Welcome baaaack to Consumer Corner, where we gain insights from consumers and markets that you can take home to the farm (or everyday life decisions)!  Food and agribusiness supply chains are complex, involving many businesses from farm to processor, retailer and input and service providers along the way. Regardless of your place along the agribusiness supply chain, one truth remains: The end product of production must eventually make its way into the hands of consumers. Throughout this process, many things in business tend to get blamed on the mythical “consumer.”

Consumers: They’re fickle, they’re demanding, they’re (seemingly) uninformed – they’re you!

Here are some common, often repeated, but largely useless conversation starters about consumers—ones we’ve addressed before (see linked articles for refreshers!). While these conversations will continue into 2025, our behaviors persist and are ripe for seeding further lessons to be learned.

  • “The consumer doesn’t know what they want.”

True. Most of us do not know what we want, especially in the future. We may know what we want now, but we accept that what we want tomorrow may change. Somehow, this is okay when we’re the ones buying, yet infuriating when we’re the ones producing.

  • “The consumer doesn’t understand our business.”

It’s understandable since it isn’t their business; it’s yours.

“The consumer needs to be educated,” is the natural follow-up statement to consumers not understanding our business, which takes this notion to a new level. But no one wants to be forcibly educated, and forcibly educating others about the product you are trying to sell them is inherently unpalatable (at best) and potentially offensive.

  • “The consumer doesn’t know they need this product yet, but they do.”

This can be a slippery slope. Many products are invented and brought to the market to meet unrecognized demands. While this is often good intentioned, it’s extremely difficult to pull off unless you are the next Steve Jobs. And the fact that we all know who Steve Jobs was suggests that his talents to develop products to be demanded was unique.

It’s one thing to understand consumer desires and determine how to better meet them; it’s another to tell them what they need. Subtle at first, but important and makes a world of difference.

Consumers are more like you than you think

We can aim to understand our end consumers and derive insights from these understandings, even if we don’t agree with them. Contrary to popular belief, there isn’t one big consumer somewhere demanding goods in the market. We all have differing tastes, preferences and demands that vary from person to person and even evolve within ourselves over the course of time. Notice I said “we,” which was my subtle reminder that you are a consumer too.

Only like a certain make of automobile? Have an affinity for a specific color of farm equipment? I would be willing to bet you don’t enjoy any advertising or educational campaigns trying to change your viewpoint. Why? Because it is our inherent role as a consumer to demand what we want and are willing—and able—to pay for.

ConsumerCorner.2025.Letter.01