Brags and Blunders!

Often the conversation amongst direct-to-consumer farm marketers can turn to “So, what are you doing that’s new and exciting?” I was fortunate to be able to hear some new and exciting ideas recently.

As part of our recent Are You Crazy? bus tour we had a brief session titled “brags and blunders.” The purpose of this session is for everyone to have an opportunity for describing the very best and/or the very worst marketing idea they ever implemented. This session was a great way to learn from each other and get conversations going. I relate here what I heard.

Invisible Fence Maze

Yes, they buried that invisible pet fence in a maze pattern and turned the kids loose. They did replace the buzzer with flashing lights before they started. This project was discontinued after two years. The kids had to crawl along the ground for the collars to sense the buried wire. Blunder!

Burning Fire Truck

Who doesn’t like a fire truck? Well these folks wore a big floppy foam fireperson hat and were driving around when the truck started burning. Of course, the fire extinguisher had been removed recently, so every one at the farm watched as the fire smoldered. Blunder!

Pumpkin Cannon

Have you heard about Punkin’ Chunkin’ celebrations? The one I am familiar with is in Delaware the week after Halloween. A bunch of clever folks tinker up some mechanical devices for flinging pumpkins way down the field. This marketer did the same thing, except after the season was over they decided to see how far they could send a pumpkin. After fanfare and the launch - they never did find the 1^st piece of that flying fruit. Blunder!

Ground Hog Pumpkins

I don’t know about your fields, but ours can be full of ground hog living quarters. One year it seemed like most every pumpkin in this one field had ground hog damage. A few bites here and a few bites there. These folks told the touring elementary students to hunt up some of the “pumpkins with the ground hog autographs”. Well, the teachers later heard from the parents that if they were going to a farm could they at least find one that had decent pumpkins. Blunder!

Peach Smoothies

Many multi-generational farms experience family conflicts from time to time. At this roadside stand the elders did not think much at all about the new generation suggesting they start a peach smoothie enterprise. “Too much trouble!” “Who would buy that?” You might imagine the conversations. However, the younger folks persisted and today they can hardly keep up with demand for their simple and healthful recipe. Brag!

Zucchini Storm

Couple years ago when hail hit this farm they found themselves with what seemed like thousands of hail damaged zucchini. They were quite concerned if they would recover any of their production costs. Well, they advertised “zucchini storm” in all sorts of variations and sold every last fruit. Funny, but today they find it as difficult as you do to market perfectly good zucchini. Brag!

All my kitchen knives went to New York city

Many years back people were just beginning to build the NY Green Market. This country family saw the market potential but had no experience of actually being in the city. They had heard all the terrible news on how dangerous NY could be. On their very first market day at a brand new site they took every kitchen knife they owned as protection from whatever it was they might find. Today, over 20 years later they can laugh at themselves. They not only helped start the NY Green Markets movement – they continue to enjoy the experience and benefit from their efforts. Brag!

Selling butterflies

Wouldn’t you know it! Just as the potted plants in the greenhouse are ready to market an infestation of

caterpillars eats all the leaves and makes the remaining sticks very unattractive. Not one to let an opportunity pass, these folks decided to market the potted sticks as “buy a butterfly”. They quickly sold every last plant they had, and to this day still hear from customers what a wonderful time their families had raising their own butterflies. Brag!

“When’s the baby due?”

‘nough said. Blunder!

It goes to show – an excellent opportunity might be right around the corner, or maybe not.


For a photo series on this year's Tour, visit Are You Crazy Tour 2014

Do Your Products Meet Your Customers' Values?

by Brian Moyer, Program Assistant, Lehigh Co.

Many times when we introduce our products to the marketplace,we don't always think about how our potential customers will view the product.  We may know how special our new product is, but how do we get that information to our customers?  An example might be trying to sell freezer beef in the local "Penny-Pincher" paper.  Most of that readership are looking for inexpensive purchases and might not respond well to the purchase price of a quarter or half of a beef.  On the other side, if your goal is to be the lowest priced sweet corn producer, an up-scale farmers' market might now be your best outlet.  Those customers might view your product as lower quality simply because you are offering a lower price than your competitors.  In both cases, neither is a good product-place match.

How surveyed consumers were categorized
based on their involvement in "sustainability."

The Hartman Group, who specialize in researching and understanding how consumer attitudes and behaviors lead to purchases, surveyed consumers about their involvement in "sustainability."  They identified four categories - reflected in the image to the right.  The "core" are those who are very involved (recycle, purchase local food, conserve energy, etc.).  The "periphery" reflects those who do not necessarily go out of their way to follow any kind of sustainable practices.

Notice the kind of language these groups use to reflect what they value or what is important to them when making purchases.  Words such as "transparency," "greater good," and "authenticity" are the values of the "core" and "inner mid-level" groups.  It's very similar to the language of the local food movement, so if you believe your product would be beneficial to this group, then think about where they might make their purchases or get their information and center your marketing efforts and materials on their values and shopping habits.

Values expressed by those surveyed regarding
their involvement in "sustainability"

"Price," "convenience," and "comparability" are words that are used here by the "periphery" group and most closely resemble what we might see in box stores and grocery stores.  If your product's benefits meet those customer needs then you will need to capture this group where they get their information and where they shop.

