1. Identifying Your Customer
Written by
Annette Dunlap, MBA
Extension Associate
Ag & Resource Economics
NC State University

2. The Value-Added & Alternative Agriculture Start-up Toolkit
Program Outline
The Customer is Key
Demographic Characteristics
Psychographic Characteristics
Market Size
Next Steps
Resources
The Value-Added & Alternative Agriculture Start-up Toolkit

3. The Customer is Key
No business can be successful without customers
The important question to ask is:
Is there a need or want that I can meet and make a profit by doing so?
The Value-Added & Alternative Agriculture Start-up Toolkit

4. Demographic Characteristics
Market segment: a grouping of potential customers who have similar characteristics
Typical demographic characteristics:
age group
income level
educational level
family size
marital status
The Value-Added & Alternative Agriculture Start-up Toolkit

5. Typical Value-Added/Alternative Agriculture Customer Profile
Age 35 and older
Above-average household income
Four-year college education, or better
Children still at home
Married
The Value-Added & Alternative Agriculture Start-up Toolkit

6. Psychographic Characteristics
Psychographics: Segmenting customers according to access to resources, motivation for buying and willingness to innovate
The Value-Added & Alternative Agriculture Start-up Toolkit

7. Typical Psychographic Profile of Value-Added/Alternative Ag Customers
High resourced: access to income and information
Philosophically motivated: higher level of idealism than in the general population
Willingness to innovate: better educated and higher income households are typically more willing to try new things
The Value-Added & Alternative Agriculture Start-up Toolkit

8. The Value-Added & Alternative Agriculture Start-up Toolkit
Market Size
Narrowly defined segments are often called niche markets
Niche market size affects your ability to grow your business
Knowing your reason for beginning a value-added or alternative enterprise is important because remember:
The goal of being in any business is to find and keep a customer - and make a profit by doing so
The Value-Added & Alternative Agriculture Start-up Toolkit

9. The Value-Added & Alternative Agriculture Start-up Toolkit
Next Step Resources
A general overview of the VALS typology:
US Census and Demographic Data:
NC Demographics:
For a comprehensive look at marketing for value-added and alternative agriculture:
The Value-Added & Alternative Agriculture Start-up Toolkit