In a world where your message can go global agriculture is spending a lot of money wishing and hoping we can build trust and belief through slick marketing campaigns
Things we know:
- People trust people in preference to things – Marketing campaigns may contain people but they are still things
- Building trust requires building relationships and that takes time
- The people you chose to be your trusted voices also pivotal to success. They should be:
- RELATABLE
- CREDIBLE
- UNDERSTANDABLE
- MEMORABLE
4. To be UNDERSTANDABLE beware the BUZZ WORDS
A prime example of a buzz word is “Sustainability”
Sustainability is a major concern among consumers. Food producers are aware of that, but often unsure how to address it.
The notion of sustainable food production is almost shrugged off as common sense among many in agriculture. Ask a grower if they’re sustainable and you’ll likely get an answer like, “Well, if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be farming very long.”
In reality what is sustainable for one grower maybe very different for another. It is certainly a word that means different things to different segments of the market place agriculture is trying to build trust with
As an example
You ask a large group of young people between the ages of 12 and 18 from diverse socio economic backgrounds what sustainability means to them – the top three answers are
You ask a group of tertiary educated adults between the ages of 24 and 60 the same question – the top 3 answers are
As an aside I must admit I smiled when I saw Woolworths tag line. They leave nothing to chance
Building trust starts with being curious about your target market and an intimate understanding of their wants, needs, pain points and motivations.
Its requires providing opportunities for building relationships. People want to meet and talk to the people who are asking to be trusted. Slick marketing campaigns might attract a passing interest but their chance of being memorable are very slim.
PEOPLE TRUST PEOPLE – it takes time. We have to be prepared to invest the time
