23pgs, While the three-part mission of the land-grant university has been a pivotal component of agriculture and natural resources in the U.S., the land-grant mission is not always well understood by all audiences, including faculty members who are the key deliverers of the land-grant mission. As such, it is important to understand how faculty members view the land-grant brand identity. A series of focus groups were conducted with tenure and non-tenure track faculty members at [university]. Faculty members’ perceptions of the university’s brand came out in four themes: overall description of the brand identity, connections to [City], university values, and increased emphasis on research. How faculty members conceptualized the land-grant mission presented two themes: aware but uninformed about the land-grant mission (subthemes: concerns about public awareness and stakeholder priorities, and unawareness of Extension) and having varying definitions of the land-grant mission (subthemes: land-grant is about the land, the land-grant mission is for more than agriculture, the land-grant is successful when serving the state, the land-grant mission is intended to improve society, and the land-grant mission is delivering equal opportunity education). Recommendations for universities included providing faculty members with a full understanding of the land-grant missions and ensuring students are taught about the land-grant mission. Future research was recommended to assess perceptions of faculty members at other land-grant universities and perceptions of non-faculty audiences such as students and external stakeholders. A quantitative survey was also recommended to provide a more generalizable view of faculty perceptions of the brand of land-grant universities.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 153 Document Number: D11607
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21 pages., Online from Think Shift Communications, San Francisco, California, via AgriMarketing Weekly., "While the industry hs never been a stranger to change, it seems increasingly certain that we are currently in the greatest state of evolution - maybe even revolution - that ag has ever faced."
28pgs, If you are farming to be profitable, you need to be more than a farmer. You need to be the executive director of your farm business. Moving product to a paying customer, a.k.a. marketing, is the core of that business. And we have learned that product moves based on the meanings that we associate with it. Consumers buy from farm stands, for example, because they want to support local businesses, eat fresher, or know their farmer. In other words, consumers are buying the story of your farm as much as they are buying your physical farm products. This publication helps you take control of your farm story and develop a farm brand that will connect with your customers.
