGETHER

What I’m Working On This Month

Adunate is easing out of the office and into the outdoors—for the summer, that is. For a second year, I’ve done a seasonal lightening of my work load and am spending more time gardening, hiking, kayaking and playing with grandkids. They say it’s good for the soul and the creative mind. I agree!

What I’m Tuned In To This Month

  • Wiser Than Me: Julia Louis-Dreyfus wants to know why we don’t hear more from older women so she invites them to her podcast. I love it.
  • Strawberry-Coconut Tres Leche Cake: June is dairy and strawberries. Yummm!
  • Ixonia: It’s what you get when you randomly choose letters for a town’s name.
  • The Teaching of Plants: Beloved author Robin Wall Kimmerer talks Western science and Indigenous knowledge.

Let’s Work Together

Think Adunate might be a good fit for your next project? Give me a holler and we’ll discuss ideas.

CONTACT ME

Making Room for an Update

I need to clean out before my next printing. Buy these at 40% Sale Price!

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Let’s Talk Football and Customer Loyalty

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Here in Wisconsin, we LOVE our Green Bay Packers. Football fanatic or not, come January when the Packers have clinched the NFC North, beat the Bears, and advanced to the NFC Championship, well, you can be sure we’re all “Go Pack Go!”

What makes the Green and Gold so special, besides cheesehead hats and crazy-fun fans? One major reason is the Packers are the only community-owned franchise in American professional sports. It’s the People’s Team. My husband owns share #039347 and, yes, he proudly displays his stock certificate for all to see. He also watches every game, buys Packer memorabilia, and jumps at the opportune pilgrimage to the Frozen Tundra (yes siree, it’s all outdoors for these gritty diehards). 

Wouldn’t you love to have that same win-or-lose kind of loyalty for your business? Well, you can if you give your customers a bit of ownership.

Emotional ownership, that is. 

Now here lives a Packer-backer through and through! We saw this gem along Hwy 42/57 while heading to Door County.

Emotional Ownership

Marketing studies show when people feel a sense of ownership in a business or product, they’re more apt to remain loyal customers. Here are three ways to make them part of your team.

  1. Physical Interaction
    The more people are able to physically interact with your product, the more ownership they feel. When possible, give customers the advantage of in-person over digital.
  2. User-Generated Content
    People feel greater ownership when they talk about and share pictures of the business they patronize. Encourage customers to share on social media how they’re using your product.
  3. Product Development
    Give customers a part in developing your product and they’ll feel pride in their ownership. Actively listen to customers’ needs. Ask for names for a new flavor. Credit customers when announcing improvements.
  4. Customer Partnership
    People don’t do business with a business. They do business with the people in the business—people who welcome them, connect with them, call them by name.
LET’s WORK TOGETHER

What I’m Working On This Month

Branding is important at every education level, especially if the school does outreach to the community. With this in mind, Trinity-St. Luke’s new principal called me up for a logo. Together, we’ve developed an icon that well represents the school’s dedication to faith, family and education.

What I’m Tuned In To This Month

  1. Cassandra Speaks, by Elizabeth Lesser. When women are the storytellers, the human story changes.
  2. Brené Brown: Dehumanization. A little deep, a lot of “reminder to everyone.”
  3. De-escalating Tense Situation, Tension during COVID? No way. A Farmers Market podcast, yet applicable to everyone.
  4. Serving Dumplings, Winter comfort food, divine, all served in one dish
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Celebrating Fat Tuesday with Sense of Place

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You know how you walk into a local bakery and the aroma of fresh baking fills your soul to its deepest depths? That was my husband and me this last weekend as we followed the Wisconsin Foodie trail in Sheboygan. Stepping into the first bakery was an aaah-romatic indulgence of Paczki. Coming upon the second was a heavenly whiff of hard rolls before we even walked through the door. Oh, how I swoon.

Good Smells, Good Marketing

They say good smells are good marketing. In truth, tapping into all the human senses is good marketing and our weekend getaway was a perfect example. Think cozy lights welcoming us as we arrived at our B&B. Or a friendly hubbub at the local foods cafe. All of these absorbed together created a memorable image of Sheboygan, an image which, jargonly speaking, can be referred to as “sense of place.”

Defining Sense of Place

Sense of place is the impression we get from a place. It’s the look, the feel, the sounds—it’s the complete physical and emotional lens through which we experience a place. 

When it comes to your business, sense of place is equally important. It’s an element of your brand. Whether it’s your venue, your website, your logo…they all evoke a sense of place.

NEED HELP WITH YOUR SENSE OF PLACE?

What I’m Working on This Month

I was proud to participate in an upcoming toolkit called “Amplify Our Voices: Connecting Organic Women Farmers with the Media.” It’s put together by Renewing The Countryside and coming out soon. Join their newsletter! 

What I’m Tuned Into This Month

  1. Paczki Day! Everyone is Polish on Paczki Day, so Happy Fat Tuesday to all!
     
  2. Gastrophysics, Charles Spence. A little science-heavy for my right brain, but interesting nonetheless. Eating is multi-sensory, meaning there’s truth to Good Smells, Good Marketing. 
     
  3. “At Berea College, Students Craft a Bright Future, Tuition-Free,” Are you a maker deciding on colleges? Interesting article from an equally interesting magazine.
     
  4. The Corner Table Podcast: Food Photography, A beef farmer recently lamented that the food photographer he hired altered his meat presentations, leaving them inedible. Yep, sorry, but I bet they looked tasty good in the photos. I’m suggesting he listen to this podcast.