During the NAMA Trends in Agriculture conference I visited with Sara Steever and Heather Covrig, Paulsen Marketing, about their new thought paper titled, “How Multi-Generational Farming Operations Make Major Purchase Decisions.”

Heather says that purchasing decisions are becoming more and more important for farmers trying to meet the food needs of a growing population. So Paulsen conducted this study to find out how farmers are making those decisions. The study verifies some of the logical assumptions you might make like how important the input is from older farm family members. They conducted fourteen interviews with farm families throughout the midwest.

Sara says one of the most fascinating thing that came out of their study is that there is a lot of brand assimilation in farm families and there are several reasons for that including, familiarity, consistency, integration and relationships. Basically, it’s influence that comes down through the generations. For agrimarketers, this offers some challenges to break through that influence. She says that decisions are being made throughout the year now without the traditional seasonality that we used to have.

You can listen to my interview with Sara and Heather to learn more about the study here: Paulsen Thought Paper

2011 NAMA Trends in Agriculture Photo Album