Who Are You Benchmarking Against?
More and more farmers are entering the agritourism arena. In some parts of the world this is a great business decision as there are few farmers in this space. In other parts of the world the agritourism industry is already overcrowded and the entry of new players only confuses the consumer.
The challenge of new players in a crowded market is they often do not due their homework. They look at busy parking lots and decide they could do the same. The result is lots of “me too” enterprises that eventually bore the consumer.
The key is to success is to differentiate yourself from the crowd to ensure you have point of difference in the visitors mind. As the market gets crowed your marketing gets more
challenging as it is important to keep track of what other operators are doing in your catchment area to ensure you maintain your market leadership. Not only do you need to keep an eye on other agritourism operators, but you also need to look at other operators who operate in the same space.
The industry is roughly split into two distinct consumer offers, although these often blend into one.
One segment is entertainment on the farm. This, in my opinion, should be farm based activities to maintain authenticity. In most global cases farmers and the industry enters the market in this space and then moves onto the second segment.
Whichever segment you choose you have to exceed the customers’ expectations and consumers are benchmarking you against their experiences in the sector.
Agri entertainment, is, again in my view, a dangerous space to stay long term without evolving, as it can easily be copied.
Operators in this segment need to benchmark themselves against Disneyworld and that is a hard company to have as a benchmark where you can exceed customer expectations.
The second segment is retailing on the farm via a farmers’ market. In this segment the consumers often benchmark you against their favourite supermarket. Still a challenge, but a lot
easier for a farm to exceed their expectations.
What are the lessons we need to be aware of?
1. If you are in a crowded agritourism market, make sure you are aware what other operators are doing and then create a point of difference, “me to” operators always fail.
2. Benchmark yourself on business in the overall sector that the customer experiences. Not on other farms in the sector.
The agritourism space will continue to get more crowed over the next few years and we will all need to up our game.
