Organic Honey.....how to market??

[isaac]

I recently took up beekeeping a few years ago (my grandfather and great grandfather were beekeepers too) and we recently made a shift to producing organic, local (to washington and oregon), unprocessed, unfiltered, raw and hand bottled honey.

We think we have a unique product because our honey is raw and tastes great and we are offering honey that sells at a great price.

We were wondering how we should market our honey.

Any ideas? Feel free to email at chefif@comcast.net

[isaac]

I have this web site. Any thoughts? http://www.kitchenproject.com/sweetascanbee/catalog.htm

[chefmikesworld]

As with all things that I attempt to market I use an acronym that is pretty effective if broken down properly and you may make some use of it...

SMEAC

Situation-I have a product
Mission-Profitable sale of this product
Execution-How am I producing this product and how much can I produce for sale
Administrative and Logistics-Legal end stuff-FDA, Health Dept, business liscences etc.and the execution of the sale
Command-Understanding the supply and demand of this market, how it is going to be supplied to the market, realizing boundries with our capabilities and the the limitations of our market...

blah, blah, blah

Just my two cents...

Cheffy

[isaac]

well, if anyone is looking for organic honey that is unprocessed, unfiltered, not heated, hand bottled and raw, please let me know. you can emaiil me at chefif@comcast.net . It makes a great present and the taste is outstanding

[chefmikesworld]

Just curious...

What are you feeding the bees?

Chef Mike

[kuan]

You can contact your local chef's association and offer to donate some product for their dinner meetings. Give a short presentation about honey and print up some recipe cards with a coupla for the guests.

See if you can sell it at your local farmer's market.

Ebay.

Have openhouses and tours of your facility.

Contact local winemakers and brewers.

Make product, honey sticks, candy, etc. to sell along with your honey.

[isaac]

chef mike:

I do not feed the bees. In spring, if needed, I will feed them a combo of ing to make a protien patty they call it. Some people feed sugar. Some dont. some people feed honey.. some dont.

[isaac]

kuan:

Good idea on the chef assosiation and also the wines and beer places.

Farmers markets can be tough. The ones up here have beekeepers already. So it is a game on how to persaude people to buy your honey versus the other booths honey.

fun fun!

[Suzanne]

It's not that hard to "persuade" people if you have a product they prefer to the other guys'. You just have to differentiate yourself and your product.

Offer samples -- in the form of a drizzle on a plain cracker, or a "sample size" at a very low price. (The immediate taste is better, though, since they are more like to buy RIGHT AWAY if they taste there.)

You're a trained chef -- have recipes you can hand out along with a purchase. Don't you expect people to be impressed by your background? -- so if you have some interesting recipes (better than the "Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwich" type ), that should be some inducement.

[kuan]

Originally Posted by isaac

kuan:

Good idea on the chef assosiation and also the wines and beer places.

Right, so, for example, on cheftalk there are plenty of chefs who might give it a try if you send them a jar. There are food writers and restaurant owners, there are webmasters and there are real enthusiastic foodies.

I think you should start out by creating goodwill. Forget about selling, start building relationships with potential customers. If you give you'll notice that people will give back. If you want to get you have to give, and do it free of expectations. Your rewards will come. Not tomorrow, not next week, but they will come. You'll be surprised what people are willing to do for you if you just do a bit for them.

So to recap, your contribution may not necessarily be in the form of product. Heck it may be even some advice for people who ask about steak temperatures, or advice in the cooking schools forum for people looking to find a cooking school out west. They may take it better coming from a person with CIA experience instead of plain old school me. So start building goodwill and trust. The doors will open.

[henry]

I'd try it, but you're shipping is pretty steep. The 12 oz honey is $4.50, and the shipping is an additional $4.95.

[isaac]

I have honeysticks that we made this year and they make great samples.

If anyone would like to sample ouy honey, we are willing to send some honey sticks out. Feel free to email me at chefif@comcast.net

[Nikki Rose]

We've got a lot of organic honey here in Crete. Think it's great to have more options in the States...would love to try your honey when I'm back in the area. Most of the popular brands of honey there is very bland compared the rich, dark, thyme honey here.

I would contact the Slow Food chapters in your area. Since what you are doing is a great "Slow" subject and people love good honey, that's one option to get the word out.

Good luck!

Best regards,
Nikki Rose
Crete's Culinary Sanctuaries
www.cookingincrete.com

[kuan]

Do you just plant buckwheat nearby for buckwheat honey, thyme for thyme honey, clover, OK clover grows wild but you get my question don't you?

[isaac]

I have never heard of slow food chapters. What are they?

I do not plant anything. Some people do but it adds on to the cost. I have my bees in an organic farmland. A lot of wild berries and what not. This years honey turned out great. We had a spark of nice weather in Feb. for about a month which casued some other types of wild berries to bloom that normally do not bloom because of the cold at that time.

Good stuff!