CSIT155-F18-TBantle

I have often thought about blogging for the family avocado business. There's so much passionate work that has to be done to keep the grove going and fruit producing and if I can show the reader some of what goes into growing our amazing, award winning healthy avocados, I think they would gain a better appreciation for them and it might inspire them to buy some. By describing some of the many obstacles besides our crazy mother nature, that we have to endure such as manual labor, bees obsconding, labor shortages, water costs, electricity hikes, soil samples, tree leaf analysis, trying to go organic, refusing to use pesticides and herbicides, creating our own moisture sensors for the soil, our wireless irrigation system we spent 2 years creating and what it takes to grow a delicious California Hass avocado, then they can get an understanding of why they are more expensive than the typical watery, stringy, rotten imported avocados they find in the store for 75 cents a piece or less. ...

Learning the details of Twitter took me quite a long time as I was not very familiar with it.   I'm glad I understand it better now so that I will try to utilize its sales potential. Selling avocados direct will need a buyer with money who can appreciate the best avocados that money can buy. I looked up some celebrities to start out my lists who would be able to afford them and I looked up a couple of people we know already that are sort of locals.  I searched Avocado, superfoods, LA Farmers Markets, Health Magazines for men and women, and some famous younger and middle aged people. I found many celebrities, such as Justin Timberlake, Kevin Hart, Ellen Degeneres, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Tiffany Haddish. I made 2 lists: Ca Avocado Lovers and Local Avocado Fans. The CA Avocado Lovers list will be used to tweet ads to generate direct avocado sales through the mail and the Local Avocado Fans list will be for special sales whenever we have a surplus from wind fallen fruit or ...

Finding Avocado Farming companies on Facebook has been a challenge, but I found some as well as on YouTube that had some videos that were effective in getting the selling point across, but likes were few compared to their amount of followers.  Instagram is used by these companies as well and get more traction. California Avocados Direct.com- This company advertises on YouTube and Instagram. You Tube hasn't been updated in 6-7 years, had 707 views and they had 7 videos. Instagram's last post was on May 30th and got 77 likes.  The videos on YouTube were effective as they took a tour of the farm and explained their history and how they pick and ship the fruit.  The proportion of followers to the number of likes is unknown as they do not have a current facebook page. Mraz Family Farms advertises on all 3, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. They are very popular as the singer/songwriter Jason Mraz owns it so he gets a lot of visibility. They have 3,636 followers  and 3,...

Of the top 7 platforms listed in the Class Lecture PDF, Snap Chat was listed twice so I will discuss 6. I have chosen Facebook & Instagram for my business social media platform. I don't know if they are right for my product but they are easier to advertise than using YouTube as that is more time consuming. The reason I don't know if it's right for my product is because we haven't received one direct mail order as of yet. Only family and friends and they always want a huge discount which gets old really fast, especially when we are operating at a loss. When we branch our business out into selling smart irrigation systems, I will start making videos and using YouTube more then. On Facebook and Instagram, I can post engaging pictures and videos as well as try to generate sales with a Shop Now button.  I haven't used Pinterest yet. I've only used them for "how to" ideas. I need to explore that platform more. Twitter is not a good platform for selli...

I chose the following businesses to like on my page: San Diego Business Journal, San Diego County Farm Bureau, California Avocado Society, California Avocados, Mraz Family Farms, Hunter Industries, AvoTerra by Index Fresh, USDA, Avoganics, West Steak House, Gelsons Markets and Trader Joes. I chose these businesses for a variety of reasons but the main reason is because they are all tied to farming avocados. The Business Journal did a story on our irrigation technology. We are members of the SD Farm Bureau. The Avocado Society does the marketing for California avocados and we pay them a percentage of our sales. Mraz Family Farms is a competitor and they do direct sales and sell out so I want to learn their skills. Same for Avoganics. AvoTerra by Index Fresh is our packing house we sell to. USDA is who we get our grants from. West Steakhouse, Gelson's and Trader Joes might need our avocados some day. I really like this feature. I had no idea it existed. I plan on using this feat...

My family's business began in 2011 and our Facebook page started on April 30, 2014. It's a small avocado farm of 12 acres on a hillside in DeLuz which is in Fallbrook, CA. We primarily grow all Hass avocados, without the use of any pesticides or herbicides. Our FB page currently has 116 followers and gets posted on almost weekly, but we haven't sold any fruit direct yet, but are hoping to generate sales next year when the fruit comes back in season. Currently they are sold out and all sales were to a packing house which is the typical way many avocado growers do business, but the sales could be so much more if we sold direct. We also sell automated irrigation systems and that is slowly starting to get added to this page. I looked up the following Facebook pages that were similar to mine: Mraz Family Farms, Avocado Organic, Avocado Box, Growers Direct and California Avocados. It was surprising to me that I couldn't find that many companies using the name Avocado in...

Knowing more about the customer will help with planning for efficient advertising. The target market/psychographic for direct sales of pesticide free Hass Avocados would be to either males or females, over the age of 18. It would have to be someone who is health conscious and/or athletic, who is looking to spend some money on quality food products that are hand grown in California. Their income would need to be over $50,000 a year. It doesn't matter if they are single or married, have children, or an education. Race or religion is not a factor either. It is a health and taste preference and if they have the affordability, they would buy them. The saying, we are what we eat matters to this target market. They want to eat as healthy as possible so they have a healthy mind and body. They are strong believers of super foods and the Environmental Working Group's Clean 15 with Avocados being #1 on that list. They believe that healthy fats are important and needed in our daily diet. A...