• Survey of Rural Challenges
  • Small Town Speaker Becky McCray
  • Shop Local video
  • SaveYour.Town

Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource

A row of small town shops
  • Front Page
  • Latest stories
  • About
  • Guided Tour
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • RSS

Idea: Local products outsell generic products

By Becky McCray

As a small town small business person, you have a natural advantage in creating local products. I have three examples of local products that will outsell the generic version in a given location.

Product Idea 1: Local pride clothing

Small towns are filled with clothes sporting the high school mascot. You can build a good small town business by taking that further. Create clothing that promotes local pride, and your place in the state or the region. What about towns without a school? How about tiny towns, or the small neighborhoods of larger cities?

Neighborhoodies is doing this in New York City, focusing on tiny neighborhoods. Here’s what business idea site Springwise has to say about it:

We like simple ideas that can instantly be turned into potentially global businesses: check out Brooklyn-based Neighborhoodies, which sells cool, über-local hooded sweatshirts emblazoned with the name of one’s very own, very narrowly defined neighborhood. Big cities have always been about neighborhoods or even specific streets, so a Murray Hill shirt says more than ‘I Love NY’!

They’ve also added funky mail bags to their portfolio (a no-brainer, just like their T-shirts, undies and kids’ wear). Even though Neighborhoodies is now selling to many customers outside their native US, this market is still open to local entrepreneurs around the globe: part of the charm of Neighborhoodies is the local aspect (hence the name ;-).

Another company making the most of this trend is Tura in Lokasie neighborhood, Windhoek, Namibia. Local women are creating local designs for Namibians and tourists alike.

“The only things you see tourists wearing are ‘Sand Lover’ T-shirts, but hardly any other uniquely Namibian labels and designs. And everybody else is just wearing Billabong, Roxy, Puma and whatever else. It is high time Namibians started wearing their own labels.”
Shigwedha welcomes the idea that more entrepreneurs use the collection in their own way.
“Our vision is to see a collection for each township in Namibia one day. The T-shirts are for everybody – Namibians and tourists.”

Product Idea 2: Local jewelry

State of Mine produces a wide range of jewelry products, all customized to your state or city. 60 Second Ideas profiled State of Mine:

What’s next in hoods across the country? Can you say keychains? Companies like Neighborhoodies and State of Mine should get your state of mind buzzing on how to capitalize.
Home is where the heart is, where ever you happen to be. Once again we see how awareness of a profitable and growing trend combined with a little imagination can lead to great success.

Product Idea 3: Local photos

As I’ve written before, if you have some tourism, students, or other part-time residents, local photos can be an especially big hit. You don’t have to be the world’s best photographer, either. Read a bit more about this concept at the Photopreneur site, Photography Marketing: Think Local, Shoot Local.

A sunset is a sunset the world over. But when you’re selling offline, and more importantly, when you’re selling locally, it’s amazing how well images of your area sell.

It might be counterintuitive. After all, any Joe with a camera can walk to the beach and snap away. But when the picture is mounted on a postcard or framed as a poster, it’s no longer a local shot. It’s a source of local pride.

Think about who you are targeting. Where do they shop? Then partner with those stores on some local photography items. Maybe you are in a place where a roadside photo stand would work!

Your ideas?

What ideas do you have for local products and businesses? Do you have a local business along these lines? Leave a comment! Tell us about what works and what does not.

New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
  • Move Your Money and Bank Local - March 22, 2023
  • Using a building as a warehouse or storage in a small town? Put up a sign - March 13, 2023
  • How to get customers in the door of small town and rural retail stores - February 19, 2023
  • Check your small business website for outdated pandemic changes, missing info - January 31, 2023
  • Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitors - January 15, 2023
  • 2023 trends for rural and small town businesses - December 26, 2022
  • Local reviews on Google Maps drive enduring value - December 17, 2022
  • Extra agritourism revenue from camping, cabins and RVs with HipCamp - December 12, 2022
  • Harvest Hosts attract vanlifers and RV tourists, Boondockers Welcome - December 2, 2022
  • Holiday 2022 marketing: Tell your founding story - December 1, 2022

May 16, 2007 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, ideas, rural, tourism

Wondering what is and is not allowed in the comments?
Or how to get a nifty photo beside your name?
Check our commenting policy.
Use your real name, not a business name.


Don't see the comment form?
Comments are automatically closed on older posts, but you can send me your comment via this contact form and I'll add it manually for you. Thanks!

Howdy!

Glad you dropped in to the rural and small town business blog, established in 2006.

We want you to feel at home, so please take our guided tour.

Meet our authors on the About page.

Have something to say? You can give us a holler on the contact form.

If you would like permission to re-use an article you've read here, please make a Reprint Request.

Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.

Partners

We partner with campaigns and organizations that we think best benefit rural small businesses. Logo with "Shop Indie Local" Move Your Money, bank local, invest local Multicolor logo with text that says "Global Entrepreneurship Week" Save Your Town logotype

Best of Small Biz Survival

A shopkeeper and a customer share a laugh in a small store packed full of interesting home wares.

How to get customers in the door of small town and rural retail stores

Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitors

Wide view of a prairie landscape with a walk-through gate in a fence

Tourism: Make the most of scant remains and “not much to see” sites with a look-through sign

Holyoke Hummus Company cart

How one food business keeps adapting, from table to cart to truck, to restaurant and back again

Make extra money from extra workspace: co-working and 3rd workplaces in small towns

Newspaper story headline says, "Made in Dorrigo Markets a bustling success"

Boost your maker economy with a “Made in” day

More of the best of Small Biz Survival

Copyright © 2023 Becky McCray
Front Page · Log in