Fresh Idea: Lush Logos

Logos are everywhere these days. You can't help but see at least one brand throughout your day. They come in different shapes and sizes and with diverse personalities just like people. So what makes one stand out to you over the others? What gives it appeal especially when it is broadcasting something as generic as a Farmer's Market? The logo needs to be lush. 

What do I mean when I say a lush logo? "Lush" as I want to define it is an adjective that means "appealing to the senses" - ie. I enjoyed the lush sounds of the orchestra. When used in this context it is a brand that attracts the customer without overwhelming them. 

This definition stems from an article again written by my favorite periodical, Fast Company, named "How to Build an Unforgettable, 'Smashable' Brand Identity (Hint: It's Not the Logo)." While the title emphasizes that your logo is not your brand, it is still an important part of attracting the customer. This article discusses that your brand has to be cross-sensory and so does your logo. 

Think of the car manufacturer Audi. However you may feel about cars they have done an excellent job making their brand concept consistent throughout their products. If you saw an Audi A4 and then saw an Audi A8 you may not know what the cars are or anything about them, but I'm sure you could guess they were from the same company because they look similar, sound similar, and drive similarly. The same holds true on the inside with similar layouts of stereo, seating, and lighting. The cars look very similar even though they are of completely different sizes, have different engines and features. 

So how does this carryover to the Farmer's Market. concept? How can you make a market brand show throughout the market experience while still maintaining heterogeneity?

1. Have a Visually Appealing Image and Color Scheme

My favorite example of this is the Minneapolis Mill City Market. Their website is brimming with vivid colors, great pictures, and a curiously attracting logo. It is a green silhouette of a rooster on top of a fire hydrant. Excellent because it says country farm meets city location. 

2. Proliferate the Image and Colors

Where the Mill City Market could improve is in their proliferation of that great image. I have yet to be to the market yet but their e-mails lack the same vividness. A good example of someone they can look to is Seattle's Pike Place Market. I started subscribing a few months ago to this e-mail feed just to see the newsletter and it is amazing packed with professionally done images, messages, and coupons. It looks like something I would get from Whole Foods. 

3. Have Consistent Vendors 

While I love diversity, there is a certain comfort to seeing a small number of consistent vendors to tell you that you are at a satellite of a larger market. The best example of this is the St. Paul's Farmer's Market which has different locations throughout the week but a consistent logo, color scheme, and some similar vendors that anchor their markets. 

4. Invoke the Other Senses When Talking About the Brand

The Minneapolis Farmer's Market has a radio show, a twitter feed, flyers, spokespeople, a market talk, and a cooking hour all revolving around their logo. They are creating a persona to their market more than anything else. I am expecting that when I visit their market my senses will be on alert. 

So a logo is much like the cover of a book. It can help someone open you up and see what you're about, but once they are in you have to keep them attracted to that logo. You need to continue to pervade your buyer's interest and senses. 

 

Fresh Idea: A Market on a Mission

“People want to be part of something larger than themselves. They want to be

part of something they’re really proud of, that they’ll fight for, sacrifice for, that they trust.”


—Howard Schultz, Starbucks




You, a member of your local Farmer's Market, probably think, "Mission statements may be great for someone like Starbucks or Apple, but what does it matter for a local Farmer's Market? People know what we're doing. We sell local food in our area and that should be self-evidently important on its face." 


We at Driving For Freshness think in response: "You sell food locally. So what? I can as easily drive to my super market or another fresh market to get similar goods. Why should I even bother to shop here?"


Your mission statement can go a long way in defining you for people outside and inside your market. Let's 
take a look at a couple of statements to see what I mean:

Central Minnesota Vegetable Growers Association 

"The CMVGA manages, educates and assists in improving production methods and direct-marketing strategies for its members through related partnerships with the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and the Minnesota Grown Promotional Board."

Dane County Farmer's Market 


The DCFM pursues the following goals:

•  To give growers and producers of Wisconsin agricultural commodities and other farm-related products alternative marketing opportunities. •  To promote the sale of Wisconsin-grown farm products. •  To improve the variety, freshness, taste and nutritional value of produce available in the Madison area. •  To provide an opportunity for farmers and people from urban communities to deal directly with each other rather than through third parties, and to thereby get to know and learn from one another. •  To provide an educational forum for consumers to learn the uses and benefits of quality, locally grown or prepared food products. •  To provide educational opportunities for producers to test and refine their products and marketing skills. •  To enhance the quality of life in the greater Madison area by providing a community activity which fosters social gathering and interaction. •  To preserve Wisconsin’s unique agricultural heritage and the historical role which farmers' markets have played in it.

The first statement, found on the website for the Minneapolis Farmer's Market, is good but a touch broad. When I read it I think that my purpose in going to the market is to educate myself about local produce like it is a class and to acknowledge the organizations that put it together. On a Saturday morning I'm honestly not in the mood to go educate myself per say, I want to have an experience of interacting with farmer's. This seems like a very introverted statement that is meant for people within the organization. What about its customers?


The second statement from the market in Madison really lays out some concrete goals that can relate to all different parties. These are all great goals but it would be nice if it was prefaced with an overarching statement and each of the goals were more quantifiable. How do I know if we are getting close to our goals?


How did I come to these conclusions? I analyzed them along three measurements that I want to share with you: concreteness, direction, and support. When you get done reading these pointers, think about the mission statements that I pulled from these sites and see if you could come up with something better.  


