A common rookie mistake when marketing to farmers
Farmers are not a generic, homogenous group. If you’re new to the ag business, you, like many first-time ag marketers, may assume that farmers are a homogeneous group. After all, farmers only represent one percent of the population. Once you peel away the demographics layer, how different can they really be? Very different in terms ... Read More
Focusing on focus groups and IDIs minimizes the benefit of other important information
With so many options to investigate and aggregate information, market research enables us to communicate directly with our target audience and determine exactly what they prefer ... Read More
The benefits of benchmarking: what regular assessment means in ag marketing
Performance metrics can make the difference. Agronomists continually run trials to determine which products best serve any number of production challenges. Trials are run annually in the same crops and in the ... Read More
Investigating the role of secondary research
Does order matter in market research? When we think of market research, we think of focus groups of individuals giving their opinions about a product, while a strategically placed mirror hides a group of marketers and brand managers recording every conversation for nuggets that generate exactly what they want to hear. And that’s not too ... Read More
How does the gut instinct factor into farming
When marketing to farmers, what does your gut tell you? Some call it intuition, others call it the pit of your stomach, and everyone can feel the effects of it. What we’re referring to is your gut instinct. As Today’s Farm reports, farmers have traditionally relied on their gut instinct to make important decisions, based ... Read More
Top 10 metrics to measure when marketing to farmers
What to measure to make your marketing effective. We recently discussed that both quality and quantity matter when it comes to metrics. Farmers and the ag industry have unique needs and spend considerably more time in the field than their counterparts outside of ag. The various types of metrics to collect are more objective and ... Read More
Evaluation: determining value might be more than a numbers game when marketing to farmers
Quality and quantity are equally important when it comes to metrics. Yield is a farmer’s output, but as marketers and brand stewards, what is ours? If we are successful, it is the partnership of a farmer with our brand. A more likely outcome is that we have had some impact of recognition, and farmers know ... Read More
The importance of scientific credibility when marketing to farmers
Giving credit to your sources will have a lasting effect. Farming is increasingly reliant on science and new discoveries. From herbicide-tolerant traits to building fully-automated dairies, farming has become contingent upon the brightest of minds. And the key to communicating this science to farmers is credibility. Credibility is built through research, trials, peer reviews and ... Read More
Data Science doesn’t have to be hard when marketing to farmers
All I ever needed to know about Data Science I learned in Driver’s Ed. A few years ago, Harvard Business Review called Data Science “The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century”. Since then, Data Science has moved front and center in almost every industry with the promise of being able to turn mountains of data ... Read More
Don’t stop marketing to farmers during a downturn
Farmers expect you to ride through recessions with them, and need assurance you are there for the long haul. Recessions don’t last forever. But the damage marketers may inflict on their brands during a recession could. When markets go down and stay down, companies hunker to weather the sagging economy. We see it in this ... Read More
