Tuesday April 29, 2014

 

Today I was tired and stressed out.  I realized that I had like less than two weeks before my AP Exams and I have reverted back to not understanding physics.  I have a lab due tomorrow that has something to do with the mathematics of sound wavelengths in music.  I am supposed to find a pattern in it, but honestly I see no pattern whatsoever, so I'll just have to deal with that tomorrow.

Given that I was not feeling so hot today, I decided that I would do some reading in my senior project book, Shucked.  (I have three senior project books; Managerial Accounting,  Shucked, and Big Oyster.  I do most of my reading from Shucked and Managerial, because Big Oyster is proving very boring.)  In the section that I read, the book talked about how Island Creek Oyster Farm was founded and about a marketing trip the crew went on in Martha's Vineyard.

Island Creek Oyster Farm was created by a man named Skip.  He was raised in Duxbury and his father was a lobster fisherman.  After going to Merrimack College for a finance degree, Skip returned and became commercial fisherman for lobster, steamers, and razor clams.  Skip had heard about aquaculture on the Cape and decided to culture clams in Duxbury.  Using money from fishing on the side and capturing horseshoe crabs for medical research, he was able to start his clam farm.  Unfortunately after three years, QPX wiped out his entire crop.  Since he had already sunk his money into the equipment, he decided that his best option was to culture a different type of shellfish.  Of course, he decided on oysters and after many hours of work, Island Creek Oysters became a well known and respected brand.

What really interests me about Skip's story is his pro-activeness.  From the very start, Skip has been very active in improving and promoting Island Creek Oysters.  When it was first beginning, he made hundreds of cold calls to restaurants and fish markets trying to get his oysters some recognition, which eventually led to his oysters being featured at Grand Central Oyster Bar.

This leads me to the second topic that I want to discuss; marketing.  A lot of the recognition that Island Creek Oysters have comes from really good marketing.  The book discusses one of the farms marketing forays to Martha's Vineyard.  The entire crew went for the weekend to attend a wine tasting event.  They set up their oyster bar at the event and shucked oysters for the attending crowd.  This is one really good way of marketing, because it ensures that the farm is getting a lot of exposure.  However, it is important to mention is that these oysters were free.  From each seed stock you receive, around 30% will die and about 10% will go towards free samples.  These samples are meant for restaurants and marketing events to promote the brand.  Although it will cost you 10% of your projected profit, it is vital for increasing sales and making sure your oysters become a house brand.