Transcript
Alexis: Hello, welcome to the wild, weird, and wonderful podcast that is Hort Culture. We're here today doing wild, weird, and wonderful things.
Plant People: And it's, as always, we're very consistent on that front.
Jessica : as As we do.
Plant People: We're very, very consistent.
Alexis: If you're new to the podcast, that that'll get you going in the right way. So we just like to talk about plants, things that relate to them, and all their wild, weird, and wonderful things. So that's that's my new tagline today, which is perfect because we're going to talk about branding. So look at ah look at me. I'm branding it.
Plant People: You are, you're starting out strong on track.
Alexis: Branding the episode. Wild, weird, and wonderful.
Plant People: You are, you tracking this morning.
Jessica : Connected it all together.
Alexis: Look at that transition. Beautiful.
Plant People: I know.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: That's perfect. And the sun is shining. It is a beautiful weather out.
Jessica : It is.
Plant People: It's going to be a warm day. we got just a little rain, but in Kentucky, we hope that we just get incremental rains perfectly spaced in the spring, which sometimes doesn't happen.
Alexis: yeah not flood level rains. Yeah. Yeah.
Plant People: Doesn't happen always.
Alexis: Respectful rains as I like to call them.
Plant People: Yes.
Alexis: Nice, respectful rains.
Plant People: Rain rains that respect us.
Jessica : Yes, a respectful rain.
Plant People: Yes. I don't know. Sometimes rains come and they're very district disrespectful. We've had some of those in the last month or two.
Alexis: Disrespectful. Usually the wind is just very disrespectful at my house. You walk outside and I'm like, disrespect.
Plant People: So says the person with high tunnels. Yeah. Yeah.
Alexis: Yeah.
Jessica : Yeah.
Alexis: Yeah. Very disrespectful.
Plant People: There's a completely different take from people that have high tunnels about a, um, a poo bear day, kind of a blustery day.
Jessica : Yes.
Plant People: Uh, you guys don't necessarily like those in the hundred acre wood when you have, uh, frames covered with plastic.
Alexis: Uber day that's adorable. Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Uh, you don't necessarily like those poo bear days, blustery days. So, yeah, but I do appreciate the warmer weather. It seems like everything is growing so rapidly and, ah Lots of things are blooming.
Jessica : Everything's so green right now.
Plant People: Yeah, it is.
Alexis: and
Plant People: um I guess the word is lush.
Jessica : i love it.
Plant People: Everything is so lush right now.
Jessica : And all yeah the leaves, like it's just like overnight. like Some of the leaves have all come out. And it's like, everything is so green.
Plant People: I was walking with my son and he's like, oh, that he said the the woods are getting shady.
Alexis: I, uh,
Jessica : The grass is growing.
Plant People: And I was like, yeah, there's actually leaves getting on here, bud. He's like, it looks so mysterious. I'm like, yeah, good to be observant.
Alexis: it's that time of year where you like pass a tree and you're like, is it yellow green because of nutrient deficiency or is it yellow green because those are new leaves?
Plant People: It's new growth, just new growth.
Alexis: Yeah. I ah catch myself going, wait a second. Okay. That's an Oak. It just would have leafed out. It's probably fine. Yeah.
Plant People: It's fine.
Jessica : We were talking about that, about like certain ones.
Plant People: It is not cirrhosis.
Jessica : i'm like, I'm watching my baby bur oak. Nothing has happened. Are you alive? What's going on?
Alexis: from
Jessica : And it's like, oh, wait, it's it's still OK.
Alexis: Please be alive.
Jessica : The walnuts are still like looking dead.
Alexis: Yeah.
Jessica : They haven't done anything yet.
Alexis: they're They're barely starting.
Jessica : And that's normal.
Alexis: Right.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Right.
Plant People: Some things, that they just don't all come out at the same time.
Alexis: It's fine. Everything's fine.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Good for them taking an extra long nap.
Plant People: Some of them are late, late comers to spring.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah. Resting, resting for spring.
Jessica : Mm hmm.
Plant People: But I enjoy all the activities. I have got to get my garden started. I have to carry containers. I've decided to move my all of my containers, my large containers that are filled with soil. I've been trying to find a dry time because when it's dry, they're lighter in weight.
Alexis: Hmm.
Plant People: I need to move all of those up a rather steep hill to a more sunny location. And it's going to be a chore, but it's time. It is time. Not necessarily to plan everything because it's not derby day in Kentucky, but we're getting close.
Jessica : very close
Plant People: We're getting close for for common garden crops. So that is my task for sometime this week to try to get that done.
Alexis: I feel that.
Plant People: It is a springtime task.
Brett: Well, I mean, this year feels like you could have planted them almost April 15th.
Alexis: I feel that.
Brett: And I think.
Plant People: Yeah. I mean, and I'm afraid my neighbor's going to get ahead of me. We have this tomato war thing going on.
Brett: Uh-oh.
Plant People: and And if he gets ahead of me, I mean, I am not going to be happy. I'll just have to go buy one of those little tomato plants that are tiny and already blooming that's in a hanging container. I normally wouldn't recommend that to anybody, but just anything to get ahead, anything to get ahead.
Alexis: Mm-mm-mm. Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater.
Plant People: But some years, yeah, we could have already planted mid-April, but other years in Kentucky. I'm glad we're in the future. We're going to have Matt Dixon on. Talking about the weather here on the next episode.
Jessica : ah be good.
Plant People: I'm really excited about that because I'm not going to place any blame, but I'm like, man, is it safe to put my stuff out? I'm not going to hold them to that.
Alexis: I know I really want to pull my frost cloth out of everywhere and I'm like scared to do it because I'm like i'm gonna jinx it we're gonna if I pull it out we're gonna have a frost.
Plant People: Yeah. Don't do it.
Plant People: It's good.
Jessica : Right.
Plant People: all what are We've mentioned this before on the podcast. It's all the winters that we have in Kentucky. Blackberry, Redbud, and you know there's you know these names that we give these late cold snaps.
Plant People: But yeah, and we may not be out of the woods just yet.
Alexis: a
Plant People: So maybe we want to leave those on for little bit.
Alexis: name that song are we out of the woods yet um but we're talking about branding thing which we haven't talked about like like a marketing topic in a little while so i'm excited because i always pick up something new from brett uh every time we talk about it but brett tell us a little bit about what you've you and the rest of the ccd team have been up to lately
Plant People: Yeah, I like it.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Brett: Nothing per usual.
Plant People: Nothing pretty. It's springtime in Kentucky, so you've not been super busy traveling all over the place.
Alexis: boring
Brett: We don't do anything.
Plant People: Yeah, not doing anything.
