to: Jack potter
from: jin zhang,
subject: nh farmers market
date: December 7, 2007
We received 34 responses back
from a total of 60 surveys sent out. That is a 57%
response rate, really good for surveys. We are very
please with the results. We decided to analyze the ten questions that you
thought were most important. Question one was about
their location and it was optional so we left that one out. Here are the
results for the other questions:
2. Number of "regular" vendors?
The number of regular vendors range from a low of 4 to a high of 50.
3.
Which of the following vendors does your market have?
There is a wide arrange of products that these
markets offer. The top three vendor items were fruits
and berries, baked goods and vegetables. The lowest three vendor items were
seeds, poultry, and wood crafts and dairy products. I
think the reason for this is because the top three
items are easy to make and grow. They are also the products that customers want
to buy the most at farmers market because they want fresh fruits and
vegetables. The lower three products are
uncommon and harder to come by.
4. Average daily "buyer" attendance?
This question was hard to analyze because we asked
for the daily buyer attendance and some people gave us weekly buyer attendance.
The numbers range from 5 to 3,000 people so we think
that people were confused by this question. Maybe next year, specify that you want
the “DAILY” attendance and maybe give them a scale to choose from.
5.
What types of promotion activities does your market use?
The two most common tools used for promotional
activities were roadside signs/posters and newspaper ads. These two are relatively
cheap, easy and very effective for small towns. The two least common tools used
for promotional activities were TV and direct mail. TV advertising is very
expensive and is probably outside the range of most small town’s budget. Direct
mail however is relatively affordable and it reaches a lot of
people so maybe more farmers market should into using it to their advantage.
6.
Is your community supportive of the market?
Out of 34 responses, 32 people said that their
community was very supportive of the market. One said
“somewhat” and one said “kind of.” This is a very good sign that
basically all farmers markets are supported by their community. Maybe
they should use this to get the community more involved in their activities.
7. What is the estimated gross income of your market?
16 of the 28 responses said they have no idea about how
much their market makes. This is probably due to that they don’t
have a record keeping system between the vendors. Perhaps they could be
interested in having someone help them in setting up a system. There were a
couple of markets that had estimated profits around $20,000 with only 4 of the markets having $35,000 plus. Two of those had
profits of $72,000 and $90,000. These two markets were some of the larger
markets that were surveyed.
8. Does the WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program
contribute to your market?
22 of the markets surveyed said that WIC is present in
their markets. 7 of the markets surveyed said that WIC
does not participate within their markets. A few of the responses said that it
is up to the individual vendor to decide whether or not
to work with WIC. Also, a couple of the markets either
didn’t know about the WIC program or wanted to work with WIC but didn’t know
how to get started.
9. Would your market be willing to redeem food stamps?
22 of the markets surveyed said that they would redeem
food stamps. 5 of them would not be willing to redeem
food stamps and this is probably due to the fact that they don’t want to go
through the hassle of having to send them into the state and wait for their
money. They also stated that amount of food stamps that would be used would be
too small to make it worth their while. Maybe a sign campaign stating that they
accept food stamps would generate more business from those who use food stamps.
3 of the vendors said they would leave it up to the
individual vendors on whether to accept the food stamps or not.
10. Would your market be willing to participate in a
certified or recognized market program?
Only 12 of the markets said
they would participate in a market program.
Most of the other responses either stated no or would
like more details on what benefits this could bring to their market. If something was sent
to all the markets telling them the benefits of joining a recognized market
program, this could get everyone together.
From all this information, we came up with some conclusions
from this data:
—
Bigger towns and
communities had a stronger interest in the markets
—
Fruits &
Berries seemed to be more common in NH
—
Roadside Signs
was the marketing of choice for these markets
—
Most of the
participants were willing to redeem food stamps
—
Markets should
look into Direct Mailing as extra marketing
—
Majority of
markets didn’t enclose estimated gross revenue