Cover Brand: The Truth About Brand Evangelists
How do you turn people who stumbled into the Farmer's Market on a nice Saturday into more engaged participants?
Mackenzie Sehlke is the executive director of the Boulder County Farmers Markets, a 40-year-old nonprofit running seasonal markets in Boulder and Longmont, plus a food hub that's been quietly building for six years. She came in wanting to know how to convert casual visitors into lifelong fans. What she got was permission to stop wanting that — at least as a primary strategy.
MAIN TOPICS COVERED
The banana curve — most of your buyers are light buyers, for any brand, any event, any category. Most Harley riders only ever buy one Harley. For a farmers market in a tourist town, that curve skews even further. Don’t curse the climate, plan for it.
Reacquaintance over retention. The ongoing reminder that you exist, that it's Saturday, that you like going to the market. Even the biggest brands have to keep tapping you on the shoulder.
Behavioral loyalty vs. emotional loyalty — someone can love a brand they only visit once a year. Someone else can show up every week out of pure habit.
Delight as strategy — the small, considered thing that turns a fine morning into a story someone tells. It's the detail that tells people someone was paying attention.
Cover Song: Teenage Dirtbag (Wheatus), as covered by The Parcels live at Red Rocks. May only exist as shaky iPhone footage. We're working on it.
Additional resources: Boulder County Farmers Markets at bcfm.org. The banana curve gets its full treatment in the Applied Brand Science book and on the podcast. Share this one with anyone who's exhausted from trying to manufacture superfans out of a crowd that just wanted a good Saturday.
