Store Demographics Interview

BRM 246

Store Demographics Interview

BKC Feed and Supply

BKC Feed and Supply is a family owned small town farm store that sales farm supplies and feed to local farmers in the surrounding three counties. BKC Feed and Supply just opened earlier this year. We carry all major feed brands like Purina, Nutrena, and DuMOR, and all the types of equipment you need to start a farm and get it to producing for you.

Interview

What is your store brand?

At BKC Feed we do not currently carry our own store brand. We are in the process of creating and patenting some new feed supplements, but I cannot release any more information than that.

Who is the consumer?

Farmers from the tri-county area that are either new to farming or have been farming for years. We have recently started receiving consumers who are new to the farm life or are thinking about getting started.

What is the main demographic population you serve?

We see all kinds of age ranges in our store. Being out in the country allows for different modes of transportation like ATVs and horses, so we receive all kinds of ages coming in and shopping. We do see more male consumers over female, but my sister (owner) is constantly trying to get more females involved.

What factors did you take into consideration when deciding on store location?

The main factor was close to our own family farm. We did not want to take away from the time we spend on our own farm to maintain the business just yet. So, we converted some of our farm land to the business location. We also just happened to be smack in the middle of three counties: Franklin, Banks, and Stephens.

How do the demographics affect merchandising decisions?

With the more influential and larger age demographic being middle to upper age range, we must ensure we are carrying products that have been around for some time.

How do you identify this population?

As we said before we service the three surrounding counties, and with our family ties within these counties we knew most of our customers before we even had the business and they became customers. We keep up with exact numbers through farm profiles we have stored in our POS system. I designed our POS system, so we created it to have farm profiles. Here we store loads of information about farmers, their farms, what they farm/produce, and their authorized account users.

How do you satisfy their needs and wants? & What does the consumer want?

These farmers do not go for the newest product on the market because it has not proved itself beneficial yet, and farming is not a profession where you make a million dollars overnight. So, farmers want products they know will work.

Why does the consumer purchase a particular product?

Because they know how these products work, how well they work, and if they are worth the money they are spending for them.

What strategies do you use to create awareness, interest, desire, and action in your retail consumers?

Our feed and supply store is built on close family and community ties, so you will see farmers coming in for feed and staying a while to chat with their friends about the current growing season. Here is where new farmers will join long time farmers to help them gain a better understand of the trade. We took this model from our grandparents who had a huge front porch with several rocking chairs, and our grandmother always had plenty of sweet tea. So, when company would come over everyone would catch up in a rocking chair drinking the wine of the south, sweet tea. We use this same model to bring farmers in, and create an environment where they can share what they are doing that works with other farmers. My sister as also created a Wednesday meeting of the FFF (Future Female Farmers) to help increase women in the farming world.

What are the psychological aspects of behavior (psychographics), AIOs, and VALs?

The main psychographic that all our consumers have in common is their interest in farming. Our store is catered around our consumers lifestyle, farming. Farming is not only a job it is a lifestyle for most and a hobby for some. This is what helps give us and advantage over other retail stores, due to our products being a necessity for famers to keep their farms up and their livestock well.

Who are the direct competitors?

Tractor Supply is a competitor and another local feed store called Owens Farm Supply is a major competitor for us due to the being around way longer.