One of our speakers at the Country Living Outlook Conference was Susan Spaulding, Market Directions. She was part of a panel that discussed “What’s Going on in the Country.”

Susan says her company has done some significant research on the rural lifestyle market. Some of the things they’ve found about the people who live the country life include:

• They are passionate about where they live.
• They’re looking to marketers to help them enjoy their choice to live the country life.
• Media choices are working well and used by them and they spend a lot of time on the internet.
• They’re very engaged in their community.
• Women are very involved in decision making.
• Half are empty nesters, half aren’t.

Everyone wants to understand just who these people are but it’s obvious that we’re dealing with a very diverse target market.

You can listen to my interview with Susan here: cla-07-spaulding.mp3