Point 1: Make it Concrete


Dan Heath, columnist for Fast Company magazine and writer of the book Made To Stick, warns that the first thing an organization has to be weary of is making the statement so broad that it is almost meaningless. 


In the article "How to Write a Mission Statement That Doesn't Suck" he shows a statement by Sonicbids that uses concrete language:


"We want to help musicians get gigs, and promoters book the right bands...We're a bunch of people who think that music can truly change the world and make it smaller and better."


That statement is something tangible that you can really put your hands around depending on where you are in the organization. If you do not use concrete language then you can have your associates and customers sterilize the statement to where it loses all of its passion. This is why Dan contrasts Sonicbids with the mission statement from Exxon Mobil:


"Exxon Mobil is committed to being the world's premier petroleum and petrochemical company." 


This statement talks much about what the organization drives to do but not much of what they plan to do for its customers and stakeholders. Try to rework this statement yourself and see if you can come up with something more akin to Sonicbid's statement. It might help you rework your own. 


Point 2: Designate the Finish Line


Nancy Lubin at Fast Company in her article "How to Write A Mission Statement That Isn't Dumb" really stresses finding that long term goal for your organization that people can gather around. She writes, "Mission statements don't have to be dumb. In fact, they can be very valuable, if they articulate real targets." She gives the example of the Amazon Kindle, "Every book ever printed, in any language, all available in less than 60 seconds." That is something exciting, broad, but can also be measured. In other words make your mission count. 


Point 3: Gather the Input of Your Audience 


Once you know where your going and what you want people to think of when they hear it then you add in the input of your audience. The difficulty can often be: Who is your audience? Is this something that you just want employees to know or be proud enough to showcase it at your market for your customers to see? Bounce it off of the people it matters to the most. 


So now that you've got these pointers? What do you think about the mission statements above? What do you follow as the mission statement for your market? Do you even have one? Does anyone know about it? I would love hear comments about your experiences with mission statements. Please share. 


If you want to read more about this subject please look at this article:


http://goarticles.com/article/How-to-Brand-A-Farmers-Market-for-Success/4689441/

Fresh Idea: Build It and They Will Come

Something I have already touched on and something I will allude to in future Fresh Idea posts is building the Farmer's Market brand. For this post I will rely on the book New Directions in Marketing for Farmer's Markets. 

"Build it and they will come" is what Ray Liotta said to Kevin Cosner in the movie Field of Dreams when referring to the baseball stadium Ray wanted Kevin to create. If only it was that easy with a farmer's market that wherever you had vendors, shoppers would follow. Instead, a Farmer's Market needs to build a brand that people will follow. So this begs the question: How do you create such a brand?

According to New Directions there are several components to creating a brand:

• Developing a mission statement
• Developing a logo
• Creating a characteristic summary (sometimes called "talking points")
• Choosing colors to be used for logo and all messages
• Choosing a typeface for all messages
• Developing verbal cues (sometimes called "tag lines")

Each day this week we will tackle a different point of the brand according to the text starting tomorrow with the mission statement. 

If you have seen or created a Farmer's Market brand that you will really like feel free to share it this week. I look forward to seeing your comments. 

Fresh Idea: Classes and Clubs Increase Diversity

Yesterday on the blog I said that it might help out the Richfield market or really any market if they had some cooking going on using the products at the market. I unfortunately made it seem like there was nothing going on the Richfield market in terms of cooking. That would be incorrect because there was some hot prep for some brunch items like crepes and omelettes. This is a real asset to a market to have some local cooking going on.

I wanted to elaborate with some brief examples to explain what I was trying to talk about yesterday. While I like the idea of a hot prep station, what can often get lost is the presentation of the process and when you are talking about fresh ingredients it would be great to really educate your consumers about what is going on with the food and why these ingredients are better than what can be found at supermarkets, convenience stores, and even some restaurants. Educating your consumers can help increase the sales of your current patrons and reach out to those who may not normally frequent the market.

The first example that I would like to share is the Dallas Farmer's Market. On their site it says that for 16 years they have been doing "great cooking classes...with renowned local chefs demonstrating their favorite dishes inspired by fresh produce from the market." The classes were around $30 which seems reasonable given that here in the Cities the average date for a night with the Cooks on Crocus Hill is $60. I think this is a real opportunity to highlight items in your market for people and teach them how to use it. While the average consumer at a Farmer's Market probably likes preparing food and is versed in cooking who is not to say that having some cooking classes would not attract a younger less experience audience and maybe even turn more sales with existing customers.

Speaking of attracting younger consumers, I would like to feature Fondy Food Center from Milwaukee. Fondy has tried to fight against the grain that fresh food markets cannot be successful in urban core areas. Part of their success is tied to their cooking classes for young people. Even I wish I would have had something like this close to my house to teach me some things about cooking.

Last, I want to feature the Crescent City Farmer's Market in New Orleans. Crescent City not only has a club for kids called the Marketeers where they can learn about what goes on at the market, but also a Farmer's Market club for senior members called Farmer's Market Bingo, which serves to "inform first time seniors how to make the most of the Market: from health considerations to the rhythm of seasonal eating."

With these examples I hope you can see markets that are trying to reach out to populations that may not necessarily be interested in a Farmer's Market. Every market has the potential to tap into the population it is connected to - it just takes some creativity and curiosity.