Jun 13, 2012

U.K. marketers know personality sells the experience

The 2012 England Agritour is history, but for the 26 participants, it will not be soon forgotten. If you’re trying to find “new” ideas for growing your agritourism business, I recommend a visit to the United Kingdom.

While our tour showcased a variety of farm businesses, this article is going to focus on what folks in the U.K. call “Farm Parks.” For our tour, we selected several that in recent years have been awarded the title of “Farm Attraction of the Year” by the National Farm Attractions Network (www.farmattractions.net).

While we saw many activities that we have in North America, their focus is somewhat different than ours, and they introduced us to many features we had not seen before. Since Halloween and the fall season is not a very recognized time of year in the U.K. (but it is growing), they have made their family entertainment into a year-round offering with a particular focus on play and animals.

Target demographics age 2-8. It was interesting to hear that many of these farms want to target children age 2-8, and not cater to older children or pre-teens. By selecting this demographic, they are able to focus all their attractions on the younger family audience. In order to be viable year round, they have large indoor facilities to accommodate multiple birthday rooms and play arenas with slides, ropes and obstacles, with plenty of space for parents to watch the play. The adults have easy access to the food concessions, Wi-Fi and amenities to encourage making the farm park their afternoon play group. As a measure of the size and scope of these indoor play areas, each one cost in excess of $200,000 for installation.

Annual membership a convenience. In order to encourage repeat visits, the farm parks offer very attractive annual passes over the general daily admission price. They have learned, as we also know, that frequent visitors buy other stuff – food, gifts, etc., and they want to encourage multiple visits. One of the parks actually offers a monthly pay option, whereby it deducts the fee from the guest debit card.

Animals provide the entertainment. Many of us in North America provide a petting corral, pony rides and maybe pig races, but in the U.K. the animals are the central focus. Since sheep are the most abundant animals in England, it is only natural to showcase them at the Farm Parks. Sheep racing is similar to our pig racing shows, with an announcer calling every moment of the race as the sheep head into the “ewe turn.”

Sheep are used in sheepdog trials, as well as shearing demonstrations and competitions, while bottle feeding of lambs is provided daily. Other animal shows include duck trials, horse whispering and shows where the animals are trained to come on stage individually to perform to music.

One show we all really enjoyed was at Farmer Palmer’s Farm Park, where Phillip Palmer provides multiple daily cow milking demonstration with humor, education and audience participation. The shows not only showcased the animals, but provided educational information in a fun and professional manner.

Attention to detail. These farms know how to provide the best guest experience. The attention to detail was superior. They had fun signage, plenty of hand-washing facilities, sturdy playground equipment, appropriate fencing, functional wagon design, ample seating (indoor and outdoor), good food selection, cleanliness, etc. All in all, our group couldn’t find fault with the overall layout or the experiences provided.

Personality sells the experience. We visited some of the best agritourism operators in the world. The one thing that separated them from each other was us hearing and seeing the owner’s passion for the business and how that was displayed in the execution of everything on the grounds. “The owner” can make a big difference in how guests perceive the farm experience.

All of these farms had numerous, well-trained employees on hand, ready to greet the public with a pleasant manner. But the clear favorites, as you might expect, were those farms where the owner was still actively involved in creating and delivering the guest experience.

If you ever have the opportunity to travel the U.K. countryside, go for it. The south of London is still untouched by large box stores, neon signs and big asphalt parking lots. The beauty of the fields, the style of the architecture and the narrow country roads contributed to an agritour we will speak about for years to come.

By Jane Eckert, FGN Contributor