Marketing the Amish

photo: amishcigar.com

'Amish' sells. 

That fact is not lost on the numerous merchants of Amish-branded stuff.  Software, refrigerators, and organic cotton bedsheets are among the products that non-Amish dealers have sold under the Amish moniker or by association with Amish images.

Often, the connection to bona fide 'Amishness' (whatever that term means) is dubious at best.  David Luthy wrote an article in the mid-90s in Family Life on the phenomenon of Amish-name branding.

Luthy offers the example of a turkey-processing plant which used the Amish name, writing, 'to qualify for such a label all that was needed was that someone Amish carried buckets of commercial feed to them or an Amish person worked in the processing plant!' 

Amishness often seems to be a near-mystical quality that the Amish alone may dispense, apparently by merely running fingers over a product or with an approving nod in its direction.

 

Amish Market in New York City.  photo: mikeeatsfood.blogspot.com

A female Amish acquaintance in Ohio who runs a food-related business herself offered another example, complaining, good-naturedly, about the use of the Amish name on products.

'Amish-made whatever!...We feel it's not right to use 'Amish' just so we can sell something.  Not everybody feels that way, and that's okay.'

'Amish water, hey!' She continued.  'We didn't make the water, God did!  Or they'll go to a restaurant and say 'is this Amish chicken?'  Well that chicken has never been Amish!'

'Still not baptized!' I pointed out. 

Yet many Amish owners don't exactly mind if word gets out about their background.  They know what sells.

What is the general Amish view on the topic?  It's an interesting issue, as opinion is divided.  You won't find many Amish-owned firms with 'Amish' in the name.  A general rule of thumb is that 'if it says Amish, then it ain't'. 

When asked, an acquaintance in Ohio knew of just one firm with 'Amish' in the name that was Amish-owned (and which had subsequently been sold to a non-Amish person).

Yet some Amish promote their status in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.  Some release promotional literature and catalogs with images or text implying or stating the owner's Amishness.  

Others may use pictures of Amish children for marketing purposes, as their unbaptized status places them conveniently outside the stricture against photography.

Comments

[Bill]

I really like oak furniture and much of my home is furnished in oak. Not too many years ago furniture stores started popping up around my area selling Amish made furniture and touting the "Amish" name in their business monikers. We stopped at these places and found pieces we liked and bought them. What got me to start travelling to "Amish Country" is I decided to go find a builder or builders and buy directly from them rather than buying from these "Amish furniture stores" and paying their markup prices. Doing this I wait longer and have to find my own transport for the furniture but I save money and enjoy dealing directly with the builder. What I'm getting at here is none of the Amish furniture makers signs read "Amish furniture" on them.
And I've never eaten an Amish blueberry pie but I've eaten blueberry pies made by the Amish. :)

[Ann]

Ah, us Quakers can really relate to this.

[Michael Atnip]

Makes me think of the tourist traps in Berlin, OH. There in the middle of the "Amish Country" shops you can buy yourself Harley Davidson memorabilia.
Well, at least it isn't advertised as "Amish Harley" stuff!
This post also made me think of what an Anabaptist preacher preached just recently:
If the Amish (and Mennos) would preach like the 16th-century Anabaptists did, the tourist business would hit the basement. Not too many folks would drive a hundred miles see a preacher tell them to repent from their sins (especially if he would get specific in naming those "sins"!).

[swartzamish]

Hi Eric,
Up here in Northern New York we started a petition to appeal to the Ny Attorney General to investigate civil rights violations against the Swartzentruber Amish in Morristown, NY.

Here's the link:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/swartzamish/index.html

Hope you will do a blog piece about it!
The swartzamish team

[swartzamish]

Hi Eric,
Up here in Northern New York we started a petition to appeal to the Ny Attorney General to investigate civil rights violations against the Swartzentruber Amish in Morristown, NY.

Here's the link:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/swartzamish/index.html

Hope you will do a blog piece about it!
The swartzamish team

[Bill]

Revisiting this topic brings me to think if there are no Amish at the point of sale of Amish made products it makes good business sense for the merchant to point out that a product is Amish made. Using the Amish name as if it is a "brand" name is quite a stretch but I don't see anything wrong with letting customers know they are buying Amish produced goods. It doesn't hurt that the point of this discussion is "Amish" sells.

This leads me to ask what's out there that can be called "Amish" in the same sense as one would call certain food dishes "Italian" or "Mexican"?

[Amish America]

Bill in your first comment I think you've hit right on a big part of the appeal of buying direct from Amish Country--in that it provides an opportunity to interact directly with the producer, and especially in that it allows for the customer to dip his toe a little bit deeper into Amish society than, say, a visit filled with more standard activities would allow. An Amish furniture retailer was recently telling me how much he enjoys the relationships he's developed with his customers over the years, while acknowledging the appeal of being able to come on-site to buy.

As you know these shops are typically located at the homes and being able to go on-site and see the furniture actually being produced also reinforces the 'authenticity' and 'hand-crafted' elements of the story.

I actually had two questions if I can ask- do you usually go to the same producer? Someone you've gotten to know as in the example above? And, from a buyer's standpoint, what appeals to you most about Amish furniture, in a general sense?

[Amish America]

Michael, interesting you bring up motorcycles. There is actually a "Holmes County Choppers" T-shirt out there, complete with Amishman-on-a-motorcycle logo and something clever written beneath which I've forgotten.

I'm guessing the 'company' is, most likely, fictitious.

[Bill]

Hi Erik! I've gone to the same builder for the items I wanted. I was referred to him after stopping at a couple other places that didn't make what I was looking for. I'm sure you already know all builders don't make the same products. Some builders use different woods or specialize in certain products. For example the builder I go to does not make chairs. If you order a table or dining room suit from him he will build the table and the other pieces and get the chairs unfinished from another builder and stain and finish them to match the table.

For me the appeal of Amish made furniture is the look and the quality. The first time we went into an "English" run Amish furniture store we thought "If only we knew about this sooner". Traditional style oak furniture was always our preference and for the price the quality of most Amish made furniture is hard to beat, especially when buying directly from a good and honest builder.

[Amish America]

Amish furniture has a well-deserved rep for quality. I wouldn't say it's always the cheapest, but if it's something you only buy once, it probably ends up being more economical to pay a little more. Sounds like you've got a nice arrangement there.

You bring up another good point, that a lot of these shops tend to be highly specialized in what they make. Some just do wood parts that later are assembled into the finished product. Or some Amish specialize in applying the furniture finish and nothing else. There are of course those that do it all, but I think the simplicity and cost efficiency factors of doing just one or a handful of things, very well, appeals to typical Amish sensibilities.