Brett: No, um no, we do. We've been doing a good number of things, but one of them that but ah last night we completed the first of six week series that it's actually the evolution of this project we've we've had for a while called them called Marketing for All, which is aiming to meet the needs of people in the intro beginner to maybe intermediate marketing um category.
Brett: People who are thinking about trying to sell their crops, because one of the things that we tend to see, maybe you all have experienced this as as agents and your experience in the counties that people are very enthusiastic about growing things.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Brett: They are less enthusiastic about taking the steps necessary to sell the things. And it's, you know...
Plant People: Yeah, yeah, a lot of times. And not maybe giving the proper consideration to the potential market before we grow things. We can often grow things that we may not necessarily have the channels developed yet to sell.
Plant People: So yeah, great point.
Jessica : hu
Plant People: I'm sure that you had lots of good discussion from participants in your latest round of programs. I'm sure about that.
Brett: Yeah. Well, so, you know, it's, it's not a, unfortunately there's not a, um, field of dreams or market garden or garden of dreams situation where if you grow it, they will come.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: You have to tell them to, to come and buy the stuff and why they should and why it's, why it's good, and, and worth their time and meant and money to do that. And so that's been, you know, an ongoing program since 2017.
Brett: Um, but it's taken different forms. And so this most recent version of it where,
Plant People: um
Brett: ah My colleagues, Emily and Savannah and Camille have ah really taken on more of a leadership role in developing and and putting this out. And ah it's this new version. It used to be that we would do kind of one-off trainings. you know You want to hear about social media, we'll come out and talk about that. Or you want to hear about pricing at retail markets, we can talk about that using some price data.
Brett: This is more of a holistic series where we're actually working through some different things different topics over six weeks with the same people each week.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: And so it's a more of a commitment for them and more of a commitment for us, but it was really, really cool. And so we were talking about what we wanted to maybe talk about on the, on the podcast and maybe just because it's been on my mind.
Brett: I said, why don't we talk about this thing that's been on my mind, ah which is
Alexis: yeah
Brett: this program. And so um there's a number of different modules I'm thinking maybe across time we can have some of the other CCD team members come on and talk about the some of the different ones.
Brett: But we opened up the series talking about just this core idea of farm and business branding.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: The reason why we did that is because um it's kind of the, in an ideal world, it's the defining message, vibe, visual ethos, value system, et cetera, upon which all the things that you're going to do, your photographs and your social media and your website will be built.
Plant People: Now, wait a minute.
Brett: And so
Plant People: I thought you were just selling products. Now we're talking about branding bread.
Brett: Talking about branding.
Plant People: That sounds like a lot more work. That sounds like a lot more work.
Brett: Yeah. And not at the cattle kind.
Plant People: Okay. Okay.
Brett: This is a painless. Well, I don't know if it's painless, but it doesn't require heating metal, uh, So the, but the idea here is that like, what's, what is the central definition of what your business is? and And I was talking, we were talking before about how, and I stand by this, a lot of marketing, the actual individual steps are very, very simple.
Brett: I think with gardening, it's kind of similar with, you know, growing, growing plants. A lot of the individual steps are, so are simple. It's just in aggregate. what you're trying to do becomes complex because you have to balance all of them at the same time.
Alexis: Yeah.
Brett: There's competing interests, there's memory, limits of memory and energy and interest and all the other things associated with that. But I was thinking about your marketing plan and our approach to marketing for all.
Brett: It's sort of like, do we have any Power Rangers fans in the house?
Alexis: Weep, weep.
Plant People: Everybody likes the red one now.
Alexis: Weep, weep.
Brett: oh
Plant People: yeah
Brett: Okay. Well,
Alexis: I mean, not everybody.
Jessica : Did you not pretend you were a Power Ranger on the playground when you were in elementary school?
Plant People: Okay.
Alexis: Were you a Power Ranger for Halloween? Like...
Brett: Yes.
Alexis: they
Brett: Multiple times.
Plant People: that Many times.
Jessica : Well, now, what what was your color?
Alexis: Okay, but what color were you?
Brett: I was the Green Ranger and then I was the White Ranger because I'm a bit special.
Alexis: Solid.
Jessica : oh of course.
Alexis: ahh
Plant People: Oh, white.
Jessica : Of course.
Alexis: Oh, look at you, new age.
Jessica : of course
Plant People: Okay. Okay.
Alexis: Yeah. Yeah.
Plant People: Apparently that was a very, very strong marketing for Power Rangers.
Brett: I'm not like one of the four basic ones. I'm more of like, you know...
Alexis: ah
Plant People: I mean, we're bringing it back up. It's still... on our mind, in our mind space.
Brett: Go, go Power Rangers.
Plant People: Yes.
Brett: o
Plant People: bringing up Bringing it back, man.
Brett: um But the marketing plan is like so that each individual component is sort of like the Zords that each of them had.
Alexis: e
Brett: And then the marketing plan itself is the Megazord when it all comes together.
Jessica : yeah
Alexis: Right, right. Okay.
Brett: It's, the you know, this newer audiences would maybe, you know, associate something with like a Gundam, you know, from ah from Japanese um ah
Plant People: Anime type.
Brett: yeah ah media.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: um So I may think of it as, a you know, yeah.
Plant People: Or like the A-team. You love it when a plan comes together for those of you of the sort.
Brett: Or Transformer or something like that. I don't know.
Plant People: Yes. All the references.
Brett: Transformer is not, it's kind of a stretch. I feel like the Zord is really the core that there's all these components, but... the the whole idea of your brand is what that Megazord is supposed to look like when all those pieces go together, because you can theoretically assemble them in all different kinds of ways.
Brett: And this is where the metaphor breaks down. um But that
Plant People: So brand is more than just ah what you're selling. It's more than just a product. Is that what you're saying here?
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Brett: it It is, and it will should inform everything that you're doing after that that. That's the key step because sometimes people will sort of sit think, okay, i you know I know I have to do social media, so I'm just going to go, quote, do social media, or I need to have a website, so I'm just going to go have a website.
Brett: And to me, the the brand, the thinking about your branding, while it's sometimes with the most abstract or the most difficult to consider, It's worthwhile to spend some time thinking about what makes you, your product and your business unique and special. And some of that is self-reflection of, you know, like, for instance, our podcast, as Alexis said, has a has a brand.
Brett: Part of that's based on who we are as people, that we're both kind of nerdy. We're friends where we think we're funny and some some subset of our.
Jessica : I was going to say, we think we're funny.
Brett: Audience thinks that.
Plant People: We found ourselves amusing.
Brett: But we're also more interested, I think, in trying to have a podcast feel to the podcast than just being a straight ahead, you know, ah promoting university or something like that.
