Featured In: Raising the Barn with Caroline Lewis
Colson Steber, Co-CEO of Qlarity Access and Ag Access, joined Caroline Lewis on the Raising the Barn podcast to talk about how Ag Access offers farmers the opportunity to use their voice to change the innovations coming to the agriculture industry.
What does Ag Access do and why is it important?
Ag Access is a research logistics company that helps companies get feedback from their end users about products, messaging, and brand awareness. With over 400,000 members, most listeners have likely either participated in our research or used a product that has been impacted by our research.
Independent research is a critical piece of product and messaging development, but oftentimes people don’t know that it happens. Farmers may not realize it, but nearly every product they use from tractors, to stringing machines, to seeds and other inputs, has had research done with end users to make them better before coming to market.
How do you ensure that research is conducted to be fully representative?
Ag Access does a lot of online research nationally, but we still have a 50 person Research Engagement Center full of agents that conduct research over the phone. This ensures that we are able to reach people where they are, especially those without broadband access in their homes, and represent the wisdom of the full population of farmers.
We also understand the opportunity cost of research. Farmers are busy throughout the year with activities that impact their livelihood. That’s why we make sure that each of our community members only get invitations to participate in projects that are relevant to them. By doing this, we get more responses, more quickly, from the exact right people.
Is there anything that you’ve learned as a market research leader that small Ag businesses can apply to their own marketing strategy?
Every person, and every business, has a unique value. We talk to our community members and other farmers to get their feedback and their unique perspective. We as a company have the unique value of working with our clients to create a complete and precise research plan and then execute against it to bring confidence in results and decision making to enable impactful strategic action. Break that down even further to our niche in the agriculture industry, and you can see what we bring uniquely to the table. Every company has their own niche and own unique value – find yours and pursue it!
To hear more…
To hear more about the above and the answer to more questions like “What do you see as having the most impact on the farming industry in the next 5-10 years?” and “Where do you see innovation making a big impact on Ag?” be sure to listen to the full podcast.
