Meeting the Farmer Where She Is
Me in my peak farming years, late 80's. Yes, I was a proud 4-H'er!
Consumer research, by structure, favors consumers who live near city centers. Try as we might to include rural consumers, there are several challenges.
It’s less likely that they populate recruiting databases.
It’s harder to pick up samples from a central location (often in cities) for in-home use tests.
They’re not often located near focus group facilities for in-person groups or interviews.
To drive home-to-home with miles of country roads in between is super time intensive.
It’s really easy to overlook our rural population, yet according to ConsumerFinance.gov, rural consumers make up 14% of the US population. While agriculture is still an important part of the rural economy, healthcare, education and social assistance employ almost double the number of people as agriculture. Small businesses employ over 40% of the population. While incomes are generally lower than metro areas, rural consumers have significant buying power, especially in certain categories. Rural consumers have unique challenges with both access to retail stores and product selection, although Amazon and internet access have leveled the playing field significantly.
Good data here: Data Spotlight: Challenges in Rural Banking Access (consumerfinance.gov)
So what do we do? How do we get hands-on learning? Like the answer to so many questions in life, we meet them where they are….and be ready to put in some legwork.
In my experience, people in small communities still like to gather. Often you can find groups of men and women (usually not mixed groups) drinking coffee together at a set time most days of the week. This is a core routine before starting their day. If you can find a group like this, why not offer to buy their coffee in exchange for a little time? (While, of course, assuring them that you’re not trying to sell them anything.) I reviewed a duct tape prototype this way and heard alot of non-intuitive uses and perceptions. Very valuable to put in the footwork!
This group meets every Wednesday morning, 8am, at the same restaurant. I was lucky to chat with this group in 2018!
If you can network within a rural community, you can definitely visit folks in their homes or at their farm. One of my favorite interviews was with a young woman who took over the family farm. By all accounts, she was running the farm better than generations that preceded her!
If you’re up for it, county fairs are still alive and well in rural America. If you’re up for intercepting people on the midway, this could be a great way to either interview live or invite to a future event.
Don’t underestimate the power of a flyer on a bulletin board. Many years ago, I was recruiting pontoon boat owners, and I was pleasantly surprised how many calls we received after hanging a flyer in a bar near a lake.
A few other ideas:
Online boards can be a great solution for reaching rural people since broadband now reaches fairly remote locations.
You may want to use a text interview methodology to account for lower internet speeds.
You may want to observe more passively, and I’ve heard that following Reddit communities can be an unobtrusive way to find themes and topics.
As you have already surmised, these are ideas and still require quite a bit of legwork. I’m curious, what have you done to reach rural consumers? Or other hard-to-reach consumers?
As I noted above, I’m in no way suggesting that all rural consumers are farmers. Teaching, healthcare, and entrepreneurship are very much alive and well in rural America. Rural consumers can be diverse! Get out there and see for yourself! (Or just visit the animals - that’s fun too!)
Me holding a miniature....donkey (?).... at Majestic Meadows, Medina, OH
Want to brainstorm about how to find hard-to-reach consumers? Happy to schedule a call!
