Market Directions Leads Executive Marketing Summit on Popular Rural Lifestyle

PRLog (Press Release) – May 12, 2008 – Market Directions, Inc., a brand performance consultancy, hosted a summit of senior-level marketing decision makers to examine the dynamics of the booming Rural Lifestylers market and discuss ways that businesses could tap into it.

Organized with the assistance of the Country Living Association and the National Agri-Marketing Association the April 15 Rural Lifestyle Marketing Summit held in Kansas City revealed the complexity, diversity, and opportunity represented by this expanding market.
Participants included executives from major equipment manufacturers , financial services, real estate, risk management, media, animal health and nutrition, communications technology, lawn & pasture management and retail.

Based on census information from 112 million non-farming rural homeowners, 74% live on less than 1 acre of land, 16% on 1-3 acres, and the remaining on more than 3 acres. .
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Typically homeowners in this segment are 50 years old and have a non-farm primary income, but live in the country as a means of authentic self-expression. Their chief desire is to escape the chaos of urban America, get more in touch with nature, but not at the expense of urban conveniences and modern-day commodities. A survey of

360 Country Living Association members revealed that primary motivators are increased serenity, freedom, and greater control.

“Earlier industry benchmark research had laid a useful foundation for marketers’ understanding of the magnitude and scope of opportunity in this “country living” segment,” said Market Directions CEO Susan Spaulding. “The Summit provided an opportunity for us to identify unmet marketing and business intelligence needs and develop a framework for answering those needs on an ongoing basis.”

Participants shared known success-factors that directly affected brand strategy, market penetration and business growth. They were asked to help define the parameters of pending research into this non-traditional emerging ag market which has been summarized in a Prospectus that’s available from Market Directions.

After the day-long event, they gained immediate actionable insights about the country living market and, in the end, were able to walk away equipped with needed tools to advance strategic planning. Some of the key take-home points included:
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Greater understanding and articulation of the rationale for commitment and investment in the segment;

More opportunistic ways to look at the market—it’s structure, trajectory, and how it fits into a broader consumer market context; and

The chance to contrast one’s current go-to-market strategies with identified ‘best practices’ for exploiting the rural lifestyle consumer.

In summarizing the day’s findings, Spaulding noted the different buying stages, personas, motivators, and values of the various lifestyler segments. In particular the Summit participants focused on purchase behaviors before, during the first 24 months, and after establishing the lifestyle. Other areas of focus were audience influencers, information interests, and marketing opportunities with the target market.

Said one of the participants representing an equipment manufacturer: “Clearly, this was a very beneficial event. Any time you have industry peers coming together for an in-depth discussion, the takeaways are worth the cost of gold. I look forward to reading published research on this emerging and lucrative segment and to developing the opportunity that’s out there for our business.”
The report and business intelligence prospectus is available from Market Directions.