Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Create the experience
Consumers need more than just produce sellers. Consumers attend farmers'
markets for the experience as well. They are looking for entertainment as
well as food. They are also looking for education and one of the key per-
formance indicators is how long the consumer lingers at the market. We are
aware of markets where consumers just go to do the weekly shop and leave.
However, there are other markets that become true local community hubs
and tourist attractions, with locals and tourists spending half a day at the
market and enjoying the experience.
One of the questions we are often asked is how often should a market
be held.
We know towns that have two markets a week, weekly, two-weekly and
monthly markets. Consumers buy weekly so they should have access to a
market every week, two in the same week is overdoing it. Ideally the market
should be in the same location and preferably in the town centre rather than
a location outside of the retail hub.
In smaller communities we can see the logic in rotating the market
around local towns. Remember farmers' markets are retailing experiences
and the rules of retailing apply to the market. The following tips should be
implemented by farmers' market managers to develop profitable retail skills
by a farmers' market stallholder.
It was Tom Peters,
3
the American management guru, who is quoted as
saying 'If you are still doing what you are doing now, in five years' time your
business will be dead.' This is as true for farmers' markets as it is for other
businesses. Retailing in farmers' markets is changing too.
Who shops at farmers' markets?
Successful farmers' markets take a close look at who they are trying to at-
tract. What do they look like? We do not mean how do they dress, but how
old are they? In the western world, in marketing terms consumers are split
into a number of generational marketing segments. These are:
•
Spoodles: 0 to
5
year olds;
•
Pester Power:
5
to
10
year olds;
•
Generation Y/Millennials: born 1985 to 2004;
•
Generation X: born 1965 to 1984;
•
Jones Generation: born 1955 to 1964;
•
Baby Boomers: born 1945 to 1955;
•
Greying Tigers/Silent Generation: born 1925 to 1944.
Today, the generation with the most spending power in society in most
countries is Generation X. The generation that is most price-conscious is the
Greying Tigers. To be successful you need to appeal to Generation X up-
wards, but we have been to some farmers' markets where the average age
of consumers has been in the sixties and they have had a desperate need to
