Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Market research using consultancy companies that specialize in this area
can be expensive. It may be the right decision to use such a business, but we
would advise two other techniques to find out what potential guests want:
•
Produce tasting sessions. Taking produce to the farmers' market and
getting customers to taste the produce allows producers to engage with
consumers. An engaged consumer will be prepared to talk about a mar-
keting plan and help develop the strategy. It allows the business to get to
understand and know potential customers;
•
Focus groups. We are advocates of focus groups as it allows a business to
really start to understand the potential customer. In our experience the
ideal focus group is between
15
and
20
consumers who gather in a
semi-formal situation and brainstorm the ideas being presented. Be pre-
pared to provide refreshments, but we believe that guests should not be
paid; you may wish to provide them with a gift token to spend on your
product or provide a produce hamper, but do not pay them. Paid guests
may not give you the answers you really want.
There is very little information on how industry members market their
business. The best model is to look at the independent garden centres. In the
USA in 2013, the Readex Research
6
report identified that businesses were
using the following methods:
•
71% of garden centres used websites;
•
68% social media sites;
•
63% relied on word of mouth;
•
53% e-mails;
•
34% radio;
•
31% workshops in-house;
•
28% hosting events;
•
27% direct mail;
•
18% TV commercials;
•
7% other.
As can be seen, there is a wide range of marketing and advertising tools
being used to get the message across.
Interruption versus Permission Marketing
There are two styles of marketing: interruption and permission marketing.
Interruption marketing is where you have to interrupt what the consumer is
doing to get your message across; an example of this is a TV commercial that
interrupts the viewing of a TV programme. Permission marketing is where
the consumer gives the business permission to market to them; social media
marketing is a great example of this. A business needs a combination of both
techniques to ensure they get the message across.
The challenge is how much money and time to allocate to each type of
marketing. Our advice is that 60% of the marketing budget should be focused
