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From:
Tim Tucker <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Tim Tucker <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 23 Feb 2006 20:43:45 -0600
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To all,

<So what should you say? Let your honey do the talking. That is what I 
do. It says more than I ever can.>

There is often confusion with beginners to the marketing of honey who when letting those initial customers taste and respond are most times met with responses like "This is the best honey I've ever tasted or My, this is wonderful, so much better than the last honey I bought in the store."  The American consumer has a finer pallet today than our father's and grand-fathers generation.   We are constantly presented with hundreds of taste choices for practically every product we buy.   It's why we pay $ 4.00 for a  40 cent cup of coffee at Starbucks.  I too fell into this false belief until after years of experience realized that its not better "quality" necessarily, but simply “different“ than the beekeeper up the road.
The smaller a producer you are the more variability you will have in the taste of your honey from year to year and from yard to yard.   Larger producers who blend hundreds  or thousands of gallons at a time with boxes from many yards tend to homogenize the taste of their honey, albeit with regional variations still a possibility.  
 This uniqueness of taste and “difference”is what prompts people to purchase your honey and request it again and again until something new and unique comes along, something different.  
Everybody’s been talking quality, quality and quality.
Customers today expect "quality" in all products they purchase, pure, fresh, healthy and wholesome are all requirements for simple satisfaction.   To provide anything less is to disappoint.  Basic quality is taken for granted.  When you are selling direct at a farmers market or craft show you are able to go beyond expectations of the consumer, as opposed to grocery store shopping, and provide  a level of excitement.   The old Smell, Taste, Sizzle and Pop that stimulates the buying impulse.  And you are a real beekeeper, which is also exciting, as people are almost always intrigued by the profession  of keeping bees. 
So go ahead and ask a higher price for your “different tasting” honey.
 Quality, Gourmet, Organic, New and Improved are all  Trendy Marketing Techniques that will continue to come, play their tune for a time and slowly fade away, replaced with the newest catch phrase.  Once the large suppliers like Wal-Mart start commoditizing the "Organic" banner and providing it at a minimum, the end of the run  for any premiums is in site.  I’m in 9 health food stores and all sell an organic honey.  It granulates (if not shipped that way) then starts deepening in color and finally they give it to me to feed to the bees.  We do “Cooking with honey demonstrations in these stores and outsell “Organic Honey” costing $8.00 to $ 12.00 per pound by a 100 to 1 margin.  We sell our honey.   Big difference.   Even Organic does not always sell itself.  We work on building a continuing market at a reasonable price $ 3.50 - $ 4.00 retail.
To say your honey is better than that in the store is, as others have pointed out, simply untrue and I know a packer who runs a million pounds a month through his plant who would be glad to discuss "quality" with you.
Large packers blend for "consistency", consistency of taste, color, moisture content and shelf life which are all things that the majority of consumers expect and ultimately purchase.  Plain and simple.  People do not like being disappointed with a product and consistently buy products that consistently meet their expectations.
When people tell me my honey is better than all of the rest, I simply smile and agree.   To denigrate or downgrade another’s honey is never positive for the industry.   Tim Tucker

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