Niche Marketing

Hotels get into beekeeping business
Upscale hotels are using on-site beehives to bring locally sourced honey to guests and to save dwindling colonies of honeybees.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov...-bees-20111120

New location for your bee yard.

There are two in our area doing that. One has the entire gong show outsourced, beekeepers come in from the big city on the other side of the pond, and do everything for them. The hives are a promotional stunt, designed to get column space and photos in the paper. The other one sent 5 of the kitchen staff to the bee classes last spring, then they brought in 5 nucs from an island supplier, to start hives on the property. Last time I saw an interview with one of them, they were fairly candid, probably not going to get much honey for the hotel this year, but, we are planning to use our own honey in select high end menu items next year.

A couple months ago, my wife stayed in one of the 'high end' hotels that has used rooftop hives as a high profile publicity maneuver in vancouver over the last few years. The honey on the tables is labelled from a california producer.

Whenever you read about hives at hotels, remember to count how many hives, and figure out how much honey that kitchen needs. Then also remember, the decision to purchase hives was not an altruistic decision, it happened at a boardroom table after somebody from marketing asked 'how will this look in the paper?'.

Nothing new. One of the premier marketeers in our area has been at this for quite a while. These folks are the king and queen of the niche marketing show. Anyone who can sell melter honey for $20 a pound and get people scrambling for this "premier" stuff is a niche marketer. :D


https://www.facebook.com/events/197877790249879/

http://www.sonomanews.com/News-2011/...e-SMI-buzzing/

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local...-96600764.html


What really gets me is when folks refer to the honey produced from these as "organic." :s

No chemicals you know. Just a drop of all the trash that inculcates the flowerbeds of every modern city.:ws: