One of the best things about being on the road, alone, for many hours in a day, is the benefit of reflecting. How I should cherish these moments before I begin graduate school (and strive to find pockets of time to relax moving forward)! They are too valuable to be discounted.
Lot of cool thoughts came to mind today as I made my rounds from Cuba to Washington to Greenleaf to Linn to Palmer and finally back to Beloit. Among them were the invention of a job as agricultural marketing specialist, the possibility of satellite grocery distributors, and the epiphany that senior citizens and college students have a lot more in common than they might realize when it comes to food. Hence, the title of my post today.
I'm very excited to share this with my readers because it has the potential to transform your marketing angle when it comes to selling food. There is of course the assumption that some of my readers are selling food. :) If not, this still might be of interest to you.
At Friendly Corners today, the senior center in Washington, KS, I had a nice chat with some ladies who came to lunch about food. After our trays were cleared from the table and we started to discuss issues of children not having enough to eat and how that impacts their academic performance, we got onto the topic of living by yourself and cooking for one. "Unless you want to be eating the same meal six days in a row," I said jokingly, "you can't ever cook a full recipe of anything." Of course, in the back of my mind I knew I was exaggerating because I usually try to have a couple of things on hand so I'm not eating the same thing over and over again. Yet, there have been moments where I kick myself for having cooked a whole pot of something and then realize two weeks later that I still have leftovers to eat...
Well, those ladies couldn't have agreed with me more! They went on and on about how the senior center was perfect for them because someone else could make a big batch of something and then they could all have one serving, with little to no waste. Perhaps the fact that I'm truly living on my own and cooking for myself for the first time this summer is what brought this to my attention, but think about it: seniors are often living alone in the same way that college students or recent graduates are. A lot of times their kids will bring them meals, or take them out for activities, but many seniors I've met over the past few weeks haven't a clue how much money is spent on groceries for themselves on a monthly basis because their kids are doing the buying for them. Regardless of who is doing the buying, if they have to cook for themselves it is a struggle because they are only one mouth to feed.
So what's the point here? And what's the relevance to selling food?
Well, if you've followed any of the news about grocery store sales trends in the last five, ten years or so (which until the Rural Grocery Initiative I'll admit was not even on my radar), you'd know that millennials are driving food sales in the direction of more fresh produce and meat, and are buying more online. They want transparency in their food, fewer ingredients, and honesty from the brands they buy from. They want a story, and a good one that develops a personal relationship with the company, brand, farmer, you name it. Food purchases become part of their identity--we are voting with our dollar, and are very intentional about where those dollars are spent.
Baby boomers may be on a very different end of that spectrum, but there is a key similarity between these two groups: they are cooking for one, and they don't like to waste food.
You've also probably seen the uptick in meal kit offerings in recent years--I'm pretty sure that's being driven by millennials. Ingredients are put together for you so that all you have to do is grab a box, go home, and cook it. So what if we took that same idea and applied it to farmers markets? A lot of farmers markets in this area are just getting their feet off the ground, and people are just now learning how to create a Facebook page to market their products. A big portion of the population is older (let's say 60+), but another big portion, interestingly enough, is in their early thirties. In a recent economic development report looking at trends in Republic County, the number of thirty-year-olds had increased by something like 28% in the last ten years (Don't quote me on that but the numbers are close). These people comprise young families moving out to rural areas to raise a family, and the one thing they all have in common is a lack of time. People want convenience, especially moms with many kids who are involved in all sorts of after school activities, sports, etc. And no matter what their political or religious status, serving their families quality, healthful foods is a shared priority. It's no wonder I've noticed from our survey results so far as part of my internship this summer that females in the 30-45 age range tend to choose "yes" when asked if they would be interested in subscribing to a food delivery service.
I digress from the point, of course--that millennials and baby boomers can be won using the same marketing tactics. They key is figuring out the best way to reach them. And those strategies will look radically different from each other.
If anyone decides to experiment with this idea, please let me know how it goes! I'm curious to see if it works well for you. :)
More later on why the state of Kansas needs to hire an agricultural marketing specialist that serves small-scale specialty crop growers and commodity farmers who are looking to do something new...
