The Organic Federation of Australia
holds an annual
Organic Fortnight Australia

A CELEBRATION OF ORGANIC FOOD AND FARMING

Friday March 25 - Sunday April 10, 2011

Awareness - raising events and promotions across the country.

Some of these may seem like common sense but when you're busy running an event, details can be easily overlooked.

• Focus your event or promotion around the range of benefits organic offers.
• Make sure your event has activities to keep children occupied.
• If you are running a promotion, make it simple and straightforward. A 'buy one, get one free' offer is much easier to understand than complicated linked promotions. Then customers have to take too long to understand what's on offer, and they won't be interested.
• Education, education, education! Make sure there is plenty of information available on the benefits of going organic at your event by printing out the Why You Can Trust Organic sheet. The general public won't necessarily know a lot about organic food and farming, and customers who understand a bit more will become more committed and make repeat purchases.
• Join up with other organisations in your area - find out what other companies and organisations in your area are doing. With more of you involved you can make a bigger impact and you can all benefit. You could even share the costs of running the event and it will be easier to promote and gain media coverage.
• As we've seen, the weather can have a huge effect on the success of your event so make sure that whatever the weather, your event can be enjoyed. Ensuring your plans are adaptable will prevent your audience being stuck in a stuffy marquee when it's scorching outside, or walking through a field that's turned into a swamp thanks to a sudden downpour.
• Make your event or promotion engaging for everyone involved. Do all your staff know about the event or promotion, and are they as enthused as you are? Engaging your staff (why not get in a crate of organic beer to crack open after the event) and having them (and you!) smiling throughout will make your customers want to come back.
• Be wary of price promotions, significantly discounting organic food may boost sales in the short term but will not necessarily build a reliable new customer base once the discounted price returns to normal. Organic products cost more to produce, and it is very difficult to maintain price-driven marketing. Free tastings and testings can be a much better way to encourage people to try products, plus give you the opportunity to educate them as to why an organic product does cost more.
• Don't forget to let us know what you're planning so that we can publicise it on our website and direct local journalists your way when they contact us - enter your event in our Events Calendar
• After the event, take time to evaluate it. What worked, and what didn't? Take the opportunity to learn more from the experience so that your future events can be even more successful - and please let us know how you got on, we'd love to hear from you.

 

Adapted from: http://www.soilassociation.org/. We are grateful for permission given by the Soil Association, UK, to use its material.