Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets Farmers Market

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets Farmers Market Coalition Strengthening farmers markets for the benefit of farmers consumers, communities. Resources, Programs, Networking& Advocacy farmersmarketcoalition.org

Vendors: Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets Difference between urban and rural markets? More urban consumers reported that they learned about farmers’ markets from roadside signs, word-ofmouth, television and newspaper than rural respondents. Rural consumers (13.85 miles) were willing to travel further than urban consumers (10.55)* No statistically significant difference was found between urban and rural respondents with respect to willingness to buy and/or pay more for special foods *Variation between Urban And Rural Farm Direct Market Customers

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets Reasons for not shopping at farms’ market—factor analysis Rural Factor 1—other reasons Other Urban Factor 1—Payment terms Don’t accept checks Don’t Feel Safe Don’t accept credit/debit cards Raise my own livestock Don’t accept food stamps Factor 2—Payment terms Factor 2—Quality Don’t accept food stamps Poor quality Don’t accept credit/debit cards Don’t feel safe Limited variety High prices Factor 3—Quality & Special choice Factor 3—Convenience Don’t accept checks Too far Limited hours Don’t know of any in my area Not clean Inconvenient location Poor quality Factor 4—Other Prefer buying at supermarkets Limited variety Factor 4—Convenience Not clean Too far Other Inconvenient location Factor 5—Special choice Raise my own garden produce Raise my own garden produce Factor 5— Prefer buying at supermarkets Don’t know of any in my area Limited hours High prices

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets “Higher vendor satisfaction at relatively newer markets in the region emphasizes the importance for more established markets to continually develop new and innovative market features or activities and to upgrade facilities to maintain and improve market attendance and increase vendor satisfaction.” “Developing Viable Farmers Markets in Rural Communities”

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets “In addition to providing locally grown fresh and high quality produce farmers’ markets should differentiate themselves by offering specialty goods (i.e. homemade foods, crafts, shrubs and flowers,) and create a perception of quality in the physical attributes as well as the uniqueness of the products sold at the market.” Design the market experience based on the mission and the vendors. Engage in product development Conduct seasonal customer niche analysis Build partnerships

Design the market based on your vendors

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets Question for discussion and to ask your market team: How do you identify anchors? Have you discussed the idea of anchors with vendors or market leadership? Have you done any marketing or technology work or pilots with just anchors? (i.e. match programs) Are there downsides to being known as an anchor vendor or in defining anchor vendors?

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets Product Development Ideas Check venues such as supermarkets and specialty stores. Food, health, and lifestyle magazines and websites; food pages and columns in the newspaper; newsletters; cookbooks; trade magazines and other publications. Customer surveys, tasting panels, and focus groups. Vendor surveys. Chefs and other food professionals. Cooperative Extension agents and other agriculture professionals. Meetings and conferences. Partner with seed companies

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets Test it with a pilot. Start that pilot with a hypothesis: How to 1. increase frequency of attendance, 2. amount spent, and 3. new shoppers? What are things a market might not expect or know about their "average" farmers market shopper? What are common pitfalls are inhibiting customer expansion and retention? How effective are events for attracting and retaining new customers? What are a few key things vendors can do to retain and attract new customers?

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets * Marketing Farmers’ Markets: Ideas for Market Vendors & Managers in Nevada

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets Vermont psychographics report “ “ the thecommon common lifestyles lifestylesrepresented represented in in the the data: data: The The Grower; Grower; The The Organic Organic Loyalist; Loyalist; The The Value ValueShopper; Shopper; The The On-the-Go On-the-GoShopper; Shopper; The The Tourist; Tourist; and and Families .” Families .” “ “ we we found found that that the the values valuesof offreshness, freshness, quality, quality, price, price, and and supporting supporting local local farmers farmers are are messages messages that that resonated resonated with with Vermonters Vermonters across acrossall all age agegroups groups and and shopping shopping patterns.” patterns.”

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets Value-based shopping/directories https://aeromt.org/abundant/

Shoppers: Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets *In-Kind Advertising & Free Media The Department of Transportation puts magnetic signs about the market on their vehicles, providing free advertising to the market. The local newspaper writes an article on the market almost every month, and the market has also been featured in Greene Living Magazine. Special Events & Cooking Demonstrations The market hosts special events to attract more market customers, and publicizes them through their website, the county webpage, the newspaper, Facebook, and the Greene County news & announcements for employees. They secured grant funding to pay for a chef to do cooking demos * Farmers’ Market Challenges in a Rural Setting: A case study of the Elaney Wood Heritage Farmers Market

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets Partnerships Funding will allow the Hernando Farmers Market to facilitate meetings and invite experts to lead training workshops and resource development for market vendors, working in partnership with other markets. Support from Extension will offer seasonal food handling and risk management technical assistance to market vendors throughout the three years of the project. “I’m looking forward to providing the educational opportunities to help grow the market which in turn helps the growers and young farmers have a place to sell,” Joy Anderson, DeSoto County Extension.

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets Sprouting Farms, is a newer program training and Partnerships incubating new farmers in two valleys in central West Virginia. The project, which aims to create 20 new businesses and 33 jobs, also hopes to leverage nearly 1 million in additional investment from private and public sources.

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets Rural markets should spend as much time defining their mission and marketing as urban markets. Which vendors are drawing shoppers to the market on the strength of their products or customer service and how do you work with that? All markets have to become more adept at growing new-to-markets vendors AND increasing product variety among existing vendors with technical assistance. Craft a niche message as to what the market is designed to do in its community. Know how people use the market.

Recruitment and Retention for Rural Markets Collect data, Use it. Mystery Shops Focus Groups Surveys Observation www.farmersmarketcoalition.org www.farmersmarketmetrics.guide