Man, what an awesome and interesting (to me anyways) thread!
I'm definitely no syrup making genius, being pretty new to running my own bush. But I am a seasoned marketing vet and gotta say, I hear some whining/crying into corn flakes here
I actually enjoy ALL the marketing efforts I see different syrup producers employ. In fact, I'm currently working with 2 different Ontario producers to help them bring their marketing & advertising efforts from Cs up to A+s. And guess what? Each is taking a completely different tact or approach.
The beautiful thing - for folks in my line of work - is that maple syrup producers CAN'T rely on the "let my syrup flavour/quality do the talking" approach, because from year to year (no matter how modern or efficient your setup is) the flavours and quality provided by your bush can change. So a customer that loved your syrup 3 years ago, may be quite disappointed in the batch they buy this year.
This is when creative marketing takes over. If you have customers who have a connection to history and tradition and you still hang buckets and collect by horse drawn sleigh and evaporate over flaming oak, then absolutely you're going to promote those aspects of your operation in your marketing. You'd be an absolute idiot not to.
If you've invested tens of thousands into all the latest and greatest technology to provide the clearest, lightest, nearly flavourless syrup money can buy, then you promote those aspects to gain all the customers interested in those aspects you can.
It's not insulting or harmful to your fellow producers, it's simply a matter of speaking to customers and telling the right ones what they want to hear. A basic business principle.
2012
- 48 taps & buckets
- 18"x30" pan
- A hand-me-down poorly built oiltank boiler
2013
- 50 taps & buckets
- 25 5/16 taps & gravity lines
- 18" x 30" pan
- A rapidly deteriorating, poorly built, hand-me-down oiltank boiler
2014
- 100 taps & buckets
- 50 5/16 taps & gravity lines
- Two handmade 2' x 3' SS pans
- Handmade 2' x 6' evaporator
- A new 20' x 22' sugar shack (roofed & floored, but otherwise unfinished)