Darlene Knipe
University of Illinois Extension
4550 Kennedy Dr., Suite 2
East Moline, IL 61244
(309) 792-2500 ext. 219, (309) 792-2602 fax

This session will demonstrate a newly developed online marketing tool called MarketMaker. This resource is intended to help farmer and food industry entrepreneurs get their products into the marketplace and give them better access to regional food markets. It is also designed as an educational tool that teaches target marketing and strategic distribution systems to entrepreneurs.

The MarketMaker Web site is rich with demographic and business data that the user can query against. It combines the technology of Geographic Information Systems with over 38,000 business records and demographic data. Information can be summarized either in a table or on a map. The user has the capacity to select businesses by type of business or to select farmer/producers by product type. Each record returned includes a profile of the business or producer including such information as size of business and number of employees or in the case of producers the characteristics of the products being raised. Demographic information on the site allows the user to locate where the greatest concentration of potential consumers might be along with the associated census profile.

This resource was developed to aid the process of getting agricultural products from “farm to plate” but the concept could be adapted to any sector of business or industry where the entrepreneur may be far removed from potential markets or business supply chain partners. This is often the case with businesses in rural areas where the local markets are not large enough to provide the business a sustainable living.

PowerPoint Presentation (PDF format, 1,231 kb)