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Brett: And all of that was very intentional, to how we developed this and how we approach it and how we bring on guests and and talk with them. And we get feedback from guests saying, i didn't know what to expect. And I'd never been on a podcast like that before.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Brett: And that is really rewarding for us. So, I mean, all all that to say that there is something, some aspects that you will are going to need to reflect on who you are and what you're doing.
Jessica : h
Brett: Just be you know honest about your nature. And then some of it, it can be intentional that you want to create ah association of your product being family friendly, or you want to create ah an association of your product being particularly healthy or your product, you know, that maybe your approach to pesticides is something that you want to commic communicate in your brand.
Plant People: Thank you.
Alexis: Yeah.
Brett: And so, yeah, I mean, I think it's, ah it sometimes people struggle with this or it feels frustrating, um but it really is going to determine the what it is that you take pictures of, what it is that you create posts about, what it is that you, how it is that you feature, you know, are you a
Alexis: yeah
Brett: a bright and sparkly personality and you want that to come through? or are you more of a, you know, efficient, um ah less, you know, less touchy feely person and you're it more't keeping your focus focus more on your product attributes or something like that?
Brett: Well, those, those, a website for those two brands could look radically different. um And so, yeah, so that's, that's, I would say why this is important and why we started there.
Plant People: It's almost like, ah and I'm sure there's to develop that.
Alexis: makes sense.
Plant People: I mean, do you ever work with folks, Brett, you and the CCD team, ah that they have to really, that that they don't really know what their brand identity is and they've never really thought about in those terms?
Jessica : You
Plant People: Do you run into a lot of people that they have the growing experience, but they have really, really never sat down and done a storyboard on who they are, what they are, and what they're all about?
Brett: Yes.
Plant People: Yeah. I just, I wonder, I mean, you mentioned earlier that, ah you know, and ah I run into people that are really passionate about growing, but I had a feeling that you guys probably worked with a lot of people that sometimes they may not know what their brand is.
Alexis: Big yes. Yeah.
Brett: Well, yeah and part of it too is that there are people who come to this world from, oh I was in marketing or I worked in retail and decided I wanted to get out and get into farming.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : Thank you.
Brett: And so they're figuring out how to grow plants. or how to grow, you know how to have livestock or how to you know do that stuff.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Brett: Then there are other people who come to it from, I really want to grow plants and my habit has, or sorry, my hobby has ah become a habit that I have to continue feeding through some sort of income.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: So how do I basically do, how do I get people to give me money for this with as little work as possible?
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : Thank you.
Plant People: I like that.
Brett: That's kind of the orientation some people have.
Plant People: ah like that a lot. Yeah. Yeah.
Brett: And then most people fall somewhere in the middle between those two things. And so, yes, when when you come and talk to someone like ah my colleague, Emily, or someone like, even like me, or someone like Alexis,
Brett: who have thought about this or are in some ways for for, and we are on a different spectrum of how natural it is for us versus how you know intentional or or how much you have to turn it into an exercise.
Brett: Some people are just naturally creative in that way. In the same way that some people are naturally seem to have a green thumb, they just sort of have a connection to the plant in a way that I don't know.
Jessica : you
Brett: it just
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: But I think a lot of this stuff can be learned But but it's intimidating if you don't if if all you've ever experienced is that marketing is something that's natural that people do. And so, for instance, I'll give you an example.
Brett: If I just ask you, what what is your brand? It become that's kind of an intimidating big question. But we have like, for instance, as part of this ah this presentation and this program that our our team puts puts on.
Brett: this idea of this brand builder worksheet that we have people complete. And so we ask them um that if you're thinking about your brand and you had to put it on ah on a spectrum between these two variables that I'm going to give you, where would it fall on that?
Jessica : you
Brett: Is it kind of all the way, one way, all the way to the other, somewhere in the middle? So between on the spectrum between personable and professional, where's your brand?
Brett: Those things aren't mutually exclusive, but if you know there's a spectrum, another example,
Alexis: Yeah. There's a spec it's the spectrum. Yeah.
Plant People: When you have that conversation, Brad, I didn't didn't mean to interrupt, but I was real curious when you have that conversation, Do you also have the conversation at the same time, the audience and what they may or may not expect?
Jessica : you
Plant People: I mean, is this at the point where that would be the discussion or no?
Brett: It is. So that there's there's I think there's two there's two levels to that. One, i would always encourage you to have your your customers in mind. But in other cases, it's kind of like, let's just clearly define what it is that you're trying to put out in the world first, and then ask, is that what your customers want?
Plant People: Okay. Gotcha.
Brett: so like And again, i'm not this is and this an example for my professional life, not from um not from any of the business stuff that I've done in the past.
Plant People: Gotcha.
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Brett: in In extension, the extension world, I would say we, the Center for Crop Diversification, really leans in on the personable side of the equation here.
Alexis: easy
Brett: And that is in part because we're coming from an institution that is already kind of like... professional slash maybe stuffy slash official, you know, we don't have to necessarily work with extension, you know, it's like we're established.
Plant People: Yeah. Very formal.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: And so what we want to do is show that there's real people with real personalities who are here. Um, it could be on the flip side. And this is something that, you know, talking with growers, um, If you are new to this world of selling produce, for instance, you may want to lean in on the professional side to emphasize the quality of the product that you're putting out there, that we're not just a plucky upstart, you know, young woman farmer who's trying to just be funny and zany.
Jessica : Thank
Alexis: here
Brett: We're actually like professional. And yes, we are those other things. But this is kind of what we're trying to emphasize. And again, those things. You may, it it has a different effect when I take a goofy selfie of like, I'm out here on extension and people are like into that versus if someone who's trying to maybe strive for a little more ah respect or something that they feel like they they want to push.
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jessica : um
Brett: That's a difference. So a couple of the other variable spectra endpoints, spontaneous versus strategic.
Plant People: Hmm.
Brett: Modern versus classic.
Jessica : e
Brett: Cutting edge versus traditional.
Brett: Fun versus serious. And accessible to all versus upscale.
Plant People: Hmm.
Brett: And so these are all like, and we don't have to you know talk about any of them in particular ah here, but
Jessica : Thank you.
Plant People: It's like a choose your own adventure book.
Brett: Yeah, and it just starts to to frame it.
Plant People: and can I kind of like, hmm.
Brett: And some people will be like, well, I don't want and i don't think that ah you know spontaneous and strategic are really endpoints. It's like, that's not the point. The point is not like this thing is real. This is just a framework for you to start to think about.
Brett: Well, I'm not ah ah what would be like Wells Fargo level of serious.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: like that's That's one end of a spectrum. But I'm also not Chuck E. Cheese level of fun.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Brett: You're somewhere in the middle. it's just a structure to think about and and that there are real differences in the way that those brands operate and communicate their message.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: And again, we build into some of these other things of, like I give the example of photography, you know, what might a selfie look like from a a brand that is trying to be spontaneous versus one that's trying to be strategic or one that's trying to be fun versus one that's trying to be serious?
