Case Study

Planting a Dream

Little Berry Farm

Introduction:
For many years, it had been the dream of the founder of Little Berry Farm to open a berry farm. When the opportunity arrived to build one that fit on her existing property, she jumped at the chance. Using help from friends and family, she planted an initial crop of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries, and her dream took growth.

Challenge or Problem:

Size: Her biggest challenge was that she had a very small startup, four miles out of the nearest city, and there were other berry farms in the same college-town market. She would have to get the word out to let people know about picking times and dates as a new business with little web presence.

Budget: She also had no time or desire to learn about marketing, was very busy with the farm itself, and had a very limited budget. So we focused on public relations to get her noticed by local media. We used social media and Facebook ads to drive traffic her business.

Growing Season: Berries ripen at different times, so their availability varied from week to week. So they needed a tool to communicate to potential customers when the farm was open for picking.

Brand: As a new startup, she didn’t have an existing brand. After looking at her Purpose, Promise, Personality, and Platforms, we successfully created a logo and jam packaging labels that reflected her vision, mission, and purpose.

Results:

Social Media: Our social media was focused on a practical purpose. Not only did we want to use it for awareness, but her biggest concern was communicating to customers when the berries were ready to be picked. We decided to focus on her social media platforms to communicate when berries were ripe, and the daily picking times. To make sure people knew where to look for that information, we also communicated it on her site.

Her social media accounts (Facebook and Instagram) also encouraged User Generated Content (UGC) and let berry-pickers share photos of themselves while they were picking at the farm.

Grand Opening Event: Because her product is very seasonal, we initially focused on a grand opening event and a giveaway of berry-picking aprons as an email list builder. We ran ads on Facebook and Instagram and in the local newspaper. This was a great success; they ran out of aprons on the first day and ran out of berries soon after.

Ideal Customer Identification: One of her big competitive advantages was that she did not use pesticides on her berries, unlike her competitors. We focused on a target customer demographic who was concerned about the issue of pesticides in berries, one of the “dirty dozen” fresh fruits that absorb chemicals. This targeted a growing demographic in the Chippewa Valley.

Website & Email Marketing: we designed a website for her that reflected her brand and told her story. We also set up an email account so she could begin using email marketing to communicate with customers about berry-picking times and new products.

Results:

All told, her grand opening launch was a success, selling out of berries and establishing her business as a go-to berry-picking location in the Chippewa Valley of Wisconsin.

Are you launching a new startup? We’d love to talk about how we can set it up for success right from the start, with plans that fit your budget.