Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover
Before we can accept a new idea, or get interested in a new product, we have to relax our hold on our old thinking. Sirius Decisions, in describing a generic buying journey describes this as “loosening the status quo”. As Agri-marketers, my observation based on dealing with organizations across the ag spectrum is that we all consistently need to work at loosening the status quo in a particular manner. Whether you grew up on a farm, are a farmer, or maybe come from an urban or suburban background, you are carrying a “mental model” of your farmer customer. Don’t worry – that’s not an insult. As humans, we form these mental models as a way to make sense of the world around us and to prevent cognitive overload. The problem is that in most cases, these models are un-examined – they are formed subconsciously and yet exert remarkable influence over our day to day thinking. Our mental model of our customer is probably the single most important (work related) concept that we carry with us - yet we seldom pause to evaluate it - in other words, we judge the book by its cover. Anyone who has spent anytime interacting with people has a story or two to tell about “not judging a book by its cover”.
“These models are formed subconsciously and yet exert remarkable influence over our day to day thinking”
One of my favorite experiences to tell (because it wasn’t as embarrassing as some I could tell) took place before an “ad testing” focus group I ran years ago at a location on the high plains. Now first off, I have to tell you that moderating ad testing groups has never been my favorite activity – too many farmers voicing their automatic assumptions about how advertising doesn’t work, doesn’t matter and costs far too much. So when my first attendee arrived in the hotel meeting room and asked me “what’s this meeting about?” I was already primed to be a bit nervous about the answer. My concerns were greatly magnified by his appearance and what I knew from the recruiting screener – large scale in every way - a stand in for Paul Bunyan if only Bunyan wore a John Deere cap. 70 years old. Six foot 5 and with hands that looked like they could disassemble a combine without the use of tools – not to mention a somewhat curmudgeonly manner in his speaking style. You know the type don’t you? I don’t remember exactly what I said, probably something about “reviewing some product marketing material, scrupulously avoiding the term “advertising”. His response couldn’t have surprised me more: “so I guess that means I don’t get a chance to draw more pictures”. Not sure that I had heard him correctly, I pressed him for what he meant. It seems that the only other focus group he had attended had involved an exercise where the participants had been asked to draw a picture as part of a re-branding that a local retailer was undertaking. “I really enjoyed that,” he said, followed by the icing on the cake: “and then we got to talk about our feelings”. So here is my point. We need to loosen the status quo when it comes to the stereotypes of farmers that we all carry. When it comes to personality types and motivations, farmers are an incredibly diverse lot - and that represents an opportunity to the savvy marketer!
Check out our white paper: Farmer Identity and Decision Making for more about how understanding the different motivations of farmers can make you a more effective marketer.