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: What might that look like?
Plant People: Does it have to look the same across all platforms, Brett?
Brett: But Ray, you,
Plant People: This is something I've been super interested in. Like there's so many platforms to get the word out, but it seems like that certain platforms themselves have their kind of expectation and certain, certain platforms are more zany or more spontaneous where other platforms are.
Plant People: maybe more serious, like a a traditional website versus like an Instagram or whatever, a TikTok. I mean, does that play into any of this? I know, and I'm guessing that you need to be sort of on certain points at a certain level, you need to be sort of consistent about your branding.
Plant People: But at the same time, I mean, maybe that's a question for another person or does that play in here about the platform?
Brett: Yeah, well, i'm i'm curious I'm curious what other if if my the ah fellow pod squad members have thoughts on that.
Plant People: Yeah. Because there's so many avenues now. There's so many ways.
Brett: So you're you're kind of saying and maybe there's certain formats or even certain certain wrinkles within platforms or within approaches where you show one side versus others.
Plant People: Yeah. Under this whole. yeah yeah exactly. and And under this whole thing, that's that's my question, I guess.
Jessica : I can. Yeah.
Plant People: ah did The different platforms and being consistent. and But.
Alexis: you think, Jessica?
Jessica : I was going say, I can see like a difference with that. Like just myself personally, when I think about that, like I feel like TikTok is more of laid back play around.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : Yeah, Brett, whatever you're doing over there.
Alexis: yeah to that
Plant People: like
Jessica : And, and, you know, Facebook and in like Instagram's like in between.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Right. Maybe.
Plant People: Very visual still.
Jessica : And then Facebook is like where you're formal, not really formal. Right. Then you get to like your website, kind of like um Ray was saying, like you could kind of went backwards with that.
Plant People: Yeah, you can. Yeah. Okay.
Jessica : first you know
Alexis: mm-hmm
Jessica : But that's how it kind of how I i view it as that. Definitely like TikTok is more of your you're going to see. Funny videos. and therere you know Not all of them are.
Alexis: spontaneity
Jessica : you know Some of them are like, how to? And like this is what we do every day.
Alexis: anything
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Come with us around the farm. But you end up seeing a lot of more, I think, that spontaneity stuff like Alexis just said.
Alexis: yeah and i think the time like how long those things are accessible to people so um like i'm going to put more whether it's you know facebook or instagram more uh spontaneous and probably more personable
Plant People: Oh yeah.
Alexis: you know, more high energy things, fun stuff on like my stories that are going to disappear within 24 hours and that are just kind of like catching attention, um showing, you know, in in the moment versus an actual post is going to be a little bit more strategic, um you know, a little bit more thought out because I'm not doing it as often.
Plant People: Mm-hmm. In
Plant People: and the moment, yeah.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Alexis: In theory, it's living there forever versus, you know, even like an email listserv. You've got, you know, but it mine's probably going to be a little bit, I don't know. I don't know if it would, it's going to be more personable in that I'm going to go more in depth with people.
Alexis: um I'm not trying to just do like a quick little one-off caption, um but I'm going to talk more about the farm. So it's personable in that way, but I think the voice is a slightly more, professional, if that makes sense.
Alexis: Somehow it's both, but it is very different, I think, than a one-off um thing on social media.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Alexis: So I think that there's even within the same place, ah different ways to use them and
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : hu
Alexis: you can I think that's cool. I think that's a benefit that people can who maybe are struggling with, are they more professional or are they more personable? Well, there's the ability to kind of be both now on some of these platforms where you can show people a little bit more of like you know daily life of being a farmer. And you know maybe you've got kids running around and petting the new baby cows or or whatever that is.
Alexis: But then those kind of things that live forever maybe is a little bit more strategic on like your Mother's Day offerings or ah things along those lines.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Yeah, just I wondered about like the branding and the consistency, knowing and having a feeling that there was a difference in the platforms. That's a good point you guys made that some platforms are more permanent.
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Plant People: The information is the links are and some are just for a period of time and then they're gone. So it's good. That's a good point.
Brett: Yeah. I mean, I would separate, you know, there, there are some core components of a brand, things like your logo, your general color scheme or, or like area of the color vibe, like in the pastels versus the neons versus the earth tones versus the,
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : Hmm.
Brett: you know, deep classical blues and golds or something like that, uh, dark green, something like that. And so like those things, I think there, there are opportunities for consistency across platforms and across, um, and those are the, like the least dynamic of all the content that you're going to be doing.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Like, you know, you're probably, you might change your logo a few times in the course of your brand. Some people never will. Um, Compare that to something like Alexis was talking about with its, it's like semi, let's see, what would you say?
Brett: Like semi-transient, maybe semi-permanent, like things like a ah email market, a marketing email or a,
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Brett: a post that's going to sit in your grid or on your Instagram or something along those lines, or or even like dynamic blog content um on a, on a website versus the truly like ephemeral stuff.
Jessica : Thank you.
Brett: That's the stories, the Snapchats, the TikToks, ah and I guess not the TikToks, but, um and I think part of that is the nature of the content. But also as part of that is the fact that different customer segments are going to interact with the different, different things that you do.
Alexis: Yes.
Brett: So like your casual customers are going to maybe see your Instagram posts and they're going to see like your homepage of your website, maybe.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: And they'll see you maybe in person if you have signage or if you have these other things. Whereas your super fans are going to see every one of your stories and they're going to read every one of your emails. And that might be an opportunity. Like they're in, they're very into you. You know, that's what I'm trying to say.
Jessica : They're going to be the ones that actually comment or like your posts and your photos.
Brett: And so.
Alexis: Yeah. And they're probably your bigger buyers a lot of the time, or at least they're sharing you consistently.
Brett: it
Jessica : Right.
Plant People: consistent buyers. Yeah.
Brett: And if they're interacting with that, then there's a chance that they're more interested in
Alexis: Yeah.
Brett: the in-depth brand story, the the blooper reel, the not just the kind of you know basic platform of who you are and and what you're doing.
Alexis: Surface level.
Brett: And so um I think, yeah, I think that to me, that that's a big part of it, too, is just understanding that you have these. we We talk about wanting, one knowing what our customers want, but in reality, most of our vendors sell to people who are a casual a couple of times a year.
Brett: They sell to some people every single week.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Brett: they sell to some people who would be very willing to go forth and tell their friends and family about it. um And so like, and then you have a whole other group of people that are just lurking, waiting for that first purchase, familiarizing themselves with you.
