Marketing Oysters What does the consumer want

1
Marketing OystersWhat does the consumer want?

• by Robert Rheault
• Moonstone Oysters
• Narragansett, RI
• East Coast Shellfish Growers Association
• Executive Director
• bob_at_moonstoneoysters.com
• www.ECSGA.org

2
What does the consumer want?

• Quality
• Consistency
• Cleanliness
• Shape
• Flavor

• Year-round availability
• Timely shipping
• Attractive packaging
• Food safety
• Name

3
Selling vs. Marketing

• The difference between being the price taker and
  the price maker.
• Also the difference between economic success and
  failure

4
Quality is the Key

• Set high standards and keep them high
• Perform regular quality control
• Ask for feedback often, and listen dont argue
• Pack the box as if every oyster has your name on
  it and your reputation rides on every one it
  does.
• Sell the ugly ones under a different name
• If quality is off, stop shipping

5
Consistency

• Chefs want predictable size, not a range
• They want to know how many will fill a plate
• Some want large and some want small find out
  and give them what they want
• If your crop is coming out variable, cull and
  sort and sell multiple size grades

6
Shape

• They want a deep cup and uniform shape
• Dont try and slip in a few snaggly ones
• If they have a reverse hinge or no cup throw them
  back or shuck em or sell them to Joes clam
  shack, not your high-priced customer

7
Cleanliness

• Pressure washing costs a fraction of a cent and
  can add 5-10 cents to the price
• This is food, it is going in someones
  mouth
• Save the chefs labor
• Box smells better when they open it
• Federal law requires removal of sediment

8
Food Safety

• Society has zero tolerance for illness
• Test your own waters
• Marketing tool
• Protection from lawsuits
• Keep product cool
• Harvest early or late in the day and rush to the
  cold room
• One illness and your trademark is trash

9
Freshness

• Get your product to the market as fast as
  possible
• As growers we can leave product in the water in
  trays and harvest only what we have orders for
• Harvest, pack and ship on the same day if possible

10
Flavor

• There is little you can do about this except use
  the uniqueness as marketing tool
• Get some wine snobs together feed them oysters
  and ask them to come up with fancy adjectives to
  help describe and market your oysters
• Salty, briny, sweet all overused

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Flavor

• If your oyster is low in salt emphasize how it
  lets the other flavors shine through
• Northern consumers tend to prefer a salty oyster
  it is what they are used to.
• Wet storage or salting (either in tanks on land
  or in cages in a salty location) is legal, but
  ISSC regulations for land-based facilities are
  tough to comply with

12
Polishing

• For oysters harvested from Approved waters
• Adds another degree of confidence
• Good marketing tool
• Southern oysters have a bad reputation in
  Northern high priced markets
• An opportunity to increase saltiness and
  penetrate high end markets
• Adds 3-5 cents in cost, but maybe 10-15 cents in
  value

13
Year-round availability

• If you can modulate the harvest and supply to
  meet demand you can maintain markets
• Once you shut a customer off he will find a
  replacement oyster. When you come back on line
  you have to win that customer back again
• Use some triploids to avoid summer quality issues
• The goal is to get your name on the menu!

14
Packaging

• Clean well-designed packaging is well worth it
• Wax box is 1.75 - 2.50
• Onion sacks are for sellers
• The box art is another opportunity to tell
  customers why your product is special and why
  they pay so much
• A waterproof flyer inside is another great
  marketing tool

15
Competition

• Try to avoid competing locally get your product
  out on the market, across the country
• Local competition only serves to drive down
  prices
• Dont compete on price alone unless you can be
  the low-cost producer- the Wallmart of oyster
  producers
• Find another feature that sets your product apart

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Selling Direct vs. Wholesale

• Permits, HACCP, facilities, delivery truck
  expenses and overhead
• Weekly calls lots of road trips
• Money collection keep tight rein
• Good weekly feedback from chefs
• Ask for recommendations!
• Above a certain volume gets challenging
• Can put you at odds with wholesalers

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How do you set a price?

• What the market will bear
• Dont sell yourself short
• If customers are not complaining, your price is
  probably too low
• If customers are complaining too much then you
  probably need a new customer
• Keep raising prices until you cannot sell out

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Whats in a Name?

• Good names evoke clean water, French, exotic
  locales, fruit gemstones
• Raspberry Point
• Charleston Cups
• Emerald Isle
• Blueberry Cove

• Bad names evoke filth or are not memorable or
  pronounceable
• Barnyard animals
• Harbor or creek
• Quonset
• Hog Island
• Matunuck

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East Coast Shellfish Growers Association

• Representing hundreds of growers from Maine to
  Florida
• Work on national issues closely with National
  Fisheries Institute, PCSGA and Gulf Oyster
  Industry Council
• Created the East Cost Shellfish Research
  Institute - 720,000 in earmarks 2008
• LISTSERV discussion group
• www.ECSGA.org