Research


I was contacted by a business owner to advise on how to increase the use of an animal waste incineration business. 

The company wanted to increase its use with farmers who require fallen stock and livestock in the OTMS (Over Thirty Months Scheme), to be disposed of safely. The problem the company had faced was how to get in front of the farmers to get them to try the service.

Researching the behaviour typical to a farming audience indicated that they do not have time to read through detailed literature and do not repond particularly well to emailed campaigns. Equally, writing to them would often go amiss.

I decided to create some basic literature which just highlighted the main benefits of using the system. 

I arranged to attend a cattle market in Herefordshire early one morning to speak face to face with the farmers who would be most likely to benefit from using such a service.

After speaking with them, explaining how the service would benefit them and handing out the details, one of the farmers decided to try the service – he happened to own one of the largest farms in the county. He assured me if it was a good service, he would tell everyone and if it was a bad service, he would also tell everyone.

Needless to say he was happy and the end result was very successful in terms of getting more farmers to use the service.

Research is an important stage when developing any marketing campaign.

Money can often be wasted from not knowing or understanding the audience being targetted. This is why I always carry out research.

For this particular client, expensive, detailed literature would have been completely wrong. The audience needed a face to face approach in order to trust what was being offered and have very basic information to take away with them in order to respond at a later date or to recommend to others.