segment

so i think i know what my true benefit/segmentation variable is...

"need for foodie cred"

Unfortunately i think that's the best way I can say it, but we're talking about people (like me) who often find themselves talking about food, recipes, etc, and for whom the "i got this from this little farm up the road I just found out about" story is the favorite one they tell.

It's a little hard to say this without buying into foodie elitism, but I kind of feel like foodie elitism is exactly what I'm selling. I feel a little dirty. Like a true marketer.

segmentation is hard

I've spent the last couple weeks doodling segmentation variable charts in the margins of my notebooks and I'm still a little baffled by the whole thing. I mean, i get that the category leader is supposed to be ahead on the Main Variable, but is this because they do the MV the best? Or just that they are the leader in terms of that MV? Is McDonalds more convenient than Wendy's, or just the market leader in "convenient food"?

This first doodle is of local food experience vs. fun, but it seems wrong. SIMBY is ahead because we deliver a great local food experience, better than Zing or the farmer's market, but we are not the market leaders:
Here it is, revised for the 2nd interpretation.

This is a fun one because I love the idea of stealing share from Zingermans. Having worked there, I can safely say that "we are more fun than Zingermans" is both an honest and potentially lucrative selling point. In truth I think my customers are probably farmer's market customers, but it is weird to earn share from farmer's markets because we're actually trying to promote farmer's markets.

Then I started playing with stimulate demand strategies, which seemed to make the most sense in most contexts.

i'm not sure if i need 2 variables here, but I think we can be a market leader in the "getting to know a farmer" BUT, is this really a variable that applies to a lot of people? I guess I would argue that the answer is yes and that it's a growing number, but this might just be among people I know. it's hard to see outside of my bubble sometimes.

Target Audience

Target Audience: Rachel Hunter is 34, and works in publishing in Ann Arbor. She moved to Ann Arbor from Cleveland two years ago along with her husband Peter, a PhD student at UM. They live in a 2-bedroom condo near Briarwood, and she does most of their grocery shopping at the nearby Busch’s, where she appreciates the fresh produce and great selection of inexpensive wine. She also enjoys shopping with friends in downtown Ann Arbor, especially on weekends in the spring and summer when they’ll visit the shops and sometimes the farmer’s market or Zingerman’s. Rachel and Peter take weekend trips every couple of months, either for conferences or to visit friends and family in various U.S. cities, and also take a few longer camping trips or beach vacations in the summer. During the year, she tries to stay active, and to make time in her busy schedule to enjoy of local concerts, festivals, and parks.

Customer Definition (from previous module, but it goes along with the target audience thing):
Demographic: Women, 25-55, with a college degree.

Geographic: residents or visitors in Washtenaw, Macomb, Oakland, Monroe, Livingston, Wayne or Jackson Counties.

Behavioral: buys from the farmer’s market at least once per year (61 percent of Michiganders say they do, who largely also meet the above demographic characteristics)

QUESTION:
"Rachel" is probably one very valid descriptor of our target audience, but I feel using that description glosses over people with kids, and baby boomer retirees, both of which could be very important segments. It's easy for me to market to "Rachel" because she's pretty damn similar to me, but I don't feel that using this description is going to help me target older customers. Does this matter? should there be multiple targets?

Fundamental Entity

I spent a good chunk of Thursday and Friday at Lauren's house talking about where to go with the business, and about this grant we're writing to USDA to get started. I think both of us were torn between doing all the things that really need to be done right away (scheduling, planning and promoting tours, as well as kicking out this grant), and were having trouble focusing on the "big picture," so to speak. Still, if we want to be effective at writing this grant we need to have a clear statement of what our business is, so we tried...

When initially described, the fundamental entity seemed like the simplest question to answer. We are a tiny company. The entity is SIMBY Agritours (also talked about names, more on that later). BUT, we have several different types of trips we'd like to offer that could (should?) be marketed differently:

- Family & Individual farm tours (mostly recreational and fun, some learning, more expensive, nicer accommodations, more choices, more food - focused on connecting farmers with community of food-interested urban folks.)

- School and group tours (mostly educational, also fun - focused on changing attitudes)

- Adventure/Bike tours (mostly fun, 18-30 crowd, longer hike and bike tours, beer, food, tent camping - focused on exposure to Michigan's food system)

thinking about grant objectives, the family and school tours are totally different. the family tours could increase sales for specific farmers as families visit them at the farmer's market or join their CSA, the school ones more about changing attitudes in general and may not lead to documentable sales. The adventure tours seem too "out there" to include in the grant, but are, i feel, an important niche.

so: am I getting the idea behind fundamental entity? Can we still market all three without diluting our brand? Or should we brand them all separately (which seems silly) but each has a different target market and goal. hmmm.