I attended an interesting annual general meeting of the Canadian Mushroom Association in Toronto. The speaker's presentation was promotion oriented. I was very impressed with the marketing efforts of the CMGA. They had assembled an excellent media program involving the web and traditionl media. Much of the work was done in-house, but they were savy enough to use the branding rule of consistency. They used their logo and brand message effectively. There was a call to action on every item driving the audience to the web site where they were lured into getting free recipes for registering with their emails. I was very impressed with the results of this effort - 10,000 emails in their first year. That is outstanding. Every commercial whether radio or TV ending by driving home the web address. All print and digital efforts did the same. The diagnostic data gleamed from their websites, revealed a remarkable ability to hit their target audience.

All and all the CMGA should be patted on the back for their efforts and it was refreshing to hear that the mission continues. The only blip in the evenings presentation was at the expense of the mandate of the organization which is to "move more mushrooms". It was reported that mushroom sales remained flat. Absolutely no movement in sales performance. To the few members I talked to in attendance they saw the marketing efforts as disappointing, since sales didn't go up.

I think this to be short sighted. As marketers we are well aware of the time it takes to see a return on marketing efforts.

This is a common tendancey of many in business who simply don't appreciate how marketing works. Their attitude is understandable though, as they are the troops on the front line. They take their few hard earned dollars and trust that the results will bear fruit tomorrow. But in reality they are only planting the seeds (spawning if you will). To get 10,000 emails is remarkable and a gold mine in opportunties since the targeted audience signed up for mushroom info. That 10,000 will multiply with any recipe sharing between friends and family.

The only missing component I don't recall seeing in the marketing mix was a co-ordinated effort to have each grower member do their part with co-oping the drive to the website on their marketing and corporate materials. For instance a number of member's business cards I saw showed no drive to mushrooms.ca. Every stake holder in the Canadian mushroom industry has a stake in the success of this effort. Let's see who steps up and takes a leadership role. Marketing shouldn't be something to watch from the sidelines - it is NOT a spectator sport.