11-30-2010, 10:16 AM
The first thing one has to decide is if the goal is to get people to eat healthy items or eat locally produced items?
If given the choice between healthy fresh muffins or store bought imported processed muffins, taste may play a major factor in my decision. There comes a point where taste over rules healthy. A muffin that taste like its made from a pack of bird seeds and grass clippings isn’t going to get my repeat business regardless of how fresh and healthy or local it may be.
My point is; if you are trying to market "Buy Local" you need local products to compete with the store bought and it has to appeal to the consumer for repeat sales. I would pay a little extra for a locally baked and processed muffin with cream filling using local ingredients over an imported processed cream filled muffin. But if the local product is an organic cardboard tasting mass with some organic yucky yogurt filling, I’m heading over to the chain store.
You need to sell what people will want to keep buying if the goal is “Buy Local”.
If given the choice between healthy fresh muffins or store bought imported processed muffins, taste may play a major factor in my decision. There comes a point where taste over rules healthy. A muffin that taste like its made from a pack of bird seeds and grass clippings isn’t going to get my repeat business regardless of how fresh and healthy or local it may be.
My point is; if you are trying to market "Buy Local" you need local products to compete with the store bought and it has to appeal to the consumer for repeat sales. I would pay a little extra for a locally baked and processed muffin with cream filling using local ingredients over an imported processed cream filled muffin. But if the local product is an organic cardboard tasting mass with some organic yucky yogurt filling, I’m heading over to the chain store.
You need to sell what people will want to keep buying if the goal is “Buy Local”.