Sample Business Plan

2.Specific Segment Strategies

Customer Segments	Specific Outreach Strategies
High End (tourist “foodies”)	No specific strategy except when segment attends KCC farmer’s market.
High End (local, “foodies”)	Connect to repeat customer at KCC and develop that customer to cross-market to Town Restaurant and Kokua Continue to build e-mail database Invite customers to attend monthly community work days.
Low-Moderate (local/ Hawaiian)	Maintain high community profile through presence at markets, occasionally story in the local community newspaper, and by posting fliers and brochures at the Aloha `Aina Café Connect to, and nurture, repeat customers at farmer’s markets. Continue to build e-mail database Invite customers to attend monthly community work days.
Retailers	Provide on-site marketing collateral such as laminated product nametags for vegetables, fliers, and brochures. Invite retailer to bring staff to the farm to increase education on product and mission.
Restaurants	Encourage restaurant management to acknowledge MA`O on menus Provide on-site marketing collateral such as fliers, and brochures. Invite restaurant to bring staff to the farm to increase education on product and mission.

The farmer’s market booth is arranged to stimulate customer senses, by:

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  Fruits and vegetables are arranged to catch the eye through color and shape;
  
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  Youth wear bright green or blue tee-shirts with “MA`O” on the rear and “no panic, go organic” on the front;
  
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  Product is stacked in wicker baskets which conjures a nostalgic sense of old Hawai’i, this is how Mom and Pop stores displayed their products;
  
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  Samples of product are always available, e.g. ripe bananas are given to all children that stop by the booth;
  
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  Sales youth are lively and playful, chanting slogans such as “fresh organic greens” or simply “arugula”, and when time allows a youth might play ukulele;
  
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  Prices are posted on old-style school blackboards and written in chalk; and
  
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  Posters with photos of the farm and youth working are arranged where people cannot miss seeing them.
  

3.MA`O Customer Service Philosophy

Excellent customer service skills are vital in agriculture businesses, especially enterprises direct marketing to customers. Our goal is to attract and retain customers through high quality product and service experience, therefore; all youth are trained in sales and customer service, and they regularly debrief farmer’s market experiences to find ways to improve sales. We will periodically “audit” our sales techniques and make necessary adjustments. Of key importance is that youth are knowledgeable regarding products and convey our social mission. To reinforce the importance of customer service we developed a simple sales philosophy, which youth learn and apply, it is as follows:

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  Make eye contact, greet all people, smile, show maximum aloha;
  
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  Listen to customers, learn their names, learn how they cook our food, and ask how we can improve our products;
  
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  Communicate with customers, tell them the MA`O story, talk about our products, the farm, and upcoming events;
  
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  Show aloha to other venders, learn their names and something about their products, refer customers to them where possible; and
  
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  Strive for excellence in customer service and product quality.
  

4.Promotional Materials and Labeling

To ensure customer education and information transfer, we developed the following promotional materials, this includes:

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  Brochures, fliers, posters which are distributed at all locations;
  
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  MA`O information is added to stakeholder’s staff bulletins;
  
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  E-mail distribution lists, sent twice monthly to an in-house list, and the lists of our stakeholders. This reaches approximately 2,000 people;
  
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  Partner marketing, e.g. marketing is done by the Hawai`i Farm Bureau Federation via a web site and regular articles in local newspapers; and
  
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  The café staff actively informs customers of the markets, and there is signage along a major town thoroughfare.
  

MA`O Youth Organic farm will sell produce simply under the “MA`O” brand label. In mid-2003, a youth involved with the project developed a label that will be used (see right). All “MA`O” brand products will be sold with labeling to educate the consumer that the product is certified organic, is grown by youth and that 100% of their purchase will go to support youth leadership development activities.

5.Pricing

Overall prices have been set based on competitor’s prices. Wholesale prices are based on the equivalent wholesale price Kokua Market pays for the same imported product. Usually each quarter Kokua’s produce buyer gives us a printout of what he is paying California food brokers for product. If they are receiving a discounted price for an item we attempt to make an adjustment. Once per month we monitor retail prices at three retail outlets. We sometimes do this as a class field trip for youth in the leadership training. Selling product at KCC farmer’s market allows us to average our price upward to secure a higher margin. At KCC we can also move large volumes of product given the number of market shoppers. The bottom line is that if we are to compete against imported products then we need to offer prices attractive to the local public. Direct marketing, through such mechanisms as farmer’s markets, has become the best method to increase margin for smaller farmers.