Web-based seafood marketing and Direct to Market Forum

Originally posted on SeafoodSource.com Monday,8 November, 2010  I have written previously about how online media, including websites and social media outlets like Facebook make excellent marketing tools. How these are being employed is really up to the marketer. A new up-and-coming salmon marketer, Kvichak Fish Company, uses their Facebook page to post photos, inform consumers, and talk about the upcoming Bristol Bay salmon season.

This type of interactive marketing allows customers to share their thoughts and impressions, often obviating the need for costly and involved market surveys. Another new marketing tool, Bristol Bay Wild, allows direct market fishermen access to an attractive logo, label and website for a nominal licensing fee. The quality guidelines associated with use of the brand name ensures that customers will get a consistently high quality product from the participating fishermen. This type of quality guarantee provides assurance that one fisherman’s fish branded under the Bristol Bay Wild brand will be as good as the next licensed product. Quality standards include icing of fish from harvest to delivery, timely processing, and cold chain of custody requirements.

Fishermen who are looking to get into the direct marketing game have a lot more options than several years ago.  Several Bristol Bay companies will now provide custom processing services for fishermen.  According to a recently published story in National Fisherman, Tony Woods’ company, Wild Alaska Salmon and Seafood, is making life easier for numerous Bristol Bay drift fishermen who are engaged in direct marketing. For a reasonable custom processing fee, they will help to transport and process a fisherman’s catch, and will even help them with their logistics. Another company, Naknek Family Fisheries, which I started in 2006 and jointly own with several family members, provides tendering, custom processing, and logistics assistance. Naknek Family Fisheries also owns the licensing entity Bristol Bay Wild.

For those interested in learning about the ins and outs of direct marketing of seafood products, National Fisherman will be hosting the Profitable Harvest Direct to Market Forum event next Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at Quest Field Event Center in Seattle, Washington. This event occurs one day prior to Pacific Marine Expo, the preeminent seafood trade show for the Pacific Northwest. If you would like to keep informed on Pacific Marine Expo events, you can follow them on Twitter.  

Izetta Chambers is a Marine Advisory Program Agent for the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program. She resides in Dillingham, Alaska. Izetta can be reached at izetta.chambers@alaska.edu.