Now, think about where you think your product falls in here and does your promotional materials and language reflect that of the group of consumers you are trying to reach.  Let's say you raise grass-fed beef.  Maybe your customer base will lie within the "core" and "inner mid-level" group of consumers who are interested in a sustainable lifestyle and would most likely purchase your beef products.  You need to show how authentic your products are and that your values of farming reflect their values when making food purchases.

How some consumers may prefer to envision their
beef - "faceless" - yet still knowing how they were raised.

The picture to the right demonstrates some of those values that the customer may envision when purchasing your grass-fed beef.  The customer wants a high quality eating experience from beef raised on beautiful pastures.  The one thing you will notice missing from this ad is pictures of cows.  We as farmers are greatly interested in our animals, but the customer may not be.

Whether we share the same values as our customers isn't as important as making sure our products do.

Do You Know Your Customers?

by John Berry, Extension Educator, Lehigh Co.

Do you know who your customers are today; who they will be ten years from now?  Successful marketers do.  Consumers are constantly changing, from their ages and attitudes, to their incomes and ethnic mix.  In order to successfully meet consumers' wants and needs, we must anticipate and respond to them before a demand for a product or service even exists.

Plan to Keep in Touch

Email lists are one method of staying in contact
with your customers on a timely basis.

One key advantage of direct marketing is contact with customers.  People seek the personal attention that is available from most farm retailers.  The benefit to the grower/marketer is first-hand knowledge of customer wants.  Make the most of this direct customer contact.  At the very least; ask your customers to record their name, address, and email in a notebook that is kept near the check-out.  Also consider collecting other electronic media contacts customers may be utilizing.  Once a notebook is started, you now have a mailing list.  This can help maximize promotional efforts.

Customers will develop a personal connection to your market if they are kept informed.  Is opening day next week?  Is there a huge crop of melons coming ripe?  Why not send an announcement to your regular customers?  Offer a discount on quantity purchases.  This type of effort is well received.  It helps you move product and it establishes loyalty in your customers.

Try to Keep Ahead
One way to prepare for tomorrow is to study changes in consumer demographics.  What do households look like?  What do consumers like to do with their free time?  Which consumers have the highest disposable income?  What would they be willing to spend it on?  How are these factors expected to change in the future?

Planning for the future is usually a guess.  To increase the confidence in this guess, try to base it on as much fact as possible.  The amount of information already gathered and analyzed is staggering.  The local library, township authorities, the department of transportation, and your Extension office can be possible sources of trend information.

Did You Know?
Here are general statistics from the Census Bureau.  Remember, these are for the entire population.  Try to answer some of these questions with the data that is specific to your customers.  By the year 2015, households without children under 18 will outnumber those with kids by 14 million.  The projections for the types of households we can expect are as follows: Couples without children, 32%; Women living alone, 17%; Men living alone, 14%.

How might this impact your customers and their shopping behavior?  The average person spends less than 50 minutes a day preparing meals.  Those with a microwave oven spend 45 minutes, while those without a microwave spend 59 minutes.  Clean up time averaged 7.7 minutes each day.

How do you fit your product into microwave preparation and easy clean up?

Conclusion
I like doing what I know how to do, and I find adapting to change is seldom comfortable.  However, exceeding the demands of most retail consumers is a moving target.  Effective direct marketers learn to change and adapt.  The efficiency of adapting can be increased by considering the possible developments of the future before they arrive.  In the final spare moments we may have before the spring season is upon us - let's spend some time and effort developing a deeper understanding of what drives our current shoppers and developing a better guess of who our future customers might be.

Marketing "Sustainable Farming" to Consumers: A Research Review

A recent journal article by Hillary Sackett, Robert Shupp, and Glynn Tonsor includes results that may benefit some readers who are marketing products with a "sustainable" label.  I'll provide the short version here but you may be able to obtain a copy of the work from one of the authors.

Research Motivation & Background

Sustainable agriculture is often described as a farmer working to not only be profitable but also do no harm to the environment and the broader society.  This so-called "triple bottom line" is sometimes referred to as "Profit, People, Planet."  While many in the agriculture industry debate the term, sometimes strongly, it's clear that a segment of consumers make purchases based on their perceptions of sustainability and the practices that make a farm sustainable.  Food marketers need to understand these consumers in order to target promotional efforts accurately.

The researchers used an internet survey to gather feedback from 1,002 people in 2010.  There were two different versions of the survey; one for apples and one for beef.  For each, ten different characteristics of sustainability were defined.  These characteristics reflected 6 production practices, some of which were different between apples and beef.  (For example, one practice for beef was "prohibited use of antibiotics" and one practice for apples was "limited herbicide use.")  Using a method called "Best-Worst Scaling," the researchers repeatedly asked respondents to choose the most and least important options from a group that included six of the ten total characteristics.  By answering this type of question a number of times, with different groupings, the respondent's preferences become clear.

