It's About The Farmer - Not The Farm

ARTICLE #2 OF 7 IN “REFRAMING AGRIMARKETING”

This blog post is part of a series originally posted with Quarry Integrated Communications.

On the road to customer-centricity, agricultural marketers need to overcome the tendency to mistake the farmer for the farm. Or, to put a finer point on it, for thinking that the quantifiable aspects of a farm are inherently insightful of the farmer.

To explain, let me offer a scenario that arises too often. A marketer is asked to describe his or her target customer segment. And the response includes mention of the farm size, the farm revenue or the crop types.

But there’s no mention of the farmer and his or her buying journey. Yet, ag marketers often fall into the trap of accepting the status quo and happily nod their heads in situations like this, as if this approach to segmentation is meaningful.

One of the “big ideas” in customer-centricity is the need to understand and map the customer’s buying journey. In ag marketing, that means recognizing that the farmer isn’t the sum-total of his or her farm. The farm information we collect in our databases is really only context for understanding the farmer. 

In today’s world, we know that farmers have completed the biggest portion of their buying journey before they engage with an ag marketer or retailer. They ask their neighbours. They ask agronomists. They consult Google. They engage in other information gatherings of which we have no inkling. And they synthesize this information from their own unique perspective and through their own unique emotional outlook. That’s the buyers’ journey and we need to understand it. 

The cause of the farm-focused status quo is historical and the result of the best of intentions. When ag marketers were just starting their segmentation efforts, they took the data at hand and created databases. You have to start somewhere. At the time, the most accessible data typically came from retail partners and rebate programs. And perhaps in a product-centric world, this made sense. 

But in a customer-centric world, we need to remember that categorization is not segmentation. We need to move beyond this perspective. Let’s talk about the person, not the things they own and use.