The potential of small producers to market speciality food products has increased greatly in recent years with social media. But such marketing needs to be done in an organized and thoughtful way. Trademark development is one of the key factors in such a process, as a trademark is an important framework for the messages that the manufacturer wants to convey to potential consumers or buyers. People need to know who is talking.
Can Social Media strategy be added afterwards?
Brand strategy needs to be closely related to the brands and manufacturer’s values and philosophy. Successful use of social media can never be done successfully without a deep connection to the brand’s value and philosophy. It can never be an add-on to other marketing. This is especially true for marketing strategies through social media for small food producers.
It is very important that the consumer knows who is behind the message they get. They wanna know who is talking.
The relevance of Social Media
Social media marketing has become more important as usage of the internet increases. In January 2019, approximately 4.4 billion people used the Internet. This is about 57% of humanity. A large part, about 3.5 billion, was active on social media. That’s about 45% of all men, women or children on the planet. About 66% of the world’s population uses mobile phones, or 5.1 billion. Most people, about 63%, use social media on their mobile phones.
All successful brand follow a marketing and social media strategy. But still, 40-70% of all internet and social media strategy budget is wasted.
Keep in mind that the future is now!
Social media is no longer a future tool or something that can be added to the marketing plans in the final stage. They have become an indispensable part of all marketing. This is especially true of small food manufacturers, entrepreneurs, and artisan food producers. These producers need to reach their target audience through all the noise and immense flow of information that hammer consumers through modern mass media and the internet.
Four steps to marketing.
Systematic and effective social media marketing involves four steps of listening and research, strategy design, implementation and monitoring and constant performance evaluation. Following these four steps is particularly important when marketing artisan food and specialized agricultural products. But it is important to start by thinking of the first steps in developing a product or idea, where marketing is of course the main factor. A product nobody buys is of no use to anybody. By Svavar Halldorsson
A TV journalist and Food Marketing & Social Media Strategy’s Consultant at Fudd.