Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Texas consumers also said they preferred a weekly Saturday market,
24.6% said it should be a morning market and 18% wanted an afternoon
market.
Consumers visit a farmers' market for the experience and therefore the
farm market brand is critical to the market's success. A brand is not a logo; it
is not even what management say it is. It is about the people, experience and
the whole package. A brand is a unique identification of the business from
the consumers' perspective.
According to research carried out by Martin Lindstrom in
2005,
6
a cus-
tomers' memorable journey is based on:
•
Sight: 58% of those surveyed thought this was critically important;
•
Smell: 45% of those surveyed thought this was critical;
•
Sound: 41% thought this was important;
•
Taste: 31% thought this was important;
•
Touch: 25% thought this was important.
We must stress this research was carried out across a wide area of re-
tailing. If it had been done in a farmers' market we expect that taste would
have had a higher score. However, it does highlight how important all the
elements of the senses are in creating the best experience for the visitor.
The position of the baker and fishmonger can affect the total experience for
the consumer.
Market stall skills
Retail is detail and it is always the little things stallholders do that make the
big differences. The following tips from our e-book '
27
Ways to improve Your
Farmers Market Stall'
7
are literally that; they are tips that can make a big dif-
ference to the bottom line.
1.
Catch the wave
Farmers may not think they are in the fashion industry, but we would argue
that they are.
Consumers want suppliers to be in tune with them, their desires, needs
and to know what they feel is important. Producers have to put themselves
in the shoes of a
35-
year-old female consumer and ask what that shopper
would want the supplier to do.
Waves are constantly rolling in, but are always changing.
They also come from some unexpected places, for example, 10 days
before Christmas 2006 Jonathon Ross, a chat show host on UK evening tele-
vision, introduced his guest Nigella Lawson, one of the UK's leading ce-
lebrity chefs. As he introduced her live on TV, he mentioned that when
he was a child his mother roasted potatoes covered in goose fat and that
he felt it was the best way to roast potatoes. He asked where he could get
some goose fat.
