Grassroots Marketing at its Best
Doing my weekly shopping at the the Hillcrest Farmer’s Market last weekend, I came across a booth for Epicurious.com. I did a double take. Sandwiched between the handspun butter tent and my favorite avocado vendor was Epicurious, the online cooking mogul from the publishers of Gourmet and bon appetit magazines.
After making my way through a crowd of market-goers, it was clear what they were up to. They are hitting the streets in local markets, reaching the Sunday morning market-goers that appreciate a pesticide-free pluot and natural dog food. The people that are gathering fresh-cut flowers for their home and buying range-free eggs from a local vendor for their morning omelet are a very lucrative segment of their target market.
After returning home, I checked Epicurious.com to see what else they were up to. I was excited to see that their “local” approach was part of a bigger effort. According to their editor in chief, Tanya Steel, “It’s more important than ever to use local ingredients, both to the planet, and to farmers in your area. We are touring the country’s green markets again this year, in the hopes that we can offer tips, recipes, and advice to home cooks looking to create delicious and affordable meals using locally grown foods.”
The effort includes profiles of local farmers making a difference, an interactive map of what is fresh in your area, and a whole host of recipes that incorporate your farm fresh ingredients.
Other things they are doing (very well):
- iPhone App: you can create recipe boxes, search recipes, even create shopping lists
- They have an integrated marketing strategy. They are a dot com. But they don’t rely solely on other dot coms. They market through their partners Gourmet and bon appetit. They sponsor events. They do events and even mobile marketing.
- They embrace social media! I will blog later about their immersion in social media. But let’s just say they are covered.











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