Brett: And so that's this, this thing we talk about in this course.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: um
Plant People: And I'll direct to consumer within the scope of, I'm assuming today, we're mostly talking about direct to consumer because something like a ah co-op, that way the marketing would look different there.
Brett: that's That's correct. Correct.
Plant People: ah But direct to consumer, it sounds like it's just ah a lot more dynamic and you have to make more effort because you're literally direct to consumer, a direct feed, direct lines.
Brett: correct
Brett: Yes.
Plant People: Okay. Okay.
Brett: Yeah. And you're you're like, this is something we talked about a little bit in the I talked about it even just last night was that you have to remember that some ah like all of the platforms that you're using Instagram, Facebook, ah websites, email, all of that stuff.
Brett: Those are platforms that are also used by like multi-billion dollar multinational corporations that have entire marketing teams.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: And so your approach, this is something that we used to be like that people would sort of give talks about how to like follow the lead of Coca-Cola. And you're just a very different a different type of business. Your messaging will likely be very different and your your amount of time that you're able to put in might be different. And so you you may emphasize things differently.
Brett: um You may lean more on email or you may think, you know, but but I think leaning into the direct to in the direct to consumer space, leaning into some of the aspects of story And personal identity and differentiation are ah key piece.
Brett: um And so like what one of the things that that we talk about is like this brand and how you're doing this messaging should also, it should be like a ah strategic goal oriented conversation.
Brett: So asking the question of like, what do I want to be known for?
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: And also in my particular segment, what what is there, like where what are the opportunities that I have to stand out? So there's, what do I want, but also where's the opportunity in the marketplace?
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: right
Brett: and And so I think that there's some really interesting conversations to be had about what that looks like because we sometimes as we think about, you know, farmers markets, for instance, all the vendors have like a certain sameness to them.
Brett: But if you have an opportunity to kind of stand out for one reason or another, either through product or through production practices or some other aspect of messaging, What does that look like? um and, and
Plant People: You know, there's a perfect ah cartoon for this, i hate to say that, but it's it's following tracking so closely due to our conversation. There's an episode of Big City Greens. If any of you guys have ever watched Big City Greens, it was um a small, the the green family had a small direct-to-consumer market and they sold at the farmer's market.
Jessica : Sigh.
Plant People: Well, local Whole Foods decided to sell at the farmer's market and there was this whole piece of trying to to get to the top of people's mindset uh and it was really it's a it was about marketing and who they really were and people made the final choice you know in this little uh cartoon but i encourage ah anyone that has access to it go look that episode up where they sell at the farmer's market but it was all about marketing and knowing who you are what your product is and who you're selling to
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: It's kind of what you were saying. It's ah really cool.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: And it made me think here, I'm trying to watch a kid's program thinking, oh, marketing, farmer's market, direct to consumer. I'm having some of these thoughts that you're talking about. It's so cool. Yeah.
Brett: Yeah. Yeah. It's ah another, another thing we talk about. I'm curious what you all think about this. um So something we, a lot of the stuff that we preach as far as how to do your marketing is very logical. It's very plan oriented. It kind of breaks it into nuts and bolts rather than it being this magical artistic progress or ah project where you come out with something that's really, really good. And it's much more boring than that.
Alexis: assistant
Brett: Almost all good marketing is way more boring and way more work than that. It's like, just like, just like a good production system.
Alexis: yeah planning yeah
Brett: Like, you know, as much as it,
Plant People: Does it function in a framework, like a deliberate framework? Is that what you're saying? Kind of.
Brett: And and like so in in woodworking, you know, you'll see a piece of furniture and be like, I have no idea how you made that. And then someone shows you like, these are the steps for how to do it and you're like, okay.
Brett: And the the way that they, people say is that everything's easy once you know how, and that's what we're trying to do with marketing is demystify it down to some actual concrete steps.
Alexis: mm-hmm
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: However, however, ah marketing is also, especially in the direct to consumer space is highly emotional for the consumer ah in particular. And so I'm curious for the people that you all interact with, your all zone businesses, your all zone experiences, what do you see as some of the the emotional levers that a lot of ah producers in that local space can pull in the customer? Like what is it, the associations, the thoughts, the dreams, the aspirations, what do you think has a lot of has a lot of purchase in this space?
Plant People: Before we even get to that space, I'll mention a space that was very interesting to me, a market a couple markets that I've worked with over time. And they were very interesting because i got it was a newer market. I transferred counties in Kentucky and went into a county.
Plant People: And it had a farmer's market. And um as we were thinking about marketing, promoting the market, it was interesting. quickly became clear to me that that was a market based on price.
Plant People: You had to be the lowest price or people were not interested. They would go to where the lowest price was. And I thought, well, how does that impact marketing? It was not an emotional purchase. It was not an experience market.
Plant People: It was not a social experience. It was a market just on one thing. And that was price. And that seemed to be different to me than more of an experience market.
Plant People: And that was one of my hardest lessons early on in my career that not all markets are the same. And I don't know if those markets out there still exist like that, that are just strictly people ask one question.
Plant People: They don't care who grew the tomato and how pretty the and fluffy the calf was.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Jessica : Thank you.
Plant People: They want to know the price and that is it. And that's that feels different to me to this very day. That feels different. ah But now I realize that a lot of markets and my market I currently work with It's all the things that we're talking about today.
Plant People: But I guess that ah knowing that up front, it was really important for me um and going forward into the conversation.
Alexis: Yeah. And like what you're, what you're selling, right? So flowers are probably not going to do great at a market that's focused on price because they are not a necessary, an essential and ingredient.
Jessica : Right.
Plant People: Like an essential ingredient. Yeah, yeah.
Alexis: Yeah. And even like, you know, maybe something like honey or jams and jellies or salsas, they're not, you know, ah probably a little bit more than flowers because at least they're edible, but they're probably not going to be the same as someone who's wanting to go and can and get, you know, a couple of bushels of corn.
Jessica : here
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : yeah You're not going to get what they're actually worth at those markets, right?
Plant People: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Alexis: who
Jessica : Like those products are probably valued a lot higher, but they're not going to be able to sell them at those price only markets.
Plant People: you
Alexis: you're not probably growing in a bunch of like heirloom right it's not the story behind them is what you're saying it's the it's the product itself like they've got to fill the fridge
Jessica : Yeah.
Jessica : Right.
Plant People: It goes back to what Brett said earlier. You know, here's why. If you're at a market that does value ah that link, direct-to-consumer link and values the family values and the family marketing, that's worth something.
Plant People: it's it's it there's there's You can assign a dollar value to that.
Alexis: mm-hmm
Jessica : Mm-hmm. huh
Plant People: And it's interesting. And we've had conversations on here before about like urban markets versus rural markets and some of the differences. I mean, does that play into this marketing thing too, Brett?
