Another great article Janette! As a member of a company that recently started getting into tradeshows and social media, these are important points to consider as we move forward. Thanks!
Thanks Janette for yet another great issue of one of my favorite newsletters!
I agree with the general premise of what you are saying. I do however think that education can be a valuable marketing mechanism, but probably not in the way it is applied in the ag industry. The problem is however that there are deliberate and also very effective campaigns to misinform consumers about food. Information proving the contrary is necessary, but not to tell consumers how stupid they are, but rather to entice them to buy good quality food and stating the facts with the focus on consumer preferences.
The same thing is also happing with agtech where farmers are being "educated" to try and improve adoption. The thinking is that farmers are a bit backwards and need to be educated to do business in the 21ste century.
On both sides, we get it wrong. Give them what they want and prove claims with fact and value
Thanks Niel! I think the distinction is in how you define the words 'educate' and 'market'. The ag industry (producers & processors) often default to the idea that the answer to many woes is educating consumers, aka if consumers just knew more about how food was produced then they would take a different view of food and certain attributes. That's using education as a way to change what the market wants, which is largely ineffective IMO. Whereas in agtech, companies are using marketing to help producers understand a different way to solve a problem - that's what I'd call marketing.
I do think that some agtech companies are however mistakenly trying to educate rather than market to an educated buyer, thinking that the buyer is at fault. I think central to your point is that the buyer is always right and if you want to sell something, you have to know what the buyer wants and portray it in the best light to convert the prospect into a customer.
I loved this article. I wrote a followup piece examining these two narratives from the context of India and other large smallholding farmer countries.https://agribusinessmatters.substack.com/p/is-agriculture-a-business?utm_source=url
This is a fantastic piece and really interesting to get the India perspective! My mind was blown by the notion that ag revenue is not taxed in India.
Another great article Janette! As a member of a company that recently started getting into tradeshows and social media, these are important points to consider as we move forward. Thanks!
Thanks Janette for yet another great issue of one of my favorite newsletters!
I agree with the general premise of what you are saying. I do however think that education can be a valuable marketing mechanism, but probably not in the way it is applied in the ag industry. The problem is however that there are deliberate and also very effective campaigns to misinform consumers about food. Information proving the contrary is necessary, but not to tell consumers how stupid they are, but rather to entice them to buy good quality food and stating the facts with the focus on consumer preferences.
The same thing is also happing with agtech where farmers are being "educated" to try and improve adoption. The thinking is that farmers are a bit backwards and need to be educated to do business in the 21ste century.
On both sides, we get it wrong. Give them what they want and prove claims with fact and value
based selling/marketing.
Thanks Niel! I think the distinction is in how you define the words 'educate' and 'market'. The ag industry (producers & processors) often default to the idea that the answer to many woes is educating consumers, aka if consumers just knew more about how food was produced then they would take a different view of food and certain attributes. That's using education as a way to change what the market wants, which is largely ineffective IMO. Whereas in agtech, companies are using marketing to help producers understand a different way to solve a problem - that's what I'd call marketing.
True.
I do think that some agtech companies are however mistakenly trying to educate rather than market to an educated buyer, thinking that the buyer is at fault. I think central to your point is that the buyer is always right and if you want to sell something, you have to know what the buyer wants and portray it in the best light to convert the prospect into a customer.
Exceptionally well said - completely agree!