A Persona Model for the Behavioral Segmentation of Farmers

Behavioral or psychographic personas can be very helpful in marketing to help us get in the minds of our audience, understand their core motivations, and therefore develop content and messaging that will most likely resonate with a group of people who represent our ideal audience. Personas are historically an audience model used in the B2B marketing world (specifically in user experience strategy and content marketing) to identify the “ideal” audience and to determine channels and messages that will most likely connect with that ideal audience.

From past interactions in the agriculture industry, and an experience in assessing the performance of marketing messages, I propose a basic model for understanding the core approaches of the agriculture audience. This model can lay a foundation for choosing the best audience and building marketing messages that will most likely connect.

The Persona Model

This farmer persona model is based on two primary factors: appetite for risk and desire for growth.

  • Appetite for Risk: Yes, there is always risk involved in farming, and yes, all farmers use different strategies for mitigating that risk, but certain personalities have different approaches to risk. Some are more comfortable being highly leveraged, trying new products, and quite literally “betting the farm”, while others look to find every possible strategy to reduce and mitigate risk via cautious adoption of new approaches, full use of financial instruments and contracts, and leveraging insurance wherever possible.
  • Desire for Growth: Growth is foundational to the approach for a farmer, but some have a much higher desire for growth than others.This could be motivated by a desire to be bigger and better, or it could be fueled by a need for more income due to changing ownership, family dynamics, or increased costs. Whatever the rationale, there is a broad spectrum of how aggressively a farmer may look to grow.

The matrix of those two motivating factors yields four potential personas mindsets

Expand

This is the farmer who has a lower appetite for risk, but a higher desire for growth. This person seeks incremental growth via current approaches and products. Due to a lower appetite for risk, this farmer would not be an early adopter of new products, but due to a desire for growth, this farmer would represent the early majority of adoption via early testing and experimentation.

  • Some examples of ways in which this farmer may make decisions:
  • Cutting input costs by looking to use generic or lower cost competitor replacements.
  • Renting nearby land when available, assuming the costs work within their existing financial model.
  • Only using required inputs, and being very selective with inputs that may not be required.
  • Very slowly testing and adoption of new seed varieties or other crop inputs, with a preference for proven manufacturers and seed trait packages until fully adopted.

Advance

This is the farmer who has both a high desire for growth and a high appetite for risk. This approach doesn’t necessarily remove all cautions and mitigation strategies, but it does yield a keen approach to try new approaches and add more. Ultimately, all approaches and inputs will be measured and need to be justified with a positive ROI.

  • Some examples of approaches this farmer may take:
  • Early adoption of new products if they will result in higher yield and positive ROI.
  • Extending debt in order to acquire new (or more) equipment, land or other fixed costs that will further help with expansion.
  • Maximizing crop inputs that could result in higher yield and ROI.

Protect

This is the farmer who has a low desire for growth and a low appetite for risk. These are stewards of their farms, and they want to minimize adding in new or more in order to maintain the current approach. This audience is the late majority, only adopting new products and approaches when required. They are happy with the current state of operations and don’t seek to add complexity.

  • Some examples of ways in which this farmer may approach decisions:
  • High use of legacy products and approaches. Relies on trusted and proven vendors.
  • Limited expansion. They won’t typically rent or purchase additional land, and they will maintain current equipment well beyond average lifespan.

Innovate

This is the farmer who may have a higher appetite for risk, but a lower desire for growth. The innovator is someone who has a strong interest in “new” or “different”. They are an avid researcher and they are on top of the newest products and approaches.

  • Some ways in which this farmer may approach decisions:
  • Early adoption and experimentation with new products and approaches.
  • Actively researching and staying up-to-date on advancements in agriculture.
  • Looking to other industries or geographies to bring potential advancement to their own farm.

Although simplistic, this model offers the one way to think about and approach the farmer audience in North America. More robust research and persona development is always recommended to build out a true understanding of your “ideal” audience.