April 8, 2016 - 6:23pm
I'm looking to start delivering my Artisan Pita Bread directly to consumers.
Hi There,
I'm looking to start selling my artisan pita bread directly to consumers in the tristate area. I tried advertising on Facebook but I did not get any subscribers. I want to skip the supermarkets and deliver fresh brick oven baked pita to consumers. I had the feeling people would like the idea but it's hard to attract new customers.
Any advice on how I can go about doing it?
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The free marketing "strategies" to attract new customers I can think of right now are:
Ask your existing customers if they are happy with your pita bread. If so, ask if they can help you by sharing it on their Facebook. If not, ask what you can do to make them happy. Ask for their feedback again later on and if they are happy, repeat the FB route.
Offer FREE samples and make your product known:
Always follow up PERSONALLY with a survey for customer satisfaction, then ask for referral. If your bread is good enough, people will be willing to spread the words for you.
Good luck!
p.s. If any of the above tactics works, I think I deserve a free sample, too... :-)
Approach Costco, or go to the Sharks :-) Just a thought...
I like your ideas a lot. i've been going at it for almost five years now and I've tried everything in the book. It just needs a lot of money and time which are hard to find after being in business for that long. I'm waiting on a couple of large supermarkets to get back to me but I've decided to open a shawarma place and use my bread to keep my business alive. Thanks for taking the time!
Local farm markets, partner with food vendors, set up a stall somewhere where people go by...
I've tried local farmers markets but the money to be made barely covers the cost. I need to make real money something I can build a family with if you know what I mean. Thanks for the feedback!
Reasearch. Identify the shops you want to stock your product.
Do the travelling salesman thing for a few day. Visit the shops. Talk about quality & freshness. If they seem interested then give them a sample, but don't give the sample unless they seem genuinely interested. You'll waste a lot of product otherwise.
You need to know, off the top of your head, things like cost, cost for bulk, delivery schedules and avalability. Have printed material avalable with these details too - big colour photos, etc.
Also start to do stuff like photos and videos online - videos with ideas on how to use them, practical stuff, recipe ideas and so on.
And go for it :-)
-Gordon
Hey Gordon,
I've been going at it for 5 years now an I've done the traveling salesman. Most supermarkets want free refills and the want to pay after 30 days which leaves you with no money at the end.
I'be been thinking of posting videos because I can explain to people the different ways my bread can be used and share recipes with them etc. Thanks for the great advice.
the 5 year thing.
Yea - sounds a bit sucky though - you have a great product but people just won't want to know... I've no idea what the supermarkets are like over there, but I suspect no different from here in the UK - they want everything for nothing and will tighten the screws as soon as they think they can )-:
Are there any small chains of wholefood stores? (or the equivalent over there) or other independent stores?
I do some bread making teaching and am in the process of putting together a BBQ type course which will include making your own pitta style breads on the BBQ - obviously you don't want that, but they're great for outdoor cooking you just need to encourage people to cook stuff that works well with it - I'm aiming for simple colesalw and kabab type fillings, but there's falafel, etc.
Hope it eventually works out well!
-Gordon
You refer to it as artisan, but aside from saying it's baked in a brick-oven, your packaging doesn't seem to support the impression that it's a superior-quality product.
Also, how does your pricing compare to the pitas your core target customers (meaning the ones who your see as most likely to buy from you) are currently buying? Do you charge for delivery or is it included in the price? Is there a minimum order?
And as a bigger-picture type of question, how much of your overall business plan does retail delivery of pita represent?
Hey Arjon,
All the questions you brought up are is extremely important . Let me start by saying that the packaging itself is superior from what's out there in the market and yes I should have put artisan but I think the word has been overused. My price is higher than what's in the market and might sell for double the price of the conventional pita bread out there. There are two types of people that buy pita 1- the arabic population and they look for the cheaper price. 2- the American customers and all the rest and they buy pita occasionally but they don't mind paying the extra money as long as the product is good. I don't charge for delivery and yes there is a minimum order which is 50 bags for commercial but for homes it's $10 a month and that gets you 4 bags delivered every other week. The retail delivery part will start with being 5% of my business and could end up being %50 if it succeeds. If and when people try my pita they won't eat any other pita again. I'm that confident with the quality.
Unless you feel there's a realistic chance of converting a decent proportion of them, they aren't an important target group for you. You're not offering what they want, which isn't inferior pita at a lower price. You may be able to convert a few, but it's far better to focus completely on targets who better fit your price / value proposition.
You don't have to use the word artisan to differentiate your product. Aside from being made in a brick oven, what else differentiates it? Is it made by hand, organic, etc.? Whatever those other points of differentiation are, your package doesn't present them.
Also, it's basically irrelevant that you think the word artisan is over-used and meaningless. What matters is how your target customers relate to this word. This speaks to what may be the crux of marketing - understanding that customers make their buying decision based on what they think, not what you think. It's not impossible to change their thinking, but since it's seldom if ever easy, it's more productive to present your product such in ways that aim at targets in ways they already think.
I got my start by emailing a group I belong to - a group of 'urban farmers' who are into local, sustainable food. That formed the core of my original customers, who told their friends about me. The second most useful thing I did was to invest in several thousand well-printed post cards (I ordered them online) which I then hand-delivered in my residential neighbourhood. I've gotten lots of new customers through that.
I know what you mean about the farm markets. I don't do the market thing, but I do sell through farm gate stands. The arrangement I have with these folks is that I want to make a certain amount per loaf and they get 15% of total sales, so they can price it at least 15% above my 'price' to them. I will also partner with people who do the farm market circuit if my product (bread) is complementary to theirs (i.e. sweet baked goods, or preserves, or sandwiches). Again, either I'll pay part of the market fee, or the stall renter can keep a percentage of sales of my product.
Hey LL,
That's great advice. I already have a person in mind I'm going to approach on Monday about him potentially selling my pita because that's the only time of bread he doesn't sell. Where I live in Manhattan it's close to impossible to go door to door but you also gave me an idea to setup a both on the sidewalk on weekends and try to get people to sign up after trying some free samples and taking some home as well.
I'll update you on my results soon!
Thanks!
Okay, so going door to door is impractical. So what can you do to make it easier to generate word of mouth and referrals? Just off the top of my head, for instance, what about handing out a business card with each sample? Or a bullet point list of say five key features / benefits? Or both?
Along these same lines, consider a top down approach. When you try to engage with your potential customers individually, that's a bottoms up approach. And it can work very well. But consider who's influencing your potential customers.
Influence the influencers.
That could be the Food & Dining section of your local paper. It could be smaller circulations that cater to foodies and other lifestyle devotees. It could be local food bloggers, etc. Where I live here in VT, we have a small but highly influential "alternative" newspaper that has a dining section that every foodie, hipster, hippie, homesteader, organic gardener, brewer, baker, restaurant manager, and rich "cultured" person reads.
And they're always looking for new stories.
Note that I used the word "story," not "producer". If someone has a good product and a good story, they'll be happy to feature them in their paper. And once featured, business always takes off.
If you have a paper like this in your area, then you can approach them about featuring your business. Everyone has a good story, so long as they know how to tell it. And you can consider your story as a value-add to your product. High end buyers LOVE buying into a story. And they'll pay a premium for it. You just have to get the word out. Good luck!
Cheers!
Trevor