When we first went to visit the chicken families following the holidays, we were greeted by the sight of plump, grown chickens prowling the coops – a long way’s progress from the tiny little chicks that we delivered at the beginning of December. We held another training session on recordkeeping at the Chalice office to make sure that the families would be fully prepared to take on their chicken-selling enterprise. Through the use of props and roleplaying sessions, we showed them the steps to write down information on when, how many, and for how much the chickens were sold, incorporating the use of symbols to make sure that illiterate participants could follow along. With that, the families were ready to start off on their chicken-selling journey.
As we continue to track the progress of the participants’ sales, it’s been interesting to see how some families have shown off their marketing savvy by advertising their products throughout their neighborhoods. We’re starting to realize that what’s even more important than the formal town markets in successfully selling chickens is marketing within the families’ neighbourhoods – when people hear about good chickens being sold, they make the effort to visit and buy the chickens directly from the chicken coops. It seems that word-of-mouth can make or break a business, especially in a rural setting. It’s a key lesson that we’ll be discussing with the families over the next few weeks to figure out the best marketing plans to use for their chickens.