Marketing Resources

The National Honey Board Marketing Kit

Several years ago, the National Honey Board published the Official NHB Marketing Kit. On this page, you can read an introduction and overview about the kit, view a brief table of contents, view or download the entire 305-page document or smaller excerpts. The marketing kit is no longer available in print.

View / Download the complete Marketing Kit (927KB - PDF)

Introduction:

“Marketing” has been described as all activities necessary to move a product from the seller to the buyer. It centers around how you promote your product to your customers, including not only the characteristics of the product itself, but also how you present yourself and your company. It has everything to do with your ability to constantly and objectively analyze your product and service and how they fit within the marketplace.

You have honey to sell. Perhaps you have been selling extracted honey to a packer but have decided to bottle some yourself. Perhaps you have been giving honey away to friends and neighbors but believe there’s a larger (paying!) market for your honey. Perhaps you have been selling bottled honey locally but wish to expand. Perhaps you would like to look into selling to bakeries or breweries or experiment with creating new products using honey. Whatever your specific case, you will wish to explore your chances for success before you make any large financial commitments.

Developing a complete “marketing plan” involves identifying who your customers might be, what these customers want in the product, as well as what kind of service they expect from you. You may believe your honey product is in demand and may have done a fine job of figuring out the costs to package and ship it. You may even have financing already in place. However, if you have not done a good job of identifying your customers, and decided how to reach them as well as keep them over the long haul, your best efforts may go to waste.

Table of Contents