Branding and Marketing Self-Guided Course for Food and Farm Businesses
November 5, 2025 - Madelina DiLisi, MSU CRFS, Olivia Ewing, Modern Media Design
Print
EmailThe Branding and Marketing Self-Guided Course is a no-cost resource designed for food and farm entrepreneurs in the early stages of launching their business. The self-guided course consists of five video modules that users can select from based on their specific needs and complete at their own pace.
Introduction
Having a strong branding and marketing strategy is critical during the early stages of launching a business.
This course will help entrepreneurs develop key marketing skills with the following modules:
- Module 1: Why Branding and Marketing Matter
- Module 2: Building Your Brand
- Module 3: Marketing Basics
- Module 4: Social Media Made Simple
- Module 5: Your Action Plan
A PDF of all slides is available here.
A supplemental branding and marketing worksheet is available here.
Module 1: Why Branding and Marketing Matter
Module 2: Building Your Brand
Module 3: Marketing Basics
Module 4: Social Media Made Simple
Module 5: Your Action Plan
The course concludes by encouraging entrepreneurs to take charge and develop their very own simple action plan.
This course was designed by Modern Media Design as funded by the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center.
Per the USDA announcement on July 15, 2025, the Regional Food Business Centers program was terminated, prior to its original end date of July 2028. Because of this, the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center halted operations on September 15, 2025 and was unable to responsibly launch the Business Builder Subaward program. Please see our related press release. Resources intended to help food and farm businesses will remain freely available on this website and additional resources can be found at foodsystems.msu.edu/resources.
About the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center
The Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center was dedicated to offering coordination, technical assistance, and capacity building opportunities for farmers, producers, and other food business owners in support of a more resilient and competitive food system. Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems (MI) coordinated the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center comprised of network coordinators – Chicago Food Policy Action Council (IL), Northwest Indiana Food Council (IN), Food Finance Institute of the University of Wisconsin System (WI), and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and Food Systems – who sought to take a transformational, rather than transactional, approach. Learn more at glm-rfbc.msu.edu
