One minute you’re watching your brother or sister blow out the candles on a sixth birthday cake and then in what seems no time at all you’ve both left home and moved into adult life. Those precious growing up years were no doubt recorded by your Mum, Dad or doting grandparents, so you can look back at photos or recordings of significant events like family holidays, outings, parties and birthdays. Those milestones that marked your transition from baby to toddler, toddler to child, child to teenager and finally your arrival at adulthood.
If your parents had not recorded those events on film, you would be hard pressed to recall the subtle changes that happened year on year. In the countryside, subtle changes happen every day as the seasons unfold. If you are running a rural business, you are missing a fabulous, affordable opportunity if you don’t capture those seasonal changes and use images of them to promote your goods and services.
I was standing in the beautiful cafe at Loch Leven’s Larder listening to Robin Niven talking about the story of the farm shop and cafe during the Farm and More Fife Tour in Scotland last week. Watching the sun sink down over the stunning Loch Leven, I could only agree when he said, how the farm itself provides untapped opportunities for seasonal branding. Every week there is something new to see.
What is seasonal branding?
Companies large and small want to attract customers with eye catching displays which chime with what’s going on in the lives of their customers. Tying branding to the seasons is an obvious choice for companies selling fresh produce. So here in the UK high street retailers like Marks and Spencers or Waitrose will use autumnal, winter, spring or summer countryside scenes to promote seasonal goods such as pumpkins, asparagus, strawberries or new season lamb.
Those seasonal re-brands are carefully designed and executed. The variety keeps a company’s image fresh and prevents the customers getting bored. Every few weeks the branding changes giving the impression that this is a place that sells the freshest, most vibrant produce.
Why use seasonal branding in your business?
Seasonal branding like this gives variety, it gives consumers something different to look at, it ties in with consumers’ calendar events such as Halloween, Valentine’s Day and Easter. It keeps a business image, fresh, alive, relevant.
More than that though it tugs at consumers’s heartstrings.
Tap into the lure of the countryside
The idea of escaping to a quieter more authentic existence in the country, closer to nature has captivated urban dwellers for centuries. Whether for a weekend re-charge or a lock stock and barrel change of lifestyle, the countryside has a strong pull on the imagination. Bringing that closeness to nature, into people’s shopping experience helps feed that idea and connects your produce and your business in with that aspiration for a simpler, better life in the country.
If your customers are already country dwellers you reinforce their good choice of location!
This creates good positive vibes. Don’t forget people in amongst the chimney pots are dreaming about what’s on your doorstep.
Affordable images on your doorstep
For large companies re-branding like this is expensive. It requires designers, photographers, printers and a big budget.
Once the re-branding is done, it has to be rolled out across stores, shop windows, sales literature. Surely that’s way beyond a small businesses’ budget?
It would be, except that if you live on a farm or are based in the countryside you have the most fantastic source of seasonal branding imagery right on your doorstep. From a bright red robin on a snow covered twig to daffodils blooming in the hedgerows. With a half decent camera you can capture the seasonal changes as they happen. On farms, every day there are so many stunning photo opportunities. You probably don’t realise the effect those photos have on city dwellers who dream of clean air and big open spaces.
On farms, new born lambs provide the super cute factor but frozen water troughs, pigs running amok and goats being milked all add seasonal colour to your communications. If you take the photos on your own farm, you have the added advantage of uniqueness.
The big brands can do this but it takes a lot of organisation and budget. All you have to do is walk out the door with your camera.
Take a camera everywhere
If you are using online platforms like Facebook, Twitter or a blog it is easy and cheap to upload these pictures as you take them. Even for printed material and shop branding, you can substantially reduce your spend by getting in the habit of carrying around a camera or smart phone with decent camera.
Every few weeks there is a seasonal celebration of some sort on the calendar. From well known events like Christmas and Mothers Day to the less commercialised Michaelmas and Saints day feasts.
You can have fun creating albums of relevant images that can be added to your blog posts, e-news articles and of course your Facebook page.
At the end of the year you will have excellent material to produce a unique calendar for sale in your shop or market stall.
Just imagine if you had no recorded images of your childhood, how much would you retain of those changes big and small that happen as you grew up? In the same way, your surroundings change in big and small ways throughout the year. Share those changes with your customers and bring them a little slice of life in the country.
Juliet Fay.
© Juliet Fay 2011, author, speaker, trainer, marketing consultant, sales writer Wales, UK
Helping rural businesses make more from doing what they love by helping improve their sales writing, marketing campaigns and Twitter use. Email me for a quote.
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