How to Use Grassroots Marketing to Promote Food

Food may be one of the easiest products to promote with grassroots marketing techniques. You will need to budget for free samples and commit time to reaching out to potential customers if you want to use this type of marketing effectively.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Spearhead a relationship with the owner of a local restaurant. Offer a few of your products for free in exchange for promoting his restaurant at your location. This option is most feasible if you use it to promote a finished food product like a sauce, drink or dessert.
2. Reach out to ethnic communities if you carry ethnic foods in your grocery store. Post fliers in cultural and community centers, but be sure they are translated into the appropriate languages. Talk to a community leader or college language department if you need help with the translation.
3. Pay attention to upcoming community events and set up a stand with free samples. Keep your samples small so that you don't give away too much of your food, but be sure that customers get a nice taste of it. Always keep the product on hand so that people can buy it after they enjoy a little piece.
4. Talk to local grocery stores about stocking your product. It will help your case if you have some sales numbers to support your items. Focus on getting your product into one store at a time in order to minimize the costs and the risk of a failed product.
5. Look into joining a farmer's market or co-op if you are selling homegrown produce. Sometimes representatives from the group will sell your product at the market for you, so that you can direct your attention to the crops. These groups often share the costs of taking out promotional ads in newspapers and printing and posting fliers.
6. Network with grassroots movements that are focused on issues pertaining to health and nutrition. For example, if you help a local group that is against childhood obesity, you could gain the business of each member of that group. The organization may ask for occasional fund raising efforts, but the financial return should be worth it.

Tips & Warnings

• Independently owned grocery stores and restaurants may be more receptive to your grassroots marketing than large chains.
• Use the Internet to enhance your grassroots marketing campaign to promote food. Young consumers frequently turn to the Web to find directions to a store or learn more about a product.