10 THE CAAR COMMUNICATOR BRAND MARKETING that even spending a few extra dollars on a promoted product on a social media site will garner additional consumer views on what you are selling. While it may not always lead to a sale, it provides you with a better chance of one. Now What? When it comes to brand marketing, sometimes half the battle can be ensuring that the marketing campaign is being “liked’ enough by customers to want to learn more about the product and who will then ultimately purchase the product. If you as a retailer offer excellent customer service, and by that we mean: website accessibility and ease of use, on-time delivery of the product without damage, having staff instore offering excellent knowledge and expedient help, dressing in attire entirely pleasing to consumers (no one in the Winnipeg or Calgary shop is wearing a hated Leafs jersey, for example), or how the shop is set up (no one needs to step over anything to get down an aisle), and like what products you have to sell and the price you offer them at—well, you can be sure you have become that customer’s only place to shop for ag-related items. From all of the above, it is highly evident that brand marketing doesn’t end with an ad placed in a magazine, on the radio or TV, or a social media site. You must consistently meet multiple layers of customer satisfaction. This is done until the customer has the ag product in hand and seeks you out later for return business. And it doesn’t even end there. You may have talked to the customer about how they should use the product they are buying, but did you take the time to give them physical instructions or send them a link to some online instructions? People may say that they understand everything you have told them—but how about you and your company going the extra mile or kilometre and ensuring there’s no misunderstanding? And here’s a bit of brand marketing that works both ways—for you and the customer. For small, low-level sales items that a customer may have spent a few bucks on—rather than having them pay in money, ask if they would instead save the money or save half-price or whatever percentage makes sense—and write an online review for your business on Yelp, for example. To ensure it gets done, they should spend five minutes and do so in front of you or your sales staff— and everyone is happy. You get a positive online review, and the customer saves some money and gets the product they want or need. Reviews are required in today’s retail experience. For example, would you not take advantage of an appliance store’s online reviews for a particular product if you needed to purchase a new stove for your house? You should! If you aren’t reviewing reviews to get the skinny on the product, you aren’t doing your due diligence. Other customers do the same at your ag retail shop, so you should, too. Before the advent of digital social media, a customer would discuss your shop, its staff, and your products via word of mouth or would simply have stopped their patronage. Word of mouth via social media can easily make or break a company—even for a company that doesn’t use social media. That one’s easy—even if you and your shop aren’t social media savvy and are not online, your customer base probably is. They might go online and discuss all the positives or all the negatives of your business, and you might never know or understand why your sales have dropped off. The next step is up to you, the retailer—you must become physically involved. As a retail shop owner, you can undertake brand marketing yourself, but it still takes a lot of work and requires multiple skill sets, such as being well-versed in multiple social media platforms or being able to create a succinct business message. It can be a daunting undertaking. If you aren’t sure how to go about doing anything mentioned here, you should first see if anyone on your staff has the necessary skills. Failing that, seek third-party advice and help. But even then, do your due diligence. Many companies specialize in brand marketing, and while they might be very good at their job of creating a brand marketing campaign for you, it will cost money. The companies will also ask many questions to create that brand marketing strategy. Still, aside from rewording, the questions will be similar to what has been presented in this article. Regardless of which way the wind blows on how your campaign is formulated, it behooves you to look at the questions here and contemplate the answers to them. Having answers to those questions about your business core will help you create a more profitable agricultural business retail shop in both the short- and long-run.
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