Food for Thought.
A fresh perspective on issues and opportunities in agri-marketing
Who’s Who on the Farm
In our last post, It’s about the farmer, not the farm, we discussed how customer-centric marketers need to understand who the farmer is, not simply categorize his or her farm. Yet we need to go deeper still. We need to understand the dynamics that occur on many farms as different individuals participate in the buying process.
You Own The Brand, Not The Sales Channel
It’s a harsh dose of reality as you build a customer-centric brand, but you might not be able to influence the most influential waypoint on the buying journey, the point of sale.
If You Want Loyalty, Buy A Dog
Just because farmers buy your product repeatedly doesn’t mean they like you. And, for the moment, that might be okay.
Repeat buying has been synonymous with loyalty in the ag industry for years. But it’s a misguided notion.
What Problem Is Your Customer Solving
As marketers, we need to remind ourselves that we’re in the business of solving our customers’ problems, not our own.
Re-Framing Agri-Marketing
Most agrimarketers know just enough about their customers to be dangerous.
Don’t get me wrong, most ag marketers know and care about farmers and farming. But just do a Google image search on “American farmer” and you’ll see a pretty homogenous gallery of baseball and cowboy hats, families, farm animals and crops, and equipment.
It's About The Farmer - Not The Farm
On the road to customer centricity, agricultural marketers need to overcome the tendency to mistake the farmer for the farm. Or, to put a finer point on it, for thinking that the quantifiable aspects of a farm are inherently insightful of the farmer.
Farmers Deserve A B2F Approach To Marketing
If there’s one thing we know from experience it’s that farmers don’t fit comfortably into conventional marketing models. And because marketers tend to embrace these marketing models, agricultural marketing isn’t what it could be. Nowhere near.