{"id":844,"date":"2008-11-18T13:23:41","date_gmt":"2008-11-18T20:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/?p=844"},"modified":"2008-11-19T07:41:51","modified_gmt":"2008-11-19T14:41:51","slug":"trends-in-agriculture-sets-records-reveals-rural-lifestyle-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/?p=844","title":{"rendered":"Trends in Agriculture Sets Records; Reveals Rural Lifestyle Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note:<\/strong> If you attended Trends In Agriculture and have not yet filled out the survey from the meeting, please visit http:\/\/www.nama.org\/trends\/survey.htm<\/a>. Your responses will help shape the next Trends In Agriculture meeting!<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What will the future look like and what investments does your organization need to make to take advantage of it?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n

This was the question posed by Franck Schuurmans, PhD, Senior Consultant for Decision Strategies International, Inc. And it was the ideal forward-thinking platform from which to launch the inaugural 2008 NAMA Trends in Agriculture Conference.<\/p>\n

This year, NAMA changed the name of the Agribusiness Forum to Trends in Agriculture. The move was made to directly reflect the meeting\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mission of exploring emerging trends and challenges faced by agri-marketers across the industry.<\/p>\n

This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s topic was the burgeoning rural lifestyle market and the decision makers who define it. A record-setting 175 professionals attended the two-day event, up more than 35% from last year.<\/p>\n

Dr. Schuurmans opened the conference with an eye-opening look at how limiting our own experience-based perspective can be as we consider future strategic options. He used a number of case studies and exercises to demonstrate how the cost of excessive focus can be loss of peripheral vision.<\/p>\n

Dan Duffy, CEO of United Country Real Estate\u00e2\u20ac\u201da national real estate franchise system specializing in properties in and around small cities and towns\u00e2\u20ac\u201dquickly gave attendees the chance to apply those principles.<\/p>\n

There has been considerable publicity on the current challenges of real estate. Sales of rural acreage, while stronger than many sectors, are also slowing. In response, United Country has honed its strategies of promoting and supporting lifestyle amenities and helping owners increase the value of their land by improving recreation assets.<\/p>\n

The company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s approach is based on a combination of careful analysis and proprietary research and attendees benefited from a broad range of supporting data they could apply to their own market situation.<\/p>\n

Wednesday began with a revealing session on the demographics, attitudes, buying habits and other key indicators about the rural lifestyle market from Susan Spaulding, Market Directions, and Courtney Yuskis, Country Living Association.<\/p>\n

Spaulding emphasized that extensive research revealed that rural lifestylers are connected with their communities and engaged with multiple social networks. She also noted rural lifestylers are more technologically savvy than most people realize and receive an enormous amount of marketing messages.<\/p>\n

Craig Elbert, a Marketing Strategist with Hallmark Cards explored the concept of winning customers by understanding your brand essence in terms of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153jobs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d your product or service performs for them.<\/p>\n

For Hallmark, one of America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most well-established and well-recognized brands, that essence is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153caring.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Yet, as Elbert explained, the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success has never been based solely on understanding the historical context, but by projecting brand essence through changing market conditions. He shared how the company uses its \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Value StarTM<\/sup>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to apply this process to individual products.<\/p>\n

The closing panel, moderated by Bruce Thomas, Rural Lifestyle Communications Consultant, explored the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153commonalities\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153conflicts\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the two primary segments in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s agricultural marketplace: the rural lifestyle and farmer markets.<\/p>\n

Primary differences noted included gender roles and perspectives on the quality\/cost (value) continuum. However, panelists also emphasized that both segments share a strong sense of independence\/self-reliance, appreciation of outdoor activities and belief in the importance of family.<\/p>\n

As part of the conference, NAMA also recognized its Professional Development Awards of Excellence Winners. Honors went to Paul Redhage, Communications Manager, FMC Agricultural Products; Beth Andersen, Senior Vice President, Managing Partner, Charleston Orwig, Inc.; and Vernon Benes, Director of Business Development, Beck Ag, Inc.<\/p>\n

Special thanks to all of our Trends In Agriculture\/Regional Best of NAMA Judging\/Rural Lifestyle Resource Center Sponsors as well as our ABEF Sports Night sponsors!<\/p>\n

Ag Speakers Network
\nAgriMarketing Magazine
\nAssociations, Inc.
\nBeck Ag, Inc.
\nBlasdel Cleaver Schwalbe Communications
\nBoelte-Hall
\nBroadhead + Co.
\nCattle Mail, USA
\nCattlemen’s Beef Board
\nCHS, Inc.
\nColle+McVoy
\nCountry Living Association
\nDF Bryant & Company
\nDTN\/The Progress Farmer
\nFarm Progress Companies
\nFastline Publications
\nHigh Plains\/Midwest Ag Journal
\nHoard’s Dairyman Magazine
\nHurst & Associates
\nJohn Deere
\nLiving the Country Life
\nMartin Williams
\nMcCormick Company
\nMoKan NAMA
\nNational Cotton Council of America
\nOgden Publications
\nOsborn & Barr Communications
\nPaulsen AgriBranding
\nQuarry Integrated Communications
\nRhea & Kaiser Marketing Communications
\nTruffle Media Networks
\nZimmComm New Media, LLC<\/p>\n

ABEF Sports Night Sponsors:<\/strong>
\nBlasdel Cleaver Schwalbe Communications
\nCMA Consulting
\nColle+McVoy
\nFMC Agricultural Products
\nHigh Plains\/Midwest Ag Journal
\nJ.L. Farmakis
\nJohn Deere
\nKFRM Radio, The Voice of the Plains
\nLEE Agri-MEDIA
\nNational Pork Board
\nPioneer Hi-Bred Intl., Inc.
\nRhea + Kaiser Marketing Communications<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check out the highlights from Trends In Agriculture at https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?paged=2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Note: If you attended Trends In Agriculture and have not yet filled out the survey from the meeting, please visit http:\/\/www.nama.org\/trends\/survey.htm. Your responses will help shape the next Trends In Agriculture meeting! \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What will the future look like and what investments does your organization need to make to take advantage of it?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This was the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,277,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-student-nama","category-agribusiness-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.namablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}