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| Hoosier beef retailer rides trend of direct-to-consumer marketing |
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| By SARAH B. AUBREY
Indiana Correspondent
WINONA LAKE, Ind. — Sometime after the 1950s, direct-to-consumer marketing, as it is now called, ceased to be a primary means of income for beef producers. Yet, what was old is again new.
Many producers selling natural beef are reversing a trend that bucks the system of traditional commodity beef. Selling direct to consumers through a variety of venues – including on-farm stores and pick-up, farmers’ markets and even through the establishment of Community Supported Agriculture programs – is a large part of an ever-increasing group of small beef producers’ annual incomes.
USDA estimates from 2006 indicated there are now more than 4,385 farmers’ markets operating in the United States.
This type of direct-to-consumer selling is growing at a rapid annual pace; USDA reported an 18 percent growth since 2004.
While becoming common and profitable, direct marketing approaches are as diverse as the producers who raise and sell natural beef. Carolyn Stoll-Shanklin owns Eagle Creek Farms Market, a small market that sells natural meats and other products in Winona Lake. A resident of Chicago until four years ago, she could be called the “accidental” natural beef purveyor, though she has become completely engaged in her direct-to-consumer business model.
“So many people wanted us to sell it direct when we were doing wholesale. It just made more sense to open up a store and sell retail,” said Stoll-Shanklin of her foray into the natural meats business.
She originally sold beef under the Eagle Creek Farms label through traditional wholesale channels. She still purchases most of the beef needed for the market from her sister and brother-in-law, Jane and Roger Smoker, who own Eagle Creek Farms.
“Most of the cattle come from Jane and Roger. I purchase live from them, and after that it’s processed, cut and packaged,” Stoll-Shanklin explained. “We still have one restaurant here locally, but the demand for retail is just so high that I stepped out of wholesale and opened the market in 2005.”
Now, along with her husband, Gary Shanklin – who operates his own business separately – Stoll-Shanklin lives above the market in the tiny but affluent resort town of Winona Lake. The market is open daily and she manages nine employees. The business has expanded into other products besides beef.
“We also carry all-natural chicken that I private label under Eagle Creek Farms, and we carry pork, but it is not all-natural,” Stoll-Shanklin said.
Unlike many farm market ventures, hers is open year-round. One reason it is able to stay busy is because of items in addition to retail products. “We’re a small market, but we’re also a deli and we offer catering for groups, too,” Stoll-Shanklin said.
She knows the rigors of keeping up with the demands of increasing consumer interest in natural meats and other farm-fresh products. Being in a high-traffic tourist area is good for business, but keeps Eagle Creek Farms Market’s staff working seven days a week in the summer.
“I don’t have any specific focus every day, I just aim for a successful opening and closing each day and getting through our first summer of being open daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day,” she said, adding that numerous festivals and events add to the marketing opportunities and the workload.
Marketing is primarily done through Stoll-Shanklin’s involvement with her local community. “Fortunately for me, the Village at Winona spends a lot of money on advertising and Eagle Creek Farms Market is part of that advertising,” she noted.
Customers are segmented into two areas, most buy Eagle Creek Farms’ products because they are either health-minded or interested in high quality goods. “Word of mouth is our best advertising,” she said.
Even though marketing to consumers with a desire to eat healthy is one option, use of certain statements should be made with caution – especially those related to health and nutrition – cautioned Julie Miller, nutritionist with the National Cattleman’s Beef Assoc. (NCBA) in Englewood, Colo. Miller said producers need to take a careful look at what she believes are limited distinctions between “naturally raised” and commodity beef because the potential exists for false advertising.
“There is no real difference in natural or organic, versus conventional beef. They have the same nutritional profile,” said Miller, citing NCBA’s beef fact sheets, which are available online.
For her part, Stoll-Shanklin and the farmers that supply Eagle Creek Farms Market are fulfilling a need. They are selling the consumer what they want to buy and raising animals in a manner they find most beneficial to the management of their operation.
“We’re unique in Indiana in that we’re a store that markets a local, natural beef brand,” she said.
For more information on the preceding, refer to the following websites:
•NCBA (free fact sheets on types of beef and many other topics) at www.beef.org
•Winona Lake, at www.villageat winona.com
•The Eagle Creek Farms Market website will be online this fall at www.eagle creekfarms.com |
| 9/5/2007 |
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