AgWired

If you know Steve Drake then you know he likes to work in the background. In fact, after taking about 500 pictures at the Country Living Association activities last week none of them have Steve in it.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t get to talk to Steve though. His company, Drake & Company, is an accredited association management firm. Basically they are the staff and headquarters for several national organizations like the National Christmas Tree Association and Alpha Zeta. Of course the Country Living Association is one of those too.

Steve says that everyone is looking at this rural lifestyle market and trying to figure out how to reach it. He said that he saw a need for an organization to bring the community together. So how large is the market? Steve says he hears figures of from 2 to 20 million people. When I asked him how the CLA is marketing itself to reach this market he says that right now they’ve been working with their corporate partners and doing promotions and publicity.

As the CLA grows it’s obvious to me that the organization itself will become a viable way to reach out to the rural lifestyle market. That’s why if you’re not a sponsor now you might want to consider becoming one.

You can listen to my interview with Steve here: cla-07-drake.mp3

Courtney Yuskis, pictured here on the right of some of the corporate partners of the Country Living Association, gave some closing remarks at the Country Living Outlook Conference that included a summary of the organization’s first year to date.

They started on January 1 and have over 11,000 members. She says that CLA is meant to be a community for like-minded people who share a passion for country living. They’ve held three clinics so far in three states with two more coming up next month. They’re working on developing their website so that it will be the authoritative site for country living information.

She also thanked the founding sponsors and corporate partners which include: Nationwide Agribusiness and Allied Insurance, John Deere, Fastline Publications, Land O’ Lakes, Purina Feed, Tractor Supply Company, PBI Gordon, Farm Safety 4 Just Kids and official publication, Living The Country Life.

You can listen to Courtney’s closing comments here: cla-07-courtney-close.mp3

This may be Courtney’s wrapup comments but I’ve got more to come from the Country Living Activities so keep your eyes and ears open.

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