Lot of cool thoughts came to mind today as I made my rounds from Cuba to Washington to Greenleaf to Linn to Palmer and finally back to Beloit. Among them were the invention of a job as agricultural marketing specialist, the possibility of satellite grocery distributors, and the epiphany that senior citizens and college students have a lot more in common than they might realize when it comes to food. Hence, the title of my post today.
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| Cool engraving in downtown Washington, KS |
I'm very excited to share this with my readers because it has the potential to transform your marketing angle when it comes to selling food. There is of course the assumption that some of my readers are selling food. :) If not, this still might be of interest to you.
At Friendly Corners today, the senior center in Washington, KS, I had a nice chat with some ladies who came to lunch about food. After our trays were cleared from the table and we started to discuss issues of children not having enough to eat and how that impacts their academic performance, we got onto the topic of living by yourself and cooking for one. "Unless you want to be eating the same meal six days in a row," I said jokingly, "you can't ever cook a full recipe of anything." Of course, in the back of my mind I knew I was exaggerating because I usually try to have a couple of things on hand so I'm not eating the same thing over and over again. Yet, there have been moments where I kick myself for having cooked a whole pot of something and then realize two weeks later that I still have leftovers to eat...
Well, those ladies couldn't have agreed with me more! They went on and on about how the senior center was perfect for them because someone else could make a big batch of something and then they could all have one serving, with little to no waste. Perhaps the fact that I'm truly living on my own and cooking for myself for the first time this summer is what brought this to my attention, but think about it: seniors are often living alone in the same way that college students or recent graduates are. A lot of times their kids will bring them meals, or take them out for activities, but many seniors I've met over the past few weeks haven't a clue how much money is spent on groceries for themselves on a monthly basis because their kids are doing the buying for them. Regardless of who is doing the buying, if they have to cook for themselves it is a struggle because they are only one mouth to feed.
So what's the point here? And what's the relevance to selling food?
Well, if you've followed any of the news about grocery store sales trends in the last five, ten years or so (which until the Rural Grocery Initiative I'll admit was not even on my radar), you'd know that millennials are driving food sales in the direction of more fresh produce and meat, and are buying more online. They want transparency in their food, fewer ingredients, and honesty from the brands they buy from. They want a story, and a good one that develops a personal relationship with the company, brand, farmer, you name it. Food purchases become part of their identity--we are voting with our dollar, and are very intentional about where those dollars are spent.
Baby boomers may be on a very different end of that spectrum, but there is a key similarity between these two groups: they are cooking for one, and they don't like to waste food.
You've also probably seen the uptick in meal kit offerings in recent years--I'm pretty sure that's being driven by millennials. Ingredients are put together for you so that all you have to do is grab a box, go home, and cook it. So what if we took that same idea and applied it to farmers markets? A lot of farmers markets in this area are just getting their feet off the ground, and people are just now learning how to create a Facebook page to market their products. A big portion of the population is older (let's say 60+), but another big portion, interestingly enough, is in their early thirties. In a recent economic development report looking at trends in Republic County, the number of thirty-year-olds had increased by something like 28% in the last ten years (Don't quote me on that but the numbers are close). These people comprise young families moving out to rural areas to raise a family, and the one thing they all have in common is a lack of time. People want convenience, especially moms with many kids who are involved in all sorts of after school activities, sports, etc. And no matter what their political or religious status, serving their families quality, healthful foods is a shared priority. It's no wonder I've noticed from our survey results so far as part of my internship this summer that females in the 30-45 age range tend to choose "yes" when asked if they would be interested in subscribing to a food delivery service.
I digress from the point, of course--that millennials and baby boomers can be won using the same marketing tactics. They key is figuring out the best way to reach them. And those strategies will look radically different from each other.
If anyone decides to experiment with this idea, please let me know how it goes! I'm curious to see if it works well for you. :)
More later on why the state of Kansas needs to hire an agricultural marketing specialist that serves small-scale specialty crop growers and commodity farmers who are looking to do something new...
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| The grocery store in Greenleaf, KS shares a building with the library, post office, and business center. Neat-o! |
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