Growth Brings Opportunities

The opportunity for growth in Ontario of the organic sector is positive. Attributes of organic products support customer
loyalty which is the cornerstone to business success. Whether you sell your organic product(s) direct to the consumer or
supply the broader value chain, customer loyalty is vital and includes some basic principles as identified by John Stanley, well known direct and retail marketing guru of John Stanley Associates - Centre of Advanced Retail Concepts http://www.johnstanley.cc/:

• People want authentic - what is real. Authentic is the new sensitivity and farmers have an inherent advantage to offer authenticity.
  
  
• Your business (product/service, etc.) has to affect the following for your customers in order to build loyalty and make a profit:
  1) Life; 2) Health; 3) Family; 4) Appearance; 5) Wealth; 6) Happiness.

To build an advocate for your business you must:

a) reduce customer stress;
b) delight customers;
c) do it consistently

A basic principle in marketing is that 20% of your customers bring you 80% of your business - or 20% are loyal customers. Keeping loyal customers should be focus of any marketing program you invest in.

John goes on to share his expertise relating to customer loyalty and advises businesses to move from attracting customers to engaging advocates:

Customers: they use your business as well as someone else's - they buy your product(s) but are not loyal to you.

Client: they don't tell anyone about your business because you never asked them to.

Advocates: objective is to create a 'my' situation for your business (example: 'my' barber, mechanic, farm market). These customers tell the world how wonderful you are.

John sums up by stating: "If you can improve loyalty by 5% you can increase lifetime profits by 95%, and it can take years
to get advocates, yet you can loose them in seconds if you ruin their relationship with your business".

We live in a consumer based society, understanding demographic shifts, consumer preferences, and marketplace trends are important in operating a successful business whether your focus is production, processing or retail.

ON Organic Index