This is the first of a four-part series on marketing your CSA, loosely following the four P’s:
product, price, placement and promotion.
I like to think of CSA marketing as a sort of matchmaking process. (Just go with it for a
moment.)
So you know this sweet bunch of vegetables, and you want to set them up with this totally great
community you happen to know. They’re perfect for each other! To make the match, you’ll want to
extol the virtues of your vegetables, of course… but in a way that speaks specifically to your
community.
What I mean is that the first step in marketing your CSA is aligning what you have (your product)
with what your customers want. To do that, consider the following three questions:
1: Who are your would-be members? What do they want and value?
It’s probably fair to say that most people who join a CSA want some if not all of the
following:
-
food that is fresh, nutritious, delicious, and beautiful
-
a balance of familiar staples and experimental crops
-
convenient pick-up locations
-
good bang for their buck
(What this means, of course -- from considering what constitutes a “familiar staple” for
your community and how to find that balance, given that every member survey I’ve ever seen
has at least two people with opposite opinions on everything from crop variety to quantity
-- will be different for each community. This, in part, is where the matchmaking comes
in.)
But beyond this, what else might your members want? Do they want open green space in their
community? A place where their kids can pick berries and chase butterflies, or a prettier drive to
work? Do they want to know where their food comes from? To feed their families with nutritious,
pesticide-free foods? To keep money in the local economy? To eat healthier? To feel good?
(Who doesn’t?)
2: What else are you selling besides your produce?
If you have or are starting a CSA, you know your product: a diverse and carefully selected array of
quality agricultural products, varied enough to keep your members satisfied for a set number of
weeks. But your CSA is likely offering up much more than food, which would-be consumers could
probably find somewhere else.
What else are you selling?
Good value. This doesn’t mean cheap food -- far from it. It means food that is worth what
people are paying for it. Averaged over all of the different crops (and everything else) your CSA
provides, you’re offering a price-per-pound that competes with grocery store options, either by
being a lower dollar amount or a higher quality and added value for the same (or higher) price.
Connection. A defining element of community supported agriculture is the partnership between
members and farmer. More than any other model, CSA offers members the opportunity to develop a
relationship with their farm -- your farm. Increasingly, more people want to know where their food
comes from. Allowing members to connect increases transparency about your products and organic
farming methods, and provides consumers with a sense of trust and peace of mind.
Community. In addition to the relationship they form with your farm, your members will also
forge relationships with one another: fellow like-minded people with shared values, including
supporting local organic farms. This is, of course, something you can facilitate through events,
work days, type of pick-up, etc. In today’s world, creating this type of community
is not insignificant.
Education. Your members can learn so much from eating seasonally, trying new vegetables, and
reading about growing challenges or new recipes in your latest farm newsletter -- to say nothing of
participating in any pick-your-own opportunities, gardening workshops, work-days or classes you may
offer. This is practical, experiential education you are offering -- once-common skills and
knowledge about growing and preparing food that have been lost -- and it has value.
External benefits. In supporting your farm, CSA members are likely choosing food that
represents small-scale agriculture and diversified farming. Supporting a farm that practices
responsible environmental stewardship means less pollution, safer water, healthy soils, and
biodiversity, as well as a distribution system that strengthens the local economy and green open
space.
Something to feel good about. By joining your CSA, people can feel like they are doing good,
thus feeling good about themselves -- and (
marketing gurus agree) that’s worth something. Many farms now take food
stamps and offer a sliding-scale model that subsidizes shares for lower-income families. This is a
great way to build community and increase food security in your community, ensuring that everyone
can enjoy healthy good food from your farm.
Yourself. Yes, you, in that your farm is an extension of you and your farming philosophy.
The USDA says Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food… but sadly, most of us don’t. You can help change
this. Greet your CSA members, tell them a little about yourself, your philosophy, why you are
farming. We are often drawn to those around us with a vision, a passion, and enough gumption to see
it through. Don’t underestimate the value that you and your love for your work can bring to the CSA.
3: Where is the overlap in what you are offering and what your members want?
Once you have this, the matchmaking is easy. You are no longer trying to sell something based on
its assets (fresh! shiny! organic!). Instead, you are meeting existing needs and wants of your
consumers.
It’s important to know the real value of what you’re offering, and to be prepared to articulate
this in your sales and marketing efforts. When members purchase a share in your farm, they’re
getting a share not only of vegetables, but of your vision, of your farm’s work in stewarding the
land and building a greener community -- something they won’t get buying organic produce at the
grocery store.
What’s left -- and what parts II, III and IV will explore -- is determining appropriate pricing,
placement of your products (ie: pick-up locations), and promotion to communicate to your customers
how your CSA will meet their needs.
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After graduating from UCSC's
Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, Lauren Alexandra Kaplan spent a season at
an organic CSA farm in California before returning east to farm in the Hudson Valley. Prior to
pursuing farming full time, she worked in book publishing and helped to launch an urban farm in
NYC. Alexandra is an avid salsa dancer and maker of jams, pickles, and kraut.