Brett: Yes.
Plant People: Yes.
Brett: ah So I think you all are you all bringing up great points.
Plant People: I mean, I don't know i don't
Brett: And I think it it pokes holes in some of the fantastical thinking that goes on in local food systems a lot, which is that every market wants to meet the cow before the hamburger.
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Brett: And every customer wants to know about you and your children or your journey or whatever.
Jessica : Mm-hmm. ah
Brett: And there are people who do. and And I think that that there are people who don't. and And honestly, there's times where there are people who are, it so we we talk about it in our ah presentation sometimes about this idea of a spectrum from a price market, like what you're talking about, Ray, to a credence market, which is ah market that cares about but essentially credence attributes or some other secondary aspect of the product.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Brett: I jokingly say that my mom would say that people, the people who shop at credence markets have more money than cents. And you know, that they're more likely to buy a quart of Blackberry jam than they are to buy a gallon of blackberries and make jam themselves.
Brett: They're more likely to buy a couple of years of sweet corn to grill for their dinner party than they are to buy 12 dozen years to can.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: And so it's just a different kind of space. and And some of the heartache that we see in the local food space is being in a price market and deluding yourself or wishing you were in a credence market.
Jessica : hu
Plant People: I mean, I'm sure you could make a movement given enough time and marketing. What if I was always curious, what if I had stayed in that county longer? And we'd we had made some inroads to say, well, this is why you should purchase here, even though this is a dollar more of this, whatever the product is.
Plant People: I mean, I guess given enough time, you might be able to make some movement there on those markets to get the true value.
Alexis: consumer education yeah
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: Consumer values.
Jessica : It's kind of kind of on topic with this.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : It's interesting. just got me thinking about selling at markets. the different For a market, the different types of customers that all visit one market and how they change throughout the day.
Plant People: Hmm.
Jessica : Because, um you know, I have witnessed you get your people who show up before the market opens. Right. You're trying to set up and they're already there because they want they want the best.
Plant People: Super fresh.
Brett: Looking for those door busters.
Plant People: Yeah. Yeah. yeah
Jessica : They want the best product. Right. They want to get it first. They want the best product.
Plant People: They don't want that sweet corn to sit out in the sun.
Jessica : And they're probably paying the highest price. Right. And then you have people who are coming Mid-market, you know, a lot of families and stuff are coming around that time.
Plant People: Volume customers. Yeah.
Jessica : Sometimes it's just like a social thing. They're coming and they're usually like, okay, with whatever the prices are. and they're not getting, you know, they're still getting pristine products, right? But not as as the early people.
Jessica : And then you have the people who come in at the very end of the day.
Plant People: Seeing what's left.
Jessica : And a lot of times they're the ones who are hoping to like bargain you down, haggle you, right?
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: yeah
Plant People: So even like, yeah, that's interesting that and you bring that up.
Jessica : And so it's really... So it's really interesting to see um because you'll find you don't have as many people want to haggle you down with prices like early on in the morning versus as it gets later in the day.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : You'll have certain you know groups of people who are like, oh, I see you have so much of this left. You don't want to take that home with you. Right. Can we make a deal?
Plant People: Yeah. You know, and,
Jessica : and sometimes that happens because you don't want to take all that extra product home with you, you know?
Plant People: you Sure.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: well What does that do from a marketing standpoint, though? And this is a cue really interesting conversation and a good point you brought up, Jessica, that customers change you throughout the day. And there's those that will come at the very last minute hoping to get that bushel of green beans like super cheap.
Plant People: But how how does that impact from a marketing standpoint the perceived value of your product if you start selling things really cheap at the end of the day? Are all your customers going to shift? I mean, I'm sure that plays into marketing. Now we're getting into real subtle things, I realize, Brett.
Plant People: On marketing.
Brett: i'm not I'm not into dropping prices when the stuff's at the end of the day, personally, in that in that type of a format, because you are committing so much time and energy to get to a market to command a high premium that to just undercut yourself just for the sake of, for some reason, and don't want to say for some reason, there is a weird fixation that people have with not taking anything home from the market.
Plant People: Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Right.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: yeah
Plant People: Oh yeah, I know.
Jessica : right
Plant People: you You have nailed it. Absolutely.
Brett: I know it's inconvenient.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: I understand.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: But to me, if i'm lee if i if I can take home 5% of what I brought, that means my pricing is probably somewhere in the ballpark or my volume is somewhere in the ballpark.
Alexis: hmm.
Brett: if i'm immediate If I'm selling out by 9 a.m., m then i'm I'm not growing enough or I'm not charging enough.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: yeah
Brett: The same way, if i if i if I never have anyone say anything about my pricing, I'm probably, like that it's too high, I'm probably underpricing.
Jessica : hu
Brett: I understand we don't want friction. I'm not trying to tell you to gouge people, but, um, you know, Brett showed up with dollar signs in his eyes and told us we should gouge our neighbors.
Plant People: the
Brett: No, I'm not saying that, but it's actually pretty expensive to spend that much time and energy to grow things and to and deliver them.
Alexis: Yeah.
Jessica : Yeah, for sure.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Um, so maybe I thought maybe we could end with just like, uh, two different, y'all gave me some ideas.
Alexis: Some.
Brett: This is spontaneous. So if it sucks, uh, it's Alexis's fault, but, um,
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Because I'm known to be so spontaneous.
Plant People: 100%. 100%. Okay.
Brett: was thinking about like,
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: um
Brett: Alexis spontaneous. ah So two, maybe like archetypes or two, two case, studies you know, fictional case studies of, of two people who would have very different brands. And then just some basic ideas for how those might play out in other aspects of their marketing.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: So on the one hand, we have someone who's selling into a price market. They are not a particularly bubbly, personality. They're good at growing stuff. They want to sell it.
Brett: They want to move it. And they sell based on quality and based on, you know, relative affordability. We have another person who, and this is just a completely made up fabricated,
Brett: thing They are a talented, beautiful flower farmer located somewhere in, i don't know, central Kentucky.
Jessica : Thank you.
Brett: And they are living the dream that many of the people who follow them think they would like to live.
Plant People: think
Brett: They sell their products to these people, some of whom have higher incomes and who have ah value that they place on local food systems or on local ah local horticultural products and other products like that.
Brett: How might those two people brand differently and then create ah content that would look different? So as a...
Plant People: You mean in keeping with her philosophy that you just working in the box that you just threw out for each kind of, no, man.
Brett: Exactly. Exactly. So I'm imagining, I'll i'll take on for some reason, I feel drawn to the role of crusty, non-bubbly farmer. I would say i still my customers still do care and have an emotional attachment to the products, even though they're just price.
Alexis: Bye.
