September 2019 - 16

FARM MARKET & AGRITOURISM
Hyperlocal and the next-generation customer
By Brian Moyer
VGN Columnist
In just about every consumer
poll I've seen, quality of fruits and
vegetables is the most important thing
to consumers. Not price. Quality beats
price every time.
Not that price
isn't important,
but let's not focus
solely on that.
Let's look at the
quality of our
products and what
the customer is
hoping to get from
our offerings.
BRIAN MOYER
Think " value for money " rather than
" best price. "
Besides quality, there are other
emerging values that are important
to consumers, particularly Gen X and
millennials, who are your next generation
market shoppers, so our marketing efforts
need to reflect their values.
I recently read an article regarding
a produce industry survey. One of the
questions was about which consumer
trends will drive produce sales in the
future. A couple of responses to that
survey stand out to me. The multiple
mention of " health/food as medicine, "
" convenience " tied in with " flavor &
taste, " which to me also means quality.
Lastly, " local " and even the mention of
the term " hyperlocal. "
Hyperlocal refers to products that
are purchased or consumed where they
are grown or made. Here is one area I
think the retail farm market industry can
capitalize on and even have an advantage.
I'm certain there are items in your market
that are grown on your farm. Let's
replace the term " homegrown " with the
term " hyperlocal. "
Homegrown meant something to the
boomer generation but not so much
the following generations. Homegrown
brings up the question " whose home
was it grown? " Hyperlocal is more
specific. It means it's grown right here.
It's also an opportunity to have that
discussion with our customer. If they
ask what does hyperlocal mean and
you can point to the field it came from,
that's hyperlocal and very few food
retail establishments can do that. It's a
conversation and connection with the
people who grew the food that speaks
to the freshness and the quality.
Hyperlocal is not only a trend, it's an
advantage that on-farm markets and
farmers' markets need to capitalize on.
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In recent years, conventional grocery
retailers have made efforts to have
local produce, or at least appear that
they have, but they don't do a very
good job telling that story.
Get the local vendors whose
products you carry involved. Do
they have information about how
they produce their products that you
can share with your customers? It's
cross-promotion that will benefit both
businesses. Here's an example. One
market I work with has a bread baker,
Hilary, who uses a stone oven to bake
her bread and delivers it to the market
twice a week. When she delivers,
someone from the market photographs
bringing the bread into the store
and posts the picture on Facebook
announcing that Hilary has arrived
with fresh bread baked that morning.
This same market is proud of the
fact that they work with 60 vendors
within a 50-mile radius of their
market. To help communicate that to
their customers, they posted a series
of direction signs in front of the
market. Each sign has the name of a
vendor and where they are located so
before you even set foot in the market,
they're telling you just how local they
are. VGN
Photo: Brian Moyer
Michigan Valley Irrigation
www.mvi.farm
valleyirrigation.com
VegetablegrowersNews.com
16 | VegetableGrowersNews.com
4802 W. Caro Rd.
Vassar, MI 48768
989-673-6741
14265 Beadle Lake Rd.
Battle Creek, MI 49014
269-565-4426
2071 E. Main Street
McBride, MI 48852
989-762-5028
http://www.ProducePackaging.com http://www.valleyirrigation.com http://www.mvi.farm http://www.VegetablegrowersNews.com http://www.VegetableGrowersNews.com
September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2019
