Mastering Marketing
2018 Consumer Survey - Your help is Needed!
Across much of the United States, farmers' markets have reported a decrease in consumer participation over the last couple of years, resulting in a decrease in farm sales and income. In an attempt to understand and reverse this slump, a multi-state study is being undertaken by Farmers Market Federation of NY and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County, in partnership with Community Involved in Agriculture (CISA), NOFA-VT, University of Maryland Extension, and the Farmers Market Association of Maryland. The study will consist of a consumer survey to ascertain the reasoning behind consumer choices of venues to shop for local food. The survey will focus on all consumers with an interest in local food.
Your help in reaching consumers is valuable to the outcome of this study. We have identified categories of consumers that we hope to reach with our survey. Each category is important in identifying customer shopping behavior in purchasing local food, even those with no interest. Our hope is to reach all categories of consumers.
- those who regularly shop at farmers markets and are firmly behind the local food movement
- those who view farmers markets as a social event, but have a keen interest in local food
- those who are interested in local food, but rarely shop at a farmers market
- those who have little to no interest in local food and never shop at farmers markets
Below is a link to the consumer survey. It is an online survey and does not require face-to-face interaction. The survey is meant to take between 10–15 minutes.
Consumer survey
The online survey will remain open from June 18, 2018, through October 1, 2018. At that time the survey will close to allow a team from the Charles H Dyson School of Applied Economics & Management at Cornell University to analyze the survey to determine trends, preferences, and needs of “today’s” local food shoppers.
Please direct any questions or comments to Diane Eggert at deggert@nyfarmersmarket.com or Laura Biasillo at lw257@cornell.edu.
Mastering Marketing is produced by Ginger S. Myers and is published periodically containing important seasonal marketing information.