FEBRUARY 2024 7 Word-of-mouth is great. But for people under the age of 30—and a more tech-savvy person over 30—social media is considered the “how.” From the www.outbrain.com website, we found some questions the ag retailer needs to ask and answer for itself. • What are your core principles and values? • What is your mission statement? • What inspired you to build your business? • Why do you want to offer your products or services to your target audience? • What makes you unique? • What is your internal company culture? • What is your professional sense of style? • What are your communication characteristics? • What do you want people to consider when they hear your business name? • How do you want people to feel when they think of your business? • How do you want customers to describe you as a company? For some ag retailers opting to specialize in a brand, we could include: “Why do you want to offer your products or services to your target audience?” This is not a CEO/COO/HR exercise, and it isn’t a one-person job. Even if you are the company founder and head mucky-muck and think you have all of the answers to your company’s direction—you may, and may not—how do you know your answers are correct and not just your opinion? As hopefully everyone knows, everyone’s opinion is always 100 percent correct because it’s their opinion, but that doesn’t mean they are all correct morally or even factually. It’s just an opinion, and one’s opinion is always correct. While you may run your business with a “my shop, my rules” methodology, when it comes to brand marketing, it’s a good idea to step back and involve as many people as possible—that you trust—to help you answer the questions above, obviously with a bit of rewording to suit your business. Take a gander at those above questions—uniqueness? What does that mean? Uniqueness is what separates you from another company that sells seeds and fertilizers. You may specialize in a particular brand and provide free advice from a real agronomist you pay for. When prospective customers hear your company name, are they thinking good thoughts or bad ones? You have a role in determining which way that unfolds. joshblake/iStock/Getty Images Plus photo
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