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Part 3: “Conspicuous Leisure” or “Doing it for the ‘Gram”

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This lady routinely issues the Parent Veto.

WHAT I LEARNED AT NAFDMA 2020 – PART 3 OF 3

Hey, [[ contact.first_name | default: ‘Friend’ ]],

Lessons from NAFDMA, the International Association for Agritourism convention in 3 Parts.

  1. Your marketing image is entrapping you.
  2. Wine, beer & food veto the “Parent Veto”
  3. [CHANGED] “Conspicuous Leisure” or “Doing it for the ‘Gram”

“Conspicuous Leisure” or “Doing it for the ‘Gram”

You noticed at the Strawberry Festival. Three 20-somethings, dressed to the nines, sauntered out to the patch with a single quart box. They were out there for hours, and came back with 13 strawberries, full of giggles and feverishly swiping at their phones.

They were “Doing it for the ‘Gram.” Randy White calls this “Conspicuous Leisure.” His theory is that we used to gain status by buying fancy clothes or cars, but now gain status by the experiences we have and post on social media.

Conspicuous Leisure is a GREAT trend for agritourism. We have things people consider novel and exciting, from baby goats to apples on a tree. The question is how to market your attraction as an opportunity for Conspicuous Leisure.

Here are three suggestions:

  1. Turn an average weekend into a festival with a turn of phrase. If you are typically overrun with tomatoes on the 3rd weekend of July, hold a Tomato Sandwich Festival. If you have a winery, create White Wine Weekend and pair it, sample it, feature it, bundle it and make it into something Instagrammable with white tablecloths and white vested servers.
  2. Think of the photo opportunity BEFORE the attraction. We’re installing our NEW Super-Mega Ride-N-Slide, and it will feature a photo-taking spot for friends part of the way down to enable great pictures of sliding guests.
  3. Provide Hashtags & Contests, so you don’t have to do all the work. Encouraging your guests to take pictures must become part of your park design, part of your marketing program, and part of your social media outreach. You could NEVER take as many pictures as your guests can. They might outnumber you 1000:1, and they won’t take just ONE picture. Make sure they know how to become part of the posting family at your business.

Now your turn, seriously, email me your thoughts on:

  • How are you currently selling envy?
  • How are you focused on making your customers make their friends jealous?
  • How are you tapping this insatiable desire to be the most unique, most well-traveled, most in-the-know?
  • How are you promoting that you are a business/place/event/activity to which your guests should Conspicuously spend leisure time?

This reminds me of a few quotes:

“If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong.”

– Charles Kettering

Don’t we often leave things unchanged because it feels safer? Safety is actually found in continually moving and changing everything within the bounds of your business values. It is dangerous to leave your attraction, your marketing, your social media, your emails, your decorations the way they always have been.

“We have approximately 60,000 thoughts in a day. Unfortunately, 95% of them are thoughts we had the day before.”

– Deepak Chopra

Old thoughts are an “installed base” of knowledge. To get any sense of what is new, we must ignore what we know to free up enough space to get the new stuff into our thought stream. Surely you’ve felt the pull of old thoughts weighing you down.

How do you get space in your head for NEW thoughts?

Finally,

“Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.”

– Theodore Levitt

This quote is at the end because it contains action; it contains DOING. I love that you read these messages that I feel compelled to write; to write to connect with you, fellow entrepreneurs, on a journey to build, create and grow.

But what are you going to DO with this information? Drop me a line and let me know. I read every response.

Thanks in advance,

Hugh

PS Easter is coming, and we’re about to announce something NEW. If you are holding an egg hunt for kids OR adults, watch for Wednesday’s email.

PPS Already know you need help with marketing this year with your egg hunt, sunflower festival, corn maze, Mother’s Day party or Strawberry Festival? It’s the marketing program that gives you the road map to success – it spells out every task you need to complete 120 Days, 90 Days, 60 Days, and 30 Days from your event. The Tsunami also includes templates for each job it assigns, so you aren’t left staring at a blank page.

then call me, and we’ll help along the way 717-862-4691. LINK: https://kzy1mjcf.pages.infusionsoft.net

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Maize Quest designs corn mazes, and provides much more to corn maze clients.

With one package, you get a high quality corn maze from Designer Dave Phillips [Who’s Dave? ]

And that’s just the beginning. Our package program creates the maze, GPS cuts it, creates the games and worksheets for guests to use inside the maze – we’ll even help you plan your site, pricing, marketing and additional attractions.

If you like reading these blogs, then you’ll likely enjoy working with us.

CLICK To Learn More About Using Maize Quest for your corn maze this year.

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