Alicia DeGeest has a ten-year track record of client service with Paulsen Marketing. She brings her gift for organization, focus and responsibility to current national clients including WildBlue Communications and POET Nutrition.
Alicia is a member of the National Agri-Marketing Association, National Association of Farm Broadcasters and the South Dakota Advertising Federation. Alicia holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and advertising from South Dakota State University.
Consumer reviews impact each step as rural lifestylers navigate through the purchase decision-making process. After a purchase, rural lifestylers remain aggressively engaged, publicly promoting or assailing the products they have bought. It is important to intercept post-purchase behavior and encourage online sharing to reinforce and enhance relationships and cultivate influencers into brand advocates.
Many rural lifestylers hold off their final purchase decisions until they are in the store or on an e-commerce site. When another brand enters as an option, the time needed for the consideration and evaluation steps of the purchase process is greatly condensed due to the ability to research on mobile devices in store.
Rural lifestylers turn to third-party verification of information, often online, before making a purchase decision. Whether it is advice or a product review, their decision-making process is being influenced by complete strangers with a common interest. We believe there are two types of influencers that have decision-making impact on potential customers; macro and micro influencers. These influencers are sought out while making purchasing decisions.
Although technology may be assumed as a barrier to the rural lifestyle audience, according to studies by Successful Farming and NAFB, their levels of Internet access and use of Internet-enabled mobile phones are virtually that of the population as a whole. As agrimarketers, we often forget that producers and rural lifestylers are almost identical in behavior to general consumers.
Paulsen Marketing conducted a three-month study in 2011 to better understand how online communities, brand advocates and customer reviews influence the purchase decisions of rural lifestylers.
The study involved 13 personal interviews with rural lifestylers in the Midwest, as well as 341 completed e-mail surveys of rural lifestylers in a random representative sample of the United States in C and D counties.