Ag Marketers Have More in Common with CPG Marketers Than You Might Think
There certainly are some big differences between marketing ag products to farmers and CPG (consumer packaged goods) marketing. Ag sales cycles are longer, personal relationships are important, and the buying process happens with more rational involvement than with household products. Plus, ag marketers and buyers need a deep understanding of the many economic and environmental complexities surrounding the ag industry, and marketing messages can be very technical. The characteristics of CPG marketing are the opposite. Product relationships are established via a creative branding lens and there’s a greater focus on emotionally based stories.
FARMERS TRUST THEIR GUTS. FEED THEM.
That being said, the digital age is blurring many behaviors that traditionally have separated farmer and consumer purchase journeys. While consumers are spending more time collecting more information on even the simplest of purchases, access to precision ag data is enabling farmers to spend less time between first interaction with a product and a purchase decision. Along the way, farmers’ instinctual investment in decisions is increasing because intuition help the brain process information overload. In an age when more information is moving faster than ever before, ag marketers should look to consumer-focused brand management and marketing to connect with farmers on a gut level as well as a rational one by embracing the branding strategies and some of the creative ingredients that CPG campaigns are famous for.
Standing Out Starts With What You Stand For
Branding doesn’t start and end with a logo or a slogan; it’s the process of creating and communicating what a brand stands for -- why it’s unique and worth caring about. Branding shapes perceptions by connecting with people on a gut level. A brand with an attractive identity brings a face and voice to a product, which makes it more relatable and memorable, just like a person. In addition to a product’s credibility and reliability, this emotional component is essential to building trust between buyer and seller.
Ironically, the biggest CPG conglomerates make their branding as simple as possible; to stand out, ag companies should do the same. The most memorable marketing messages are clear and cohesive because they are based on a very focused positioning triangle:
Who do you really want to talk to? The more you refine the target audience, the more emotional insights you’ll reveal that you can leverage in your favor. Go beyond ‘who they are’ and ‘where they are’ by uncovering what makes them tick and what drives their decisions.
What mental “sticky note” do you need to delete? Brands exist in the mind. Go beyond ‘share-of-market’ to think in terms of ‘share-of-mind’ to identify what competitors stand for and, therefore, the narrative in the customers’ mind that you need to change and/or control.
How will you beat them? What existing emotional “tension” -- customer frustration or contrasting competitive ideology -- can be dramatized by a creative idea that puts the customer at the center of the action. Branding is a response to a problem rather than a solution so, while there’s truth to the adage, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door,” the best marketing messages leave enough room in the trap for the mouse!
It Is A Personality Contest
While consumer-focused marketing messages are getting increasingly more “real” with their audiences, many ag marketers are missing out on the opportunity to grow their brands, and businesses, in personal ways. It would be beneficial in today’s ag environment if customers were able to not only glean information about what the product offers but gained insights into the values that are important for the company as expressed through brand personality. Like a person, the more a product is associated with values, the more it will be Relevant, Original, and Impactful. And that spells marketing R.O.I.