Plant People: Yeah.
Plant People: yeah
Brett: If you were just price, you would go and get you know bulk frozen vegetables or canned vegetables from someplace.
Jessica : Thank you.
Brett: There is something about the quality of the product, whether that be nostalgic, whether that be a st high high standards based on their ah upbringing, whatever.
Jessica : to
Brett: But I would still be looking to do some marketing because all of these people, regardless of their price shoppers or if they're value shoppers, they are on some sort of social media or some sort of platform somewhere that you can communicate with them.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: So if I were that person, I would be taking pictures of my products that communicated the quality, particularly communicated the availability that, you know, Sweetcorn is going to be available this weekend.
Plant People: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Brett: And I would try to communicate that probably through a blend of email, um some Facebook and social media. And it maybe I have a website, maybe I don't. And maybe even ah a text i have a text list. And it doesn't have to be any more complicated than that because that's what my customers care about. They care that it's a high quality product.
Brett: They want to know when and where to buy it. And that's it.
Plant People: And you could really take advantage of the fact that you probably have a customer contact list, whereas the local Supermarket doesn't. And you could take that ah as a direct IV into their brain space.
Plant People: As far as, like you said, the nuts and bolts, what do I have? Here's actual pictures of it. And here's how you can get it and where you can get it. Like very functional, straightforward kind of info.
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah, absolutely.
Brett: And I would say part of that is I know I'm going to sell the product at a lower price as compared to somebody who's in a more bougie market with people who want to buy some story.
Brett: As a result, I'm going to want to spend less time on my marketing because and time is money.
Plant People: Yeah. Yeah. yeah
Alexis: right
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Brett: And so if if all you want is a high quality product delivered at a good price, then I'm just going to communicate to you the bare minimal details.
Jessica : Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Brett: And I'm not trying to upcharge you, but I'm also not trying to ah wine and dine you either. Like this is a communication here. And that is great. That is amazing.
Plant People: yeah
Brett: And it it would still be beneficial to do that level of marketing.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: I think the consistency and the frequency be super important there. And you mentioned that your consistency and your schedules are paramount. I mean, being super consistent about getting the word out on a regular basis when products available.
Brett: Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: If you jump to the other end of the spectrum, our i idealized flower farmer who is doing it all.
Jessica : you
Brett: Well, that's, that's a different type of, of marketing, a different type of messaging, different, you know, aspects of communication.
Plant People: Maybe some more emotions involved in that, maybe.
Brett: And I'm,
Plant People: Maybe.
Alexis: Yeah.
Brett: I think there's, there's, there is storytelling about what the brand is, who the people are. There's people who maybe are, they're not just consuming the product. You know, in that first scenario, you ask the person, well, what are you buying? It's like, well, I'm buying the corn.
Brett: What do you think I'm buying?
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Yeah.
Jessica : Thank you.
Brett: In reality, when we buy these other things that have these credence attributes that have these associated stories, you're really buying more than just the product itself.
Alexis: yeah
Brett: You're buying the story.
Alexis: You're buying a story, you're buying.
Plant People: all
Alexis: And with some of these things like that are higher value. So even like a jam or jelly, you know, something that you're going to use for a while. It's not just you're eating that tomato during a meal and that's, you know, done.
Alexis: I mean, that's an experience in herself, but you're looking at maybe a week worth of experience. And so sort of like the the good vibes it brings all week long, right?
Alexis: It's ah it's you're selling
Jessica : You're
Alexis: You're selling an emotional experience as well. Like, you know, having flowers in your house will make, you know, might make you feel like you have your act together more, right? Like seeing a fresh vase of something, using some, you know, local honey on your biscuits in the morning is going to make you feel like you are helping the environment and helping the bees, right? Every time you use them, you're going to think about the bees.
Alexis: And so you're selling, yeah.
Jessica : asking, yeah. You're going to think about that vendor too every time because like you said, you're going to keep that product longer.
Alexis: yeah
Jessica : You're going to see it in a jar or those flowers lasting.
Alexis: Right. But, right, right.
Jessica : you know
Alexis: And so you, but you've got to, you've got to market the experience of, even if it's a week at a time, you know, you've got to, you've got to market the how, this is how you're going to feel as you enjoy this product.
Alexis: And so,
Plant People: Are they going to want to see your face in that marketing scenario, like a personal connection? Yeah.
Alexis: you Yeah, usually if you're selling, I have seen, if you're selling an experience, they want to know like the full gambit of it, right? They want to know who those people are behind the experience that they're having.
Alexis: And I think, you know, price people maybe, again, don't care as much, but you could post occasionally with you in it just so that they recognize you maybe when they're at in market. So either your your logo is something that's consistently there so that they recognize that on your table or, you know, your face or,
Plant People: yeah
Alexis: I've had people say like, I recognized it was you because I saw your corgis and I recognized your corgis. And so it's the same. it You know, if you're uncomfortable with your personal face, have something that is part of your brand, um whether it's a logo or not, that that it's consistently popping up.
Plant People: Marketing.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Yeah. Gotcha.
Brett: So can I ask you, so you, you sort of laid out a very nice picture of the types of things that you want to communicate.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: What, what do you, in the same way that I said, you're sending an email that says this, taking a picture that says this, and maybe posting it to Facebook and otherwise for my, for my farmer, a for farmer B, what might be some of those nuts and bolts things that you're going to do or use the platforms or the, or the formats that you might use to communicate?
Brett: this this other story about that you know Jessica used the vendor or in that relationship or the benefits. How might you do that?
Alexis: Are you saying like what types of photos you post or i guess I,
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Brett: Yeah, pretend pretend I'm not as smart as you.
Alexis: Yeah.
Brett: It shouldn't take much.
Alexis: um moment
Brett: ah And like if you were going to give me a list, a checklist of things to do,
Alexis: Okay, yeah. So let's say that you've got, you know, your honey is about to be ready and you're going to take it to market for the first time. The week of that you're going to take it to market or, you know, the week before leading up to it, you're going to start, you may start posting about that, you know, we harvested from the hives or, you know, you may, if you're sure to...
Brett: Posting where?
Alexis: Posting on your social medias. You could also be sending it in your email. Hey, we're going to same idea of like we're going to have honey this week, but putting more of the story behind like here's a picture.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Alexis: going to use Jessica as an example of our little boy in his bee suit helping harvest the honey this season or whatever it is. And, you know, could be the same with flowers, like showing a photo of they went in the ground two months ago. This is what they look like. And look, here's the very first bloom two months later. um Here's the corgi sitting beside the the plant. Look how big it is, you know, like ah a gross, the story of that product coming to you so you're putting a lot more in but it could be email it could be social media where i think knowing where you find your customers is important so people who are maybe buying on price are I would say a lot of them tend to be a little bit of an older crowd at least like right now in my experience they're more likely to be on Facebook than they're going to be on Instagram or TikTok
Alexis: So versus if you're marketing to weddings and you're wanting, you know, ah younger couples, maybe who are getting married, ah plus you're selling a visual product, you're probably going to post on Instagram because it's a visual platform and it's a younger generation. So I think also if you're overwhelmed by do I need to do email and TikTok and Instagram?
