Branding & Customers: Tell Your Farm Story

Developing a farm brand is an important part of being able to share your farm story with your customers. This topic will focus on how you can communicate the feel of your farm to a designer, key elements of a brand and how to use them, and how your customers are informed by your brand.

We’ll also touch on market research specifically for a farming business. Knowing where your market is and how big it is will help to figure out the viability of your farm enterprises.

The Branding & Customers session will feature two speakers:

Shauna Fidler is a graphic and permaculture designer with a deep-rooted passion for growing food, community and farm economies. Her creative agency, DESIGN FARM, works almost exclusively with food, farm and community-service / not for profit organizations. Shauna has years of experience developing community scale and regional initiatives, events and programs focused on building a more resilient food system.  Shauna and her family have a permaculture smallholding on a sunny mountain side in Winlaw, Sinitx Territory.

Lourdes Still is the founder of Masagana Flower Farm & Studio, a small-scale flower farm and dye studio near La Broquerie, Manitoba. At this immigrant Filipina-lead small business, Lourdes places her priority on sustainable growing practices. She grows seasonal blooms, dye plants and makes hand made, small batch naturally dyed textile goods. She grows crops without synthetic fertilizers in garden beds where lawns previously existed. In summer, she offers experiential tours called “Tinta. A Dye Your Own Wearable Art Experience”. A three-hour engagement at the farm where guests participate in a multi-faceted experience on flower farming, dye plants cultivation, flower u-pick and natural dyeing. She advocates for an eco-conscious lifestyle and inspires others to re-imagine their greenspaces. She believes that growing joy (through flowers) and creating magic (through dye plants) is right at our fingertips and our gardens present opportunities to respond positively to the climate emergency.

During the online session we will have a chance to discuss the nuances of developing a brand, how to conduct market research, and to share the value proposition and taglines you’ve written.

VIDEOS

Developing a Brand – Shauna Fidler (DESIGN FARM)

Market Research – Shauna Fidler (DESIGN FARM)

Farmer Story – Lourdes Still (Masagana Flower Farm)

WORKSHEET

Here is a worksheet that can help you start honing in on what you want your brand to say about your farm. There is also a SWOT analysis page to help you with your market research.

Branding & Customers Worksheet (pdf)
Branding & Customers Worksheet (doc)

RESOURCES

Resource Guide – Growing Your Food Business (Basin Food)
Powerpoint – Value Proposition Templates (Hubspot)
Article – How to Conduct and Use Market Research (BC Agriculture)

Name and Domain Searches:
https://whc.ca/domain-names/search
https://www.namecheckr.com/

RECORDING