The researchers analyzed the data to determine the relative importance of each of these characteristics.  They did this first for the entire group of respondents and then they used a tool called "latent class cluster analysis" to group similar types of respondents.  The benefit of this type of tool is that the data naturally group themselves rather than the researchers providing their best judgment to group the respondents.  The researchers then explore the clusters to understand the factors that differentiate the clusters.  The results for both types of analysis are useful for marketers!

Primary Findings

Overall, the size of the farm was ranked significantly higher than any other characteristics for both apples and beef.  The factor related to "locally-grown" was ranked 2nd for beef and 4th for apples.  A full set of results is shown below.

Ranked preferences for measures of sustainability on apple and beef farms

The numbers in parentheses show the level of the preference among all respondents.  These can be compared against each other.  Therefore, small farms is nearly twice as important than the second option for both apples and beef.

The latent-class cluster analysis then provided four distinct groups of respondents for apples and five distinct groups for beef.  These are described below.

Apple Cluster Groups

1. Localvores - 14% of respondents fell into a grouping that heavily valued local production.  These also valued minimal herbicide use and preventive/cultural pest control.
2. Small Business Enthusiasts - 30% fell into a group that placed heavy value on farm size and financial stability of the farm.  These also valued several of the production practices roughly evenly.
3. Price-Savvy Shoppers - 10% were consistently most concerned with food prices.
4. Sustainably Indifferent - 46% placed roughly equal weight on the characteristics.  It is not possible to discern whether these respondents care little or greatly about these characteristics; only that they care roughly equally about them.

Beef Cluster Groups

1. Animal Rights Activists - 15% place a great amount of weight on animal safety and pasture-based feed.
2. Nutrition Buffs - 24% place a great deal of importance on limited antibiotic use, growth hormones, and pasture-based feed.
3. Price-Savvy Shoppers - 10% indicate that price is the leading concern.
4. Sustainably Indifferent - 41% fell into this group, as described above.
5. Say No to GMOs - 10% placed full weight on the prohibition of genetically modified livestock.

Putting These Results to Work

The results of this work provide a bit of insight for the food marketer.  Assuming the apple-related results are applicable to other fruits, or maybe produce in general, you can see that themes of "small farms," "Integrated Pest Management," "local," and other production-oriented descriptors could be used in your marketing and promotional materials/websites/social media outlets.  The same could be done for beef (and possibly other meats) based on the beef results.

The research also does a nice job of segmenting the markets.  Based on my readings, I suspect that most of those in the "Sustainably Indifferent" groups are not actively seeking sustainably-grown products.  Of course, the "Price-Savvy Shoppers" are also not in the target market.  Therefore, the article provides some insights into why the others are in the market for sustainably-produced foods.  For apples, some consumers are most interested in buying local.  Others want to support small businesses, whether local or not.  For beef, some are most concerned about animal rights or non-GMOs while others view sustainable products as more healthy.

Use these and other related phrases on your labels as well as your promotional materials.  It should help you connect more deeply with your customers as you hone in on what concerns them the most.  Good luck!

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"Consumer Perceptions of Sustainable Farming Practices: A Best-Worst Scenario." (2013) Agricultural and Resource Economics Review. 42(2) pp. 275-290.

Don't Get Left in the Cold. Use Social Media to Connect with Your Customers!

With sixty-five percent (65%) of internet users using social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and others (Pew Internet, 2011), social media can justifiably be considered a legitimate marketing tool by businesses large and small.  In fact, in a survey by Chief Marketer, 92% of respondents indicated that they either were using or planned to use social media for marketing of their brands.

Farmers and small ag business owners shouldn't overlook the power that social media tools provide in connecting with consumers.  Surveys conducted by two of my colleagues, Kathy Kelley and Jeff Hyde, in May 2010 with consumers who used social media, found that over 30% of respondents expected farmers' market/on-farm markets and U-Pick operations to have Facebook presence.  Consumers' expected use of Twitter and blogs by these types of ag businesses hovered around 20%.  I would expect that surveyed again two and a half years later, we would see these results, or expectations, to be higher yet.

Consumers' Expected Internet Presence by Type of Food Business

But having a social media presence, or profile, on any of these tools isn't enough.  You need to provide consumers with a reason to "like" or follow your business.  When questioned on why they connect with businesses on social media, approximately 60% of the individuals responding to Kelley and Hyde's survey indicated that they did so to learn about new products/direction of the business, while almost half wanted to learn about sales before the general public.

Expectations by Consumers who Follow Businesses on Social Networks

We see that the evidence exists that consumers expect ag and food businesses to exist on social networks, as well as to provide them with things that they value in return for following them.  You probably also have your own reasons, or objectives, for committing to developing and sustaining a social media presence for your business.  By developing a social media strategy, you can ensure that you, and your followers, get what you need from a social media relationship.

If you own, or are involved with, a farm or small ag business in Pennsylvania, and want to jump into the world of social media with a guiding hand, Penn State Extension can help.  Come to one of three scheduled Social Media Boot Camps for Ag Businesses.  These two-day workshops will give you a hands-on opportunity to develop Facebook, Twitter, and foursquare/Yelp profiles, as well as mapping out your personal social media marketing objectives and strategy.