Getting a buzz going about a new business

[Haup9]

Hi all,

As I mentioned in my introduction, my wife and I are starting a gourmet flavored pretzel business. We hope to have it up and running by May 1st. I'm looking for some ways to create a buzz or interest in our business so that it is well received when we are up and running. Right now we have a facebook page and are posting when we are doing various things with the business.....for instance when we have been trying new recipes & some pictures of our test batches. What else can should we do on there? We do not have a website yet but will be working on that in the next few weeks.

Any ideas for getting an interest going in our product would be great!!!

[lucas.bowser]

How do you plan on selling them? It would give us a better idea of how you will need to go about generating your "buzz".

However, I can tell you it will likely involve samples. It's difficult to generate buzz for a food product that no one has tasted or heard of. That's why you see free samples of new products at the grocery store. So that said, do you already have your product liability insurance set up? Make sure you do that before you start handing out any free samples to people other than friends or family.

[KristineS]

Is this something you're looking to sell online or nationally or both? If you're thinking local - send a press release to the local newspapers, magazines and television stations. Contact the Chamber of Commerce in your area and see if they do anything to help new businesses get publicity. You might consider sending out samples to local pubs and bars too. Could be a good way to get some of them to stock your product.

If you're going nationally, you can do a lot of the same things on a bigger scale. Find out who popular food bloggers are, and contact them about your product. Make sure you have a plan for your Facebook page, and that your followers are your target market. Find out who writes about snacks and see about making contact with those people. Develop a network.

[Haup9]

Lucas - No we don't have the product liability insurance yet. We have to have all our licensing and inspections before we can get that according to our agent. As far as markets, we are looking at flea markets, bars/restaurants, the internet, possibly selling them at the concession stands run by our kids sports activities, festivals, parades & farmers markets.

Kristine - So far we want to stay local. Thanks for the ideas!!!

[KristineS]

If you're thinking of going local I wanted to show you an example (http://www.facebook.com/simplycupcakestc) of a local Facebook page for a cupcake shop here in my town which I think does local Facebook really well. They have a ton of followers and they've built a lot of buzz for their shop.

[Haup9]

Thanks Kristine!!! I will check them out!

[greenoak]

thats a great facebook example....

[huggytree]

i dont think the internet will do much for you.....it will help, but if thats your main sales tool i think your in trouble

is your product something that would be sold at a food store? if so id do samples at every food store i could....

if your product is more like the Cinabon store then id open a store at a strip mall and it will advertise itself when everyone goes out for lunch or is looking for a snack while Mall walking

i really dont think anyone is going to run across town to get a pretzel......if its in front of them they will buy it......how are you going to get your product in front of the customer?????? i dont think they will search you out no matter what you do

[KristineS]

I would agree there is going to have to be a retail location or retail locations at some point. Even if it's just a cart at a local event, you will need a place people can go to purchase. What the Facebook page is for is to build interest in the product so people are motivated to seek out whatever sales venue is available. Having a Facebook page or a Twitter feed allows the company that makes the product to help build and drive traffic.