Alexis: Well, where are your customers? What is the customer demographic and what do they use? Do they even use, do they do Facebook at all? Do you just need to send an email? Just be like, hey, we'll be at the market this weekend.
Alexis: That might be enough. So like don't overwhelm yourself with where to go too. That's a little off topic, but.
Plant People: In all of this, the email seems to be the golden ticket, a consistent thread that people still actually use.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Brett: i
Plant People: Is that true?
Brett: I do think that email is like the most, in my experience interactions with producers in Kentucky, it is the most underutilized marketing channel that I come across.
Alexis: Yeah.
Brett: It's not a panacea for everything. It's, it doesn't, you know, if you haven't, if you don't have a customer base, it's really hard to create a customer base just with email, but you have to be at, find a way to get them to give you your email there, you know, but.
Alexis: I think, yeah, exactly.
Plant People: Yeah, that is...
Alexis: That's the thing is I think people are overwhelmed by the amount of emails you get. Raise your hand, everybody on this podcast. And so sometimes it can be intimidating to not intimidating, but like, God, I don't want another email. But if you have sold them into your story and they found you somehow, maybe it is on social media. Maybe it's just visiting you every week at market.
Alexis: they h think of you more like a friend so they want to get your emails versus like the random emails they get from box stores type thing so there is like a relationship building to even get to that step I think
Plant People: Yeah, a transition to get in there.
Brett: And even if they don't open it, seeing the subject line and having this positive association with you and they're like, I don't got time for that, but I love, you know, Farm ABC.
Alexis: here
Alexis: me yeah yeah yeah
Plant People: I love corgis.
Alexis: yeah
Brett: And next time I see you at the at the market, I'm going to be like, oh, I love your emails, even though no I still love them.
Alexis: Even though ah I'm going to ask you the question that was in the email because I didn't actually read it.
Plant People: Yeah, I see the click rate. You don't open those.
Alexis: and
Plant People: I like emails and you guys just hit on something.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: I like emails because you can get metrics from that. You can get feedback, you know, empirically on how effective you are and how many people open when they open.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Alexis: Yeah. Did they click the link?
Plant People: Yes.
Alexis: Did the story that you told encourage them to actually click the link?
Plant People: Yes. I do love some feedback. You can get that on social media as well, but email is so robust.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: It's like the new website because email is so interactive and can have so many elements now. And, you know, there's all these ways to attach pictures easily or a PDF it or whatever. Email is pretty robust and it's ah it's a direct line.
Alexis: Right. If you were to give people maybe listening who are wanting to up their game, they could be at any stage in their marketing, but they want to improve this year in some scope.
Plant People: I still like that.
Alexis: What's like top three, maybe, or even top two things that you would say, like but focus in on.
Brett: I think one thing I would say is as you consider who you are as a brand or what the important parts of that you're of what you're doing, think about the ways that ah ah so a so you know core number of images, photos that you can capture today or this week or throughout the season.
Jessica : um
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: Imagery is one of the primary currencies of modern marketing, and particularly social media, but also other formats. So that's one like achievable thing.
Brett: Take some pictures of yourself, of your product, of your space, of your marketing location, retail, whatever location it is, and have those on hand for use in one thing or another.
Brett: I think another thing that I would ah say is if you're feeling overwhelmed, try to take whatever the thing is you're feeling overwhelmed about and break it down into simpler steps, simpler processes.
Brett: So for instance, there's people who say Facebook just kind of overwhelms me. It's just kind of like, well, I would rather see you consistently post one to three things per week on your social media than post 10 days in a row and then go dormant for you know the rest of the season.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Consistency.
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: yeah
Brett: And one thing that you can do with that, I think to to break it down is to to identify like types of posts that you want to create.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: And it could, let's just start with two. So one is something about your brand. It's sort of an educational slash informational piece.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: And then another that is about some sort of product that you're selling. Those are two types of posts that you can do.
Alexis: Totally.
Brett: And if you shoot to have one of each of those per week for the next, you know, six months, if you're not selling your round, then maybe that changes. I think that would be a ah positive thing.
Brett: um the the other And the other thing I would say, just to kind of reflect back on our our archetypes.
Alexis: yeah
Jessica : Thank you.
Brett: So if person one is spending less time on their marketing, but their price is lower, person two is spending a lot more time on their marketing, but they're doing that only because their price is higher as a result.
Brett: And it's ah it's a trade-off. Marketing takes a lot of time and a lot of energy, and it often takes money.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Brett: you know The suggestion would be to spend as much as 10% of your overall budget on marketing. And so for some people, it's much higher.
Alexis: Wow.
Brett: Some industries, it's much higher than that.
Alexis: Yeah.
Brett: People don't like to hear that because they like to buy seeds and plants and and that kind of thing.
Alexis: Yeah.
Brett: And I understand
Alexis: And if you like to do that and the idea of marketing is hor horrendous to you, I will go back to what I have said multiple times is find you a youngin'. and pay them per post. Maybe it's $10 per post.
Alexis: It's something a little bit easier. You've got to guide them. um And there is, you know, if you're not a writer, there are, you know, some AI things where you can type in, this is the general stuff I want to know. And you can type that in and they can polish that for you. I'm not against it. If it gets you marketing, then then go do it. But you can then, you know, send that to a kid or have them do it themselves.
Alexis: I say a kid like, I mean, at this stage, they could be probably five doing this, but, you know, send that to a high schooler that, you know, ah who can do that posting for you and will remind you that it needs to be done.
Alexis: And then it's a very minimal cost for that, for them. It's going to be, it's a fun, you know, easy thing way to earn a little bit of cash. So, uh, x you know export those things that you can't do well. I'm all about that and focus on what you can do, ah though that you do do well and do but do more of it. So if you've got more questions on branding, on marketing, on websites, anything that kind of you've grown it and now what do you do with it? If you're looking for that, we have some really great resources on the CCD website. So we'll post that in the show notes.
Alexis: You can also contact us via our Hort Podcast email. or Hort Culture email, or you can reach out directly to anybody on the Center for Crop Diversification team. If you've got really specific questions, you just want to go head right to Brett and ask. ah Feel free to always do that, and we'll get you on the right route and get you some information there. But we are glad that you were here with us, and we hope that you will join us next time.
Alexis: